I have to give credit for this blackpower tip to my good friend and noted handgun guru, Charlie Petty. I was looking for a cheap and easy way to make paper cartridges like they used in the Civil War, so I called Charlie about how to nitride paper because he’s also a chemist. Nitrided paper generally burns while untreated paper might not, or leaves embers. With nitrided paper, you can tear the end off a paper cartridge and stuff the whole thing down the bore of a muzzleloader.
Rather than send me on a wild goose chase for chemicals and then encourage me to do some wacky experiment, Charlie simply said, “Why not just buy cigarette rolling papers? They’re nitrided.” Viola!
Making paper cartridges is pretty simple. Moisten the paper along the top edge that wraps around the bullet base and wrap it into a tube around the base of the bullet, then moisten the gum strip and seal it up the side. When the paper dries, it shrinks down around the bullet base leaving you with a bullet and a long paper tube off the back end of it. Fill the tube with your load, twist the paper into a tail, fold it over and you have a paper cartridge.
Scott Mayer
www.tacticaltshirts.com
www.john1911.com
“Shooting Guns & Having Fun”
In 2008, Mayer returned to the editorial side of publishing, this time in the digital field, as Editorial Director for Guns & Ammo, Shooting Times, Handguns and Rifleshooter online magazines. After a brief stint in 2011 as the Digital Media Director for an ABC TV affiliate, Mayer returned to the outdoors industry and Safari Club International where he is currently Assistant Publisher and Multi-Media Communications Editor.
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