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The ball stays inside the paper, ball-up as you load. I make my ctgs. tapered as in the photgraph, using a tapered dowel to form the 'case', similar to the method in the picture of the French Military ctg. making. I do this because the tapered ctg. is easier to handle, and when you tear off the base (small end) there is less powder loss - virtually none as opposed to having a large cylinder torn with powder flying everywhere. After tearing off the base with my teeth, the small end is shoved into the bore. By the time you get the ramrod out, the owder will have trickled down to the breech. The ctg. is then pushed down onto the powder. The paper acts as a seal as the gas pressure slams it against the ball's back end. My ctgs. are a snug fit in the bore of the rifle and gave idential accuracy to a tightly patched round ball - shooting into 1 1/2" at 100 meters off the bags. I can shoot up to 10 paper ctgs. before fouling gets bad, then a squib load of 82gr. of 2f is fired with a tight dripping wet spit lubed denim patched round ball which effectviley cleans the bore allowing up to another 10 ctgs. to be fired. This is in my .69 cal. rifle. My normal powder charge for this rifle is 165gr.2F for 1,550fps with the 484gr. pure lead round ball or 466gr. WW alloy ball. Teh same charge is used for the paper ctg. for hunting moose and big bear.

The paper ctgs. in the photograph are for a Brown Bess Sea Service musket, but are identical in shape and form to my ctgs. for the 14 bore rifle.

One other hint - I use ordinary white glue instead of relying on folding to hold the ctgs. togther. I've carried them in my parka pocket for up to 3 months, without damamge.

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Daryl

"a gun without hammers is like a Spaniel without ears" King George V

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