Paper Cartridges, Gettysburg PA

Contact the school

Paper Cartridges, Gettysburg PA Recreating history in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. No sales! No powder, no primers. Just history, demonstration, and discussion of Civil War-era paper cartridges.

This is what my shop looks like at the moment… it’s been such a whirlwind this month and everything is literally piling ...
10/16/2026

This is what my shop looks like at the moment… it’s been such a whirlwind this month and everything is literally piling up.

Buck and ball, Williams cleaners, some Minies here and there, a few Maynard primer tapes, fine premium ci**rs, a proper Islay scotch, church committee notes and a 425 year old 1599 Geneva bible, all on the same table.

This is my world. The ADHD can be a blessing and a curse. I can hyperfocus on things for hours and hours and be extremely productive, but I can also get distracted and have twelve different projects simultaneously in progress.

We put the bore scope down the infamous rusted Whitworth to see the full scale of the corrosion. At the muzzle, it’s bri...
10/14/2026

We put the bore scope down the infamous rusted Whitworth to see the full scale of the corrosion.

At the muzzle, it’s bright orange mostly surface rust.

As we go down, it turns into globules of heavy corrosion, which (and it pains me to say it) is actually worse than what it seems to show on the camera.

This is not my r***e, I do not know who owns it, it was sent for cleaning and restoration to my friend Joe (whose Civil War Ordnance Department defarb and restoration business shares the same building as Paper Cartridges shop on Baltimore St in Gettysburg). But what Joe was told … taking a huge grain of salt here … it was fired at a reenactment a week ago, and this corrosion allegedly happened within the last week.

While it may well have been fired with blanks at a reenactment a week ago, this corrosion could not have happened in just a week, especially the very advanced dark pitting in the chamber area. This r***e has not been cleaned in a very long time.

Is it able to be saved, as a shooter? I don’t think so. This was at one time a precision instrument, a replica of the first truly 1 MOA r***e. It is not that anymore. Maybe it will clean up to where it might shoot, and stabilize a bullet, but it’s not a precision r***e anymore. No amount of Evaporust can put metal back where it’s been eaten away.

The moral of the story: CLEAN YOUR GUNS!

Another tough lesson about the corrosive effects of plain ordinary black powder. This poor reproduction Whitworth came i...
10/14/2026

Another tough lesson about the corrosive effects of plain ordinary black powder. This poor reproduction Whitworth came in to Civil War Ordnance Department for restoration and cleaning. It had been used for reenacting, fired with blanks, then left to sit without cleaning for at least a few months.

The barrel is absolutely toast. There is intense, aggressive rust all the way down.

Black powder is corrosive because when it burns, potassium sulfide and sulfate are reside combustion products. Potassium compounds like these (and other combustion products of BP) draw moisture out of the air, and hold that moisture right up against the metal, accelerating corrosion.

The only silver lining is that this was a late production Italian made repro, and not an original or a Parker Hale.

Still a sad demise for what was once an expensive r***e.

(Edited to correct my bad chemistry… I’m a history major, so forgive me!)

10/12/2026

I love Swiss powder but I can’t bring myself to pay almost $60 a pound for it. So I’ve fired up the old powder mill again. Fortunately I have a lot of alder buckthorn charcoal I made years ago, that can rather quickly be turned into excellent powder.

I have too much fun making these displays.
10/10/2026

I have too much fun making these displays.

Very happy with my new push through sizing die for my Minies, made by Joe from Civil War Ordnance Department My old size...
10/08/2026

Very happy with my new push through sizing die for my Minies, made by Joe from Civil War Ordnance Department

My old sizer was wearing out after having an estimated 120,000 Minies pushed through it over the last decade or so.

I needed the sizer to bring the Minies to the historic Ordnance size of .5775 and as you can see, they come out right to spec.

Worked all day. But the weather is too gloriously perfect to stay inside. Took Willie for a walk past Cemetery Hill. No ...
10/05/2026

Worked all day. But the weather is too gloriously perfect to stay inside. Took Willie for a walk past Cemetery Hill. No tourists. Crisp air. Perfection. Contentment. Peace in a place that once was not peaceful. Lots of deep thoughts.

Meanwhile Willie is obsessively chasing everything that moves.

10/03/2026

Finally, an excuse to wear a shako! Three rounds in (a bit over) a minute with the Belgian-made version of the French M1822 flintlock smoothbore musket. Historical demonstration; not for sale!

Flintlocks are so much fun. Priming with the same large grain musket powder as the main charge leads to these rocket-lik...
10/02/2026

Flintlocks are so much fun.

Priming with the same large grain musket powder as the main charge leads to these rocket-like flaming grains getting launched from the pan like the Fourth of July.

This is my first flintlock. I think I’m hooked….

10/01/2026

M1777 flintlock Charleville musket. Not for sale! Demonstration only!

Address

Gettysburg, PA

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Paper Cartridges, Gettysburg PA posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The School

Send a message to Paper Cartridges, Gettysburg PA:

Shortcuts

Share

Category