Lee,
Most, if not all, cartridges and most chambers of combustible cartridge guns were designed to be filled up. However, since all we need to do is punch paper and break fragile targets, most have found that best accuracy is not achieved at the maximum charge.
The second part of the equation is that most people believe you run a serious chance of damaging a gun if you shoot black powder with an air space in the cartridge or in the chamber of combustible cartridge guns. Not everyone believes this and the argument for that side is usually the Sharps, which indeed has a fairly significant opening in the breech block that powder does not get into (Part of its breech sealing mechanism), or if it does, then that volume of powder is no longer in the chamber, so there is most definitely an air space in a Sharps, even if you put a paper cartridge in that completely fills the chamber. And they work.....safely.......and no damage to the gun.
Now, if one were to force a bullet into the muzzle of a Sharps and put it in only an inch or two, then put a full charge in the chamber, I suspect you would do some serious damage to the gun and probably serious injury to themselves and/or others. The other extreme is a compressed charge of black powder, which is the norm with black powder cartridge shooters. But even with a compressed charge, there is still SOME air. So what I believe is that some air is OK, but not a lot. How much is too much? I don't know that anyone knows. And to err on the side of caution, the common wisdom is to fill the cartridge full and even compress the charge. Some combustible cartridge guns are capable of compressing the charge. Jenks, Merrill, and Gwyn and Campbells can. Others, such as the Sharps and Starr do not. So there is evidence to suggest a compressed charge is not necessary to fire safely. And with people shooting the Sharps with cardboard tube cartridges, some use a card wad inside to keep the powder against the back end and leave a small air space between the powder and bullet.
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