Originally Posted by
Hal
Dave,
Since my original post, I skirmished with the Jenks once. I used paper cartridges with .535 round balls and a combination of powder and filler to equal the chamber volume. I have yet to do any load development. I made a guess at a really low powered load and it shot fairly well. Not great, but not bad either. It definitely has potential. And best of all, it was hitting at point of aim, which has never happened to me with any original civil war era gun. It shot well enough I thought I'd take it to a skirmish, so I did. Overall, I didn't do as well as I usually do with my beater Smith, but I didn't embarrass myself either. It hit an egg at 50 yards, but I don't think I could do it consistently.
I was not going for period correct cartridges. I was just going for something quick and easy to make that would shoot reliably. I wrapped hair curler paper around a mandrel. Slipped it about 1/2" off the end and folded it against the end of the mandrel like a roll of pennies. I slipped it the rest of the way off. Filled it with powder then filler, then dropped the ball inside and twisted it shut. I cut the twist off to down around 1/8" long with a pair of scissors and dipped the ball end into melted musket lube.
A cartridge without paper and lube over the nose of the ball might be better, but would be more time consuming to make. The next thing I want to try is gluing the fold shut. I refrained from doing that due to fear of the cap not burning through the glued paper. The way the thing is made, the fire kinda hits the cartridge in the corner. There is an angled slot in the face of the breech plug that kinda channels the fire across the base of the cartridge. If any were to burn through the side, then there would be no problem with ignition. If it is burning through the several layers of folded paper on the base, then glue may complicate things. Maybe loading a dummy cartridge with all filler and no powder then popping a cap on it would tell you where the cartridge gets burned through. I haven't tried that, but I think I will. I'm gonna have to try gluing the folds though because the folds don't necessarily stay folded well enough. Most did, but some tried to open up and the cartridge got soft, which made it difficult to load.
Obviously, mine has the elongated loading port modification. And yes, it's a tight fit loading a cartridge though it, but that's just part of the fun.
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