Wednesday dried out enough I was able to get out onto the Range with the 3rd Model Dragoon. My friend Jared was visiting and he had brought his Walker and a couple other charcoal burners ... 1860 Army and an 1861 Navy. I had never had a chance to test out the paper cartridges that I had loaded and this was a perfect opportunity.

The photo is when I was learning to make the paper cartridges. I had 40 rounds in the ammo box when we went to the Range. The ones on the left are round ball .. the ones on the right are my home-made conical. I had 10 rounds of the conical.

On the range we shot about 15 yards, offhand.

I found the round ball cartridges much easier to load than the home-made conical. The base on the conical is large enough that the paper cartridge interferes with loading and requires MUCH MORE seating pressure to get it started.

Accuracy was great with both loads. At 15 yards I kept most shots in or close to a 1 inch square, shooting offhand. Later I will shoot these loads at 20/25 yards from a rest to determine accuracy. But so far they are looking good.

Out of the 40 rounds I had one fail-to-fire. A little work with a nipple pick and a new cap and it fired. Later, cleaning the gun, I found quite a bit of unburned paper in the chambers and figure that was probably what caused it.

I am using Goex FFFg and CCI Magnum #11 caps with SPG lube on top of the ball or conical.

Comparing the Walker and the Dragoon

that I have three or four loaded that need clearing/cleaning.

Alas, all work and no play makes ray a dull boy.

Belay that "three or four". Did a loaded percussion revolver inventory.....

uberti .31 pocket and wells fargo and pietta .31 remmie.

uberti walker with only two chambers loaded for some disremembered reason.

pietta remmie snubby (ace) and pietta navy .44 (egregiously unhistoric)

and, the most unhistoric of all.....pietta barrelless pepperbox on navy frame loaded with a .45 acp case of pyrodex p and three ooo buckshot per chamber.

Don't think I'll shoot that last into my basement bullet trap wood chunks as they tend to shoot back.

My friend Bud had an 1860 Army that he was learning. Out shooting it one day, he popped a shot into a Blackjack Oak tree at fairly close distance. The next thing he knew he was laying on his back, looking up at the sky. His head hurt and he discovered a huge knot on his forehead where the ball had come back and knocked him out. Did not break the skin. Being hard-headed does have certain advantages.

I had a great time. We will have to do it again. Those paper cartridges shot really well.