Making Muzzleloader "cartridges"

Alright I've gotten a few PMs asking about how to make these so I thought I would post it incase anyone else wanted to know. Alright, you are going to need powder, powder measurer, rolling papers, balls, a pen, and a wooden dowl a little bigger than the cal ball you shoot.

Take a piece of the dowl and roll the paper around it, lick the gum glue and then roll it together.

Then remove it just a little bit, enough to fold over the over hanging paper. Do that two more times so that it's securly sealed. Then once that is done get the pen and label how many grains of powder that cartridge is going to hold. This isn't historically correct, but it will help your shots be more consistant.

Once that is done, remove the paper from the dowl, and insert a ball down in there.

After than measure your powder out, and pour it in there also.

Roll the end nice and tight and trim the end if you want to. When you are ready to shoot, bite the rolled end off just slightly above where it stops and pour the powder down the barrel, then flip the packet over, so the flat ball end it first to enter the barrel. Ram it down all the way, cap, and fire.

Many people (including me) use cigarette paper to make these. The only problem with that is if you are under age they can be a little trickly to get. The other problem is that when you do buy them everyone looks at you like a pot head. Laughing

But there is a way to get around this. You can use normal computer paper, but you have to add a couple steps. First you will need to get ahold of some Potassium Nitrate. Doing this will make the paper burn slower. This is important because if the paper burns too quick then you may get gas blow by which will hurt your accuracy. Sad

You can mix that up, put your paper in there to soak and then hang it to dry. Then once it's dried you can cut them into little 1.5" X 3" rectangles and follow the steps above. Again you will need to use some kind of glue, rubber cement works well so your cartridge stays together. THen once it's formed you can follow the rest of the steps just as they are listed above. You can also dip the ball end in some beeswaw about half way up the ball. This will act like a lube so it's easier to load, and will keep that end of the cartridge secure. Cool

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Where the Eagles fly, and the Caribou lie is where I want to be, the Wolf waits there for me.....
-Les Stroud

For you guys wondering I have allowed this topic for those of you on edge. They're just cartidges guys

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"There dosen't look like there's much shelter over in those mountains, but that's the only choice I got right now, this is gonna be a long week" - Les Stroud Arctic

Great tute Az!
Makes inline muzzleloaders look like a dream compared to those!

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Take only memories, Leave only footprints.

	TrooperMax wrote:
	For you guys wondering I have allowed this topic for those of you on edge. They're just cartidges guys

Thanks again Max.

	Quote:
	Great tute Az! Makes inline muzzleloaders look like a dream compared to those!

LOL yeah it does! It's a lot of fun buying the papers. I had to explain why I had no idea what kind of papers I needed, and what I was using them for the first time. Laughing

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Where the Eagles fly, and the Caribou lie is where I want to be, the Wolf waits there for me.....
-Les Stroud

Azarcher I use blackpowder rifles and I think this idea is awesome. Do you use the paper (of the cartridge) as wadding inbetween the powder and the ball, or do you put a wad around the ball before you put it in the paper? Dutchman.

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No man (or woman) will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself/herself, or to get all the credit for doing it. -Andrew Carnegie

I use these for general screwing around mostly. Laughing

So what I do is bite the rolled end off, and dump the powder in, then I just jam the ball into the barrel with the paper still on. You loose a little bit of accuracy, but really not enough to throw a shot off bad.

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Where the Eagles fly, and the Caribou lie is where I want to be, the Wolf waits there for me.....
-Les Stroud

One with 70 grains of pyrodex and one with 100 grains. I had to put two papers together to make the 100 grain cartridge.

How many thousands of an inch thick do you think these cigarette papers are Azarcher?

How do you think people measured out a shot in the middle of a gun battle 160 years ago? Dutchman.

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No man (or woman) will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself/herself, or to get all the credit for doing it. -Andrew Carnegie