Range Report: Comparing .36 Caliber Round Balls to Conicals

This test compared historically correct paper cartridges with conical bullets to loose round balls fired from the same weapon.

The paper cartridges were made using the same process I detailed in my post here except that I used the .36-caliber Colt Cartridge Works bullet made by Chris Beresovoy at Papercartridges.com using bullet molds sold by Mark Hubbs at Eras Gone Bullet Molds over 15 grains of Pyrodex "P" (3F equivalent).  The round balls were Hornady .375 swaged balls over 20 grains of Pyrodex P and a lubricated felt wad.  I ran a bore brush through the bore and wiped down the arbor after each table of fire.

Colt Cartridge Works Paper Cartridges

Using different loads of powder for the conicals and round balls may seem odd, but during the Nineteenth Century loose round balls were generally loaded onto more powder than was used in military paper cartridges in period, so I chose to follow this practice in order to compare the ammunition as it was actually used.  After all, this isn't about modern target shooting, it's about historical shooting, which means trying to do it the way they did.

For an explanation of the String Test Measurement system used in this comparison, read my blog post here.

Location:  Lytle Creek Shooting Range.
Weather:  52 degrees, wind variable, moderate to heavy from 1:00 to 3:00.
Range:  15 yards.  Shooting position:  Seated Supported.
Weapon:  Pietta Colt Navy.
Sighting:  Full Sight, 6:00 hold.

Table 2:
A.  Round Balls
String Test: 21.25 in./6 rounds = 3.5 in./round
B.  Conicals
String Test: 13 in./6 rounds = 2.2 in./rd.

Table 2

Table 3:
A.  Conicals
String Test: 21.75 in./6 rounds = 3.6 in./rd.
B.  Round Balls
String Test: 20.25 in./6 rounds = 3.4 in./rd.

Table 3

Table 4:
A.  Round Balls
String Test: 21.75 in./6 rounds = 3.6 in./rd.
B.  Conicals
String Test: 21.75 in./6 rounds = 3.6 in./rd.

Table 4

NB:  In each case, the "A" is the top target and the "B" is the bottom.  Table 1 was a different weapon and not part of this test, so is not shown here.

Conclusion:
As with previous tests I have done, I recognize this sample is not large enough to be conclusive, but it is suggestive.  The overall result suggests that the differences in accuracy between conicals and round balls is negligible in this weapon using these factors.  I am at a loss to explain the exceptional results for the conicals in Table 2, except to say that I actually fired the conicals first, even though I was shooting at the lower target (in the subsequent tables I shot at the upper target first).  It may be that the cleaner bore made the difference, although that seems unlikely since I brushed the bore after every table of fire, and yet I can think of nothing else that was different.  I think that if I soldered a 1/16 in. of brass stock onto the top of the front sight and filed the rear sight notch a bit more open on the left side it would bring the MPI to the IMPI with about a 2 inch group, which would yield a String Test measure of less than 2 inches.

I would also like to mention the importance of using Slix-Shot cones.  When I first got this revolver I had at least one serious cap jam (meaning one that required removing the cylinder to clear) per cylinder fired, and sometimes (often) more, using the factory-installed cones.  Since installing the new cones, that problem has almost disappeared, and, indeed, I did not experience even a single serious cap jam during this entire test, nor in the 36 rounds I fired afterward that day.

Historical Ammunition Overview

Here are some examples of historical ammunition I have assembled/loaded myself along with the first (imperfect) efforts at period-correct packaging I have been attempting.  Note that the packaging is not yet where I want it to be, but I see this as a process which I will continually work to improve.  Readers of this blog will note that this post has been updated several times already as I have improved my efforts, and I plan to continue doing so as I get better.

Various ammunition packages for the Martini-Henry Rifle, Snider-Enfield Rifle, 1859 Sharps Infantry Rifle, Smith Carbine, Remington New Model Army revolver, Colt .45-caliber conversion revolver, P-53 Enfield rifle, and 1851 Colt Navy revolver.

One of every bullet I shoot.  The ones marked with an asterisk I cast myself.  Left to right: Paper-patched .577/.450 Martini Henry, grease groove .577/.450 Martini Henry*, .577 Burton ("Miniè"), P-53 Enfield, .577 Boxer P-53 Enfield*, .52 Richmond Laboratory Sharps*, .600 Snider*, .50 Smith Carbine*, .452 RNFP .45 Colt*, .44 Kerr*, .36 Richmond Laboratory.

1860 Boxer Paper Cartridges for the Pattern-1853 Enfield Rifle

These cartridges are the last design for the P-53 rifle as issued in England with the 0.550 in. Pritchett bullet.  Previous versions used larger bullets, but several problems with them led the War Office to realize that a smaller bullet would obturate into the rifling perfectly well while at the same time preventing fouling from making loading difficult as happened with the larger bullet (among other issues).  Both types are often simply called "Pritchett" cartridges by reenactors today, but they should rightly be called the Hay cartridge and the Boxer cartridge respectively after the men who were most responsible for their designs.

This cartridge design represented the apotheosis of ammunition for the muzzle-loading rifle.  Previous designs had a great many problems, especially with regards to fouling management.  We are fortunate in that Captain Brett Gibbons has done extensive research on the P-53 rifle and the various cartridges designed for use with it.  He wrote a detailed study of the subject which is essential reading for any student of the period in general or of muzzle-loading rifles in particular.  It can be found here.  I have written an article about how I make these cartridges which can be found HERE.

The Boxer cartridge uses three separate pieces of paper: an inner wrapper, a powder chamber, and an outer wrapper.  The inner and outer wrappers are lighter paper (in this case 13.5-pound Bienfang 100% cotton rag) while the powder chamber is made of heavier paper (in this case construction paper).

The bullet is the smooth-sided Pritchett bullet of .550 diameter with a hollow base.  A plug is inserted into the base to aid in obturation; originally, this plug was made of wood, but later versions were made of baked clay.  In this case Bondo was used to make the plugs.  The bullets are cast from pure, soft lead using a mold by NOE and the plugs were made using a NOE plug plate.  Both can be found here.

The templates and mandrels for making the paper cartridges were purchased from Forth Armoury, and can be found here.

Each cartridge was loaded with 2.5 drams, or 68 grains, of Swiss 1.5F black powder (the closest modern powder to the British R.F.G. used in the originals) and then dipped into grease made of beeswax and olive oil.  In period cartridges were, at first, greased with a mixture of beeswax and tallow, however, it was found that the tallow caused the bullets to swell slightly, so the last version of cartridges were dipped in pure beeswax mixed with a small amount of mineral oil, but I have not yet experimented with recreating that mixture.

Ten cartridges were then wrapped in a paper wrapper to form an arsenal package.  A strip of paper was wound between each cartridge to separate them in the package.

A video by Steven Sheldon, the owner of Forth Armoury, shown here, demonstrates the exact procedure used to make these cartridges.  I found this procedure to be better and more detailed than the slightly different procedure shown in the video on the Forth Armoury main page.

Ten Boxer cartridges rolled and filled.

The cartridges set into a frame with the winding paper inserted between them.

A finished arsenal package copied after an extant package along with a historically correct packet of percussion caps.  The three lines after the word "WAX" indicate that three slits were cut in the cartridge outer wrapper to help it to separate from the bullet when fired.

Combustible Paper Cartridges for Cap and Ball Revolvers
The revolver paper cartridges are made by nitrating unbleached coffee filters (which have an authentic color) in a solution of potassium nitrate to make them burn better.  They are then formed on cartridge former blocks, filled with powder, and the bullet is glued in place.  Finally, the bullet is dipped in historically accurate lubrication.  All three bullets pictured here are reproductions of historical bullets made from molds designed by Mark Hubbs at Eras Gone Bullet Molds.  A detailed description of how I make and package paper cartridges for cap and ball revolvers can be read here.

Note that the label on the .44-caliber cartridge bundles below says they contain Johnston and Dow paper cartridges, when, in fact, they actually contain Kerr cartridges, but that's the label I have so I use it.

.44-caliber cap and ball revolver cartridge bundles.

.36-caliber cap and ball revolver cartridge bundles.

Colt Cartridge Works .36-caliber revolver cartridges.

Richmond Laboratory .36-caliber revolver cartridges.

Kerr .44-caliber revolver cartridges.

Comparing a Kerr cartridge to a Richmond Lab cartridge

The Smith Carbine

The Smith carbine ammunition was packaged in cardboard boxes with a lid that lifts up when a string is pulled to rip the paper wrapper.  I designed a box with a very similar design and wrap the closed box in a brown craft paper with a printed label so that the string sticks out the side and can be used to tear the package open while leaving the box unharmed so that it is reusable.

The Smith carbine cartridges are made using a nylon shell which closely mimics the original vulcanized rubber shell used in period.  They use a .50-caliber bullet which has been sized to fit the chamber and dipped in lubricant to fill the grooves on the base of the bullet.  Powder is poured loose into the shell, and then the bullet is forced down onto it.  Truly, this is the easiest kind of historical ammunition to make.  I have placed a piece of tape over the back of the shell because there is a small hole there for the spark to enter when the musket cap is fired.  One of the complaints lodged against the Smith carbine during the Civil War was that the powder would come out of the touchhole in the back of the case when the cartridges were carried in troopers’ cartridge boxes for extended periods of time.  To prevent this, I insert a small disk of nitrated filter paper (the same paper I use for combustible revolver cartridges) inside the case.  These disks are extremely flammable, so they do not hinder ignition of the powder in the slightest, and yet they prevent the powder from leaking out through the hole in the base.  I used to put a small piece of tape over the end of the case, but I no longer do that because it was unsightly and historically inaccurate.  Later, when rubber supplies became limited, Poultney and Trimble switched to making the tubes out of paper-wrapped foil, and you can see my first efforts at making that style of cartridge below.  A detailed description of how I load and package the Smith ammunition can be read here.

Smith carbine .50-caliber rubber-cased cartridges

Smith carbine box, top and bottom loaded with ten rounds and a paper of musket caps.

Finished ammunition packages wrapped in correctly printed paper wrappers.

My first effort at making Poultney and Trimble foil and paper-wrapped cartridges; note that the wrapper for the packet is the correct style for this type.

The Snider-Enfield Rifle

The Snider-Enfield ammunition uses .24-gauge brass shotgun shells which have been trimmed to length and sized to .575 by X-Ring Services, then fireformed to my specific rifle by shooting with an undersized Minié ball.  The fireformed cases were primed with large pistol primers and then filled with 65 grains of black powder, over which 3.1 cc's of cornmeal was added as a filler to eliminate any space between the powder and bullet.  A 24-gauge nitro (1/8") card was was then added to hold the powder firmly in place. 

The bullets used once the cases have been fireformed are .60 caliber solid lead ones designed by Martyn Robinson of X-Ring Services and cast in a mold purchased from him.  They are pan-lubricated in my standard black powder grease (see above), and the bullets are just press fitted into the case.    Unlike modern cartridge ammunition, the cartridge cases are not crimped, and the bullets are held in place by the tackiness of the grease.  A detailed discussion of how I load and package Snider Enfield cartridges can be found here.

The Snider cartridges are stacked "head to toe" (meaning the bullet end and the base end alternate for each cartridge); later ammunition was all aligned in the same direction giving the package a trapezoidal shape, however, I chose a label from 1867 to match the date of the impression for which I am striving, and at that point the ammunition was still packaged head to toe, so I  have followed that procedure here.  The packages are tied off with blue and white cord very similar to that commonly used in period.  The font I used for the label is not quite correct and needs to be adjusted.  

Snider-Enfield rifle cartridge bundles.

.600-caliber Snider bullets cast in a mold from X-Ring Services.

Snider-Enfield finished cartridges.

Just for perspective:  One of the Snider cartridges alongside one of my hand-loaded .45 Colt cartridges (see below).  Bear in mind that .45 Colt is considered a pretty beefy round--as big as .45 ACP, but longer.

.45 Colt Brass Cartridges

This .45 Colt ammunition (often mistakenly called .45 Long Colt) was hand loaded using a Lee Classic Loader.  The bullets in most of the pictures here show 250-grain RNFP's over a waxed card and 35 grains of Swiss 3F black powder, but the last picture shows a cartridge made with a new bullet cast using a custom mold from Accurate Molds which is a close match to the correct M1873 bullet used in period.  The bullets are lubed using my standard homemade black powder lube.  A detailed discussion of how I load and package .45 Colt ammunition can be found HERE.

Hand-loaded .45 Colt revolver cartridges.

Reasonably accurate 50-round box for the .45 Colt cartridges.

An original label; note how close the reproduction is to the original.

I found that the above 50-round boxes are a bit awkward for normal carry and get sloppy when most of the rounds are expended, so I've been doing some research into smaller packages of cartridges.  That led to finding quite a few pictures of 12-round boxes from the Frankford Arsenal, and trying to recreate them.  I found it beyond my skill to replicate them precisely, but I made some boxes by hand and then printed some wrappers to go on them, and I think the result turned out quite nicely.  I have to be a bit more careful about centering the label on the box, and I may reduce the size of the label slightly so it fits the side of the package a little better.

The cartridges in the box.

Finished cartridge packs with wrappers.

An original box with a selection of cartridges

A closeup of an original box.

My reproduction box with the new-style bullet designed to match the M1873 bullet.

.577/.450 Cartridges for the Martini Henry Rifle

To load my Martini-Henry ammunition, I am using cases made from brass 24-gauge shotgun shells (the same that are used to make the Snider cases above) by Martyn Robinson at X-Ring Services.  Each cartridge has an overall length of 3.15" exactly, and contain 85 grains of Swiss 1.5F powder (the same load as the original military cartridges), one quarter of a cotton ball, a waxed card, a grease cookie (beeswax and olive oil), two more waxed cards, and a 540-grain paper-patched bullet from Blue Falcon Bullets (on Gunbroker.com).  The dies are also from X-Ring Services, and I am loading with the aid of a Lee turret press.  A detailed demonstration of how I loaded the cartridges can be found here.

A finished batch of Martini Henry ammunition.

A finished package of ten rounds.

.52-Caliber Richmond Labs Flat-based Linen Cartridges for the 1859 Sharps Infantry Rifle

The original Sharps cartridges were made with paper tubes tied to the end of a ring-tailed bullet.  The end of the tube was folded into a tail, and when the round was chambered the breech block would cut off the tail of the cartridge, exposing the powder.  This tended to result in a random quantity of powder being lost each time a cartridge was loaded, resulting in poor accuracy.

To eliminate this problem, Sharps designed a new style of cartridge with a flat base.  These cartridges were made to be the precise length of the chamber and so they were not cut off by the breech.  Originally the shells were made of paper, however, these turned out to be excessively delicate, so the paper was replaced by linen.  The bases of the cartridges were originally made of currency paper, but lacking that I use tissue paper instead.

The Richmond Lab bullets are a Confederate design, obviously, but they are very similar to those made for the U.S., the major difference being an additional cannelure on the Federal bullets.  Since I do not want to use ring-tailed bullets (which are wrong for this kind of cartridge), and since no one makes a historically accurate mold for the Federal-style bullets, I am perfectly satisfied to use these.  Like most of my other molds, this one came from Eras Gone Bullet Molds.

The original government load was 65 grains of rifle powder (i.e., 2F), and that is what I use.

As with everything else I do, naturally I had to make period-correct cartridge packs for them, too.  The cartridge packs contain ten cartridges and a paper tube containing 12 musket caps.

A detailed description of how I make these cartridges and package them can be seen HERE.

Sharps flat-based linen cartridges with the Richmond Labs bullets.

A filled cartridge pack with ten rounds and a tube of 12 caps.  Note the string for ripping open the wrapper.

The finished cartridge pack in its wrapper; note, again, the string.