With the ammo shortage going into year two, I've gotten way more into black powder lately.
Recently, I picked up an MLE 1866 Chassepot needle rifle. Mine was made in 1873 at the St. Etienne, under the 2nd Republic. Rifle was only missing a screw on the trigger guard and the rubber gaskets. While the screw is still alluding me (if anyone has one, hit me up), luckily spare gaskets (as well as needles and main springs) are readily available from Naah Tool Works, who make modern repros of these components, since they are basically consumables for these guns.
I scoured Youtube and a bunch of forums and came up with several "easy" methods for making the paper cartridges for this gun. The trick is that there needs to be a percussion cap in the bottom of the paper cartridge, with the bottom of the cap facing the bolt. It needs to be firmly enough in place that when the trigger is pulled, the needle pushes through the bottom of the cartridge, hitting the percussion cap and setting it off, igniting the main powder charge.
I took all the research I did and came up with two different designs.
Both designs used 2.5" gummed paper tape (like the post office uses) to make the tube. I found some 12mm aluminum rods and used them as the forming mandrel. I also used a piece of scrap 2x4 and put a 12mm hole in it (well a little bigger) to use as a former.
The bullet is a .457 diameter, 405gr lead air gun bullet. I wasn't able to find .45-70 bullets anywhere, but I stumbled over these air gun bullets and they worked pretty well. I just got a mold for a proper Chassepot bullet, so in the future, I'll be using the proper bullet for the gun.
The percussion cap (a standard 4 wing musket cap) is glued to a small 12mm cardboard disk, which is then glued to the bottom of the tube. Several of the sources I read and watched talked about using a cap gun caps to provide a little extra oomph along with filling the cap with FFFFg priming powder, before gluing the cardboard disc to it. So I did both.
Design 1: paper tube with the bottom quarter inch cut into flaps. Cap and disc go at the bottom and then the flaps are glued down, sealing one side. Then the bottom and lower sides of the tube are coated with a glue stick and a slightly bigger paper disc is pressed to the bottom using the rod and the block, sealing it. The tube is filled FFg powder (approx 82 grains). Another 12mm disc is put in and the powder is compressed. Then finally the bullet, coated in glue stick glue, is put in and the end is crimped around the bullet.
Design 2: Similar to design 1, except I used a 2" firework tube as internal support. The head of the musket cap fits perfectly inside the firework tube. After the cartridge tube is filled with powder (only about 65 to 70gr fit), a paper disc is put in place and the bullet then rests right on the tube. I found later that this actually makes the round a bit too long, which caused some problems at the range, so I'm going to cut down these tube with an exacto knife to be about quarter inch shorter. The bullet won't rest on the top of the tube anymore and this should let me adjust the length more easily (plus fit a bit more powder).
I built one sample cartridge of each, using a cream of wheat dummy charge, so I could test the ignition in my basement. Both worked perfectly:
Having validated my design, I went ahead and worked up 22 rounds, making 9 FFg black powder rounds of each type and 2 Pyrodex RS to see if that would work (plus it lets me use up this Pyrodex I've had sitting around for 20 years or so).
Recently, I picked up an MLE 1866 Chassepot needle rifle. Mine was made in 1873 at the St. Etienne, under the 2nd Republic. Rifle was only missing a screw on the trigger guard and the rubber gaskets. While the screw is still alluding me (if anyone has one, hit me up), luckily spare gaskets (as well as needles and main springs) are readily available from Naah Tool Works, who make modern repros of these components, since they are basically consumables for these guns.
I scoured Youtube and a bunch of forums and came up with several "easy" methods for making the paper cartridges for this gun. The trick is that there needs to be a percussion cap in the bottom of the paper cartridge, with the bottom of the cap facing the bolt. It needs to be firmly enough in place that when the trigger is pulled, the needle pushes through the bottom of the cartridge, hitting the percussion cap and setting it off, igniting the main powder charge.
I took all the research I did and came up with two different designs.
Both designs used 2.5" gummed paper tape (like the post office uses) to make the tube. I found some 12mm aluminum rods and used them as the forming mandrel. I also used a piece of scrap 2x4 and put a 12mm hole in it (well a little bigger) to use as a former.
The bullet is a .457 diameter, 405gr lead air gun bullet. I wasn't able to find .45-70 bullets anywhere, but I stumbled over these air gun bullets and they worked pretty well. I just got a mold for a proper Chassepot bullet, so in the future, I'll be using the proper bullet for the gun.
The percussion cap (a standard 4 wing musket cap) is glued to a small 12mm cardboard disk, which is then glued to the bottom of the tube. Several of the sources I read and watched talked about using a cap gun caps to provide a little extra oomph along with filling the cap with FFFFg priming powder, before gluing the cardboard disc to it. So I did both.
Design 1: paper tube with the bottom quarter inch cut into flaps. Cap and disc go at the bottom and then the flaps are glued down, sealing one side. Then the bottom and lower sides of the tube are coated with a glue stick and a slightly bigger paper disc is pressed to the bottom using the rod and the block, sealing it. The tube is filled FFg powder (approx 82 grains). Another 12mm disc is put in and the powder is compressed. Then finally the bullet, coated in glue stick glue, is put in and the end is crimped around the bullet.
Design 2: Similar to design 1, except I used a 2" firework tube as internal support. The head of the musket cap fits perfectly inside the firework tube. After the cartridge tube is filled with powder (only about 65 to 70gr fit), a paper disc is put in place and the bullet then rests right on the tube. I found later that this actually makes the round a bit too long, which caused some problems at the range, so I'm going to cut down these tube with an exacto knife to be about quarter inch shorter. The bullet won't rest on the top of the tube anymore and this should let me adjust the length more easily (plus fit a bit more powder).
I built one sample cartridge of each, using a cream of wheat dummy charge, so I could test the ignition in my basement. Both worked perfectly:
Having validated my design, I went ahead and worked up 22 rounds, making 9 FFg black powder rounds of each type and 2 Pyrodex RS to see if that would work (plus it lets me use up this Pyrodex I've had sitting around for 20 years or so).
