Pritcheet Bullet

[timona]

Are Pritchett Bullets allowed to use in N-SSA events?

[Jim_Burgess_2078V]

A Pritchett bullet is a type of Minie bullet without grease grooves. Historically, the grease was impregnated in the cartridge paper which was loaded with the bullet. We are not allowed to use paper-patched bullets in the N-SSA. If you wish to use a Pritchett bullet sized to your bore and covered in bullet lube, that would be permissible.
Jim Burgess, 15th CVI

[Maillemaker]

Jim is generally correct, but I will point out a detail that I learned when learning about the Enfield cartridge a couple of years ago.

Many people refer to all smooth-sided, hollow-cavity bullets as "Pritchett" bullets, but in fact, the Enfield cartridge for the P1853 (and derivative) muskets went through 3 evolutions of bullet design from ~1853-1860.

The original bullet was designed by Pritchett. It did have a hollow base, but mostly this was to shift the center of gravity forward and possibly provide a place to fold the paper from the bottom of the cartridge into. It did not function by expansion so much as by compression along its axis. This bullet was .568" in diameter, and when wrapped in paper was a tight fit in a musket bore. The problem was, being not an expanding ball, it was not able to expand enough if it was on the lower end of tolerance (.566") and the bore of the gun was at maximum tolerance. If the shooter was unlucky enough to encounter both of these conditions, accuracy was terrible. In fact, arsenals compounded the problem by starting their sizing dies off at .566", allowing them to wear to .568" before discarding them. This mean they were sabotaging the bullets from the start.

The Pritchett bullet was abandoned.

It was replaced using technology from the P1851, a bullet designed by Hay. The Hay bullet was also smooth sided, and also .568" in diameter. But it had a deep hollow cavity. In this cavity was initially placed a hemispherical iron cup. This was rapidly replaced with a wooden conical plug.

It was discovered that the .568" bullet resulted in a finished cartridge that was too hard to load in combat conditions, which included dirty musket bores and ammunition that had been shipped across the world in cargo holds and wagon trains in sweltering heat and freezing cold.

Consequently, Boxer had the radical idea to reduce the bullet diameter to .550". The boxwood plug was replaced with a fired clay plug, as boxwood was difficult to source. This was the final iteration of the Enfield cartridge.

As Jim noted, the N-SSA does not allow Enfield-style paper patched bullets.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uSqQzWF3ts

Steve