doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com How is a needlefire shotgun cartridge made ?

Parabola, thank you. That illustration seems to be the correct load for the Needham, and for the Rigby version of the Needham design. For some reason I thought the needle fire cartridge in this case was consumable during detonation, but am starting to think that "cleanout" is necessary after each firing. No wonder the pinfire took over, and then , even better, the centerfire.

Something I just noticed is that the Chsassepot cartridge shown above is apparently designed to have the primer not only pierced by the needle, but also driven forward by the needle, giving more access to the load powder as the primer detonates. Interesting, to me, that it was designed that way.

Some interesting insights here.

Parabola, that was a great video. Something new was that the needle fire worked best when a non flammable paper [silk] cartridge tube was made. The tube actually was ejected through the muzzle during firing, leaving a relatively clean barrel/chamber ready for the next firing. Along with the Dreyse, Chassepot, and others, there were continuous “improvements” made to the paper cartridge. I hope to find more information on the exact shot cartridge that was made for the 14 gauge Needham bolt action.

I am finding that the musket primers in the video are not available locally and hazmat shipping is around $30 for just a tiny tin. Reenactment musket primers are not hazmat required, but they are much less potent than the regular musket primers.