Experimenting With Compressed Powder Cartridges

I got the idea from Crossen Cartridges. They have a former set that compresses powder just like the Hazard Cartridges from the Civil War. I bought one of those sets and I’ll be posting about them in the near future.

I started off casting some dead soft lead bullets specifically for the Walker Colts from a bullet mold designed by Kaido Ojamaa. It’s a 200 grain heeled base Elmer Keith style projectile.

The next step was procuring a box of Triple 7 pellets. The 45/50 means .45 caliber size and a 50 grain equivalent. My current rolled paper cartridges use this same powder and charge in 3fffg granulation.

Each pellet is hollow core and meant for inline muzzle loading rifles under ordinary conditions.

One individual pellet is carefully glued to the base of each projectile using a nitrocellulose glue such as Duco Cement. Nitrocellulose glue is very flammable wet or dry.

After allowing the glued on powder charge dries, nitrocellulose glue is thinned with Duco Cement and acetone mixed. Three layers of glue is painted on the outside of the entire cartridge…. Allowing each coat to dry before applying the next. This provides a measure of waterproofing and ignites the charge quicker. Remember — Duco Cement is nitrocellulose based and extremely flammable even when it dries.

The finished cartridge after drying. Notice the pellets have a hole central to the core ? Just in case they have any difficulty igniting…. I will fill the core with a light charge of 2ffg or even 3ffg and glue a cigarette paper cap on the end to hold the loose powder in place. BUT ONLY IF NECESSARY ! Keep in mind the safety sheet put out by Hodgdon’s that warns against mixing powders while using Triple 7. You do so at your own risk !

I loaded up a cylinder full of the caseless cartridges and noticed plenty of room in each chamber for lubricants to be added on top.

This weekend I’ll be taking the Walker Colt from to the gravel pit and test firing the new caseless ammunition. It loads very quickly so far, and it cuts down on the work involved since everything is pre measured.