Kammerlader cartridges

[Fabian23]

I have made some paper cartridges for my KL using king-size cigarette paper by simply wetting the adhesive area and rolling the paper around the base of the bullet,the wet portion being on the grease grooves of the bullet.  When dry, the paper has shrunk into the grooves giving a strong bond.  There is enough space in the resulting paper tube behind the bullet for 80gr Fg and to fold the powder tube shut.

Since the paper is lightly treated to be easily ignited, it should work well. Production was very quick.

I will test it soon!

[Øyvind F.]

The kammerlader cartridges were not nitrated, and the paper was thicker compared to the cigarette paper. What you have made sounds like a king size version of a percussion revolver paper cartridge. :-)

Have you tried them yet? I'm curious about the performance. They should be quite clean burning.

[Fabian23]

> The kammerlader cartridges were not nitrated, and the paper was thicker
> compared to the cigarette paper. What you have made sounds like a king size
> version of a percussion revolver paper cartridge. :-)
>
> Have you tried them yet? I'm curious about the performance. They should be
> quite clean burning.

Yes indeed, the original percussion caps must have been incredibly hot to burn through normal paper.  I did try using thick tissue paper, but even then I sometimes had to fire two caps.

I had the idea to use cigarette paper since I am using it to make cartridges for my Westley-Richards Monkey-tail rifle (another capping breechloader).

I have not tried them yet, my little boy is keeping me very busy so shooting time is limited :-P

[Øyvind F.]

> Yes indeed, the original percussion caps must have been incredibly hot to
> burn through normal paper.  I did try using thick tissue paper, but even
> then I sometimes had to fire two caps.

The loading procedure involved biting or tearing up the paper, and pouring the powder into the chamber. Thus it was no paper between the igniting cap and the powder. The excess paper behind the ball could be torn off, or the remaining paper could serve as wadding. I prefer to tear the excess paper off as this seems to give best accuracy.

You should start another thread about the Westley-Richards rifle! :ok:

[Fabian23]

I tested them yesterday.  Sadly they will not ignite with the caps I have, perhaps they would work with hotter caps.  I ended up using them as orignally used by tearing off the back, pouring in the powder and pushing the bullet with paper down on top.  That worked well, in fact it worked better (on the target)than loose bullets for some reason.  Perhaps the slight patching of the bullet is beneficial.

At the same time I was filing down the repro rear sight for 50m, I'm almost there, still shooting a bit high.

As an aside, I dropped the "kamer" in my ultrasonic cleaner while cleaning the barrel, after a few minutes in there all I had to do was wipe it dry and oil it :-D