By 1st Sgt. Koepp
This year, several of us ordered the last batch ever of Cary Davisson's Berdan cartridge boxes and with them came cartridge tins from Ulrich. Obviously, the tins from Ulrich are superior in build quality and accuracy than import tins that most people have. This increased accuracy opened up the possibility of experimenting with different boxes for arsenal packs. That, and our first article and video on making arsenal packs has seemed to have sold out Michael's nationwide of the jewelry boxes we were using. The first arsenal packs we designed, lets call them the Mark 1, were perfect for our needs because they fit all makes of cartridge tins and blanks take up much less space. Since our original jewelry boxes appear to be hard to come by these days, the Captain ordered a different variety off of Amazon. They, too were bigger than the Michael's boxes, but more accurately filled our 1000 round cartridge boxes. The wooden cartridge boxes when loaded with the Amazon box arsenal packs holds about 1,040 rounds.
With a growing interest in live firing in our unit, I've been scratching my head about how to hold the style of live rounds I make. Today, I tried out a new box size (also from Michael's) and have been very pleased with how they fit in my Ulrich tins. With 10 rounds and 12 caps it's a snug fit but fits the cartridge tin beautifully. These Mark 1* boxes can be loaded, fully sealed with a wrapper and a rip string and coated in shellac for a truly period experience at the range. This style will almost certainly not fit any import cartridge tins. I will also say, this current style of flat based rounds I'm using doesn't fit the wooden inserts inside the tins. If you changed glue location from the base ring to the ring tail (or choke the cartridge on the ring tail like some originals) they should fit fine.
Comparing the fit of the 10 rounds and 12 caps in our Mark 1* model looks very similar to photos of originals. For full construction details be sure to check out our how-to video.
This year, several of us ordered the last batch ever of Cary Davisson's Berdan cartridge boxes and with them came cartridge tins from Ulrich. Obviously, the tins from Ulrich are superior in build quality and accuracy than import tins that most people have. This increased accuracy opened up the possibility of experimenting with different boxes for arsenal packs. That, and our first article and video on making arsenal packs has seemed to have sold out Michael's nationwide of the jewelry boxes we were using. The first arsenal packs we designed, lets call them the Mark 1, were perfect for our needs because they fit all makes of cartridge tins and blanks take up much less space. Since our original jewelry boxes appear to be hard to come by these days, the Captain ordered a different variety off of Amazon. They, too were bigger than the Michael's boxes, but more accurately filled our 1000 round cartridge boxes. The wooden cartridge boxes when loaded with the Amazon box arsenal packs holds about 1,040 rounds.
With a growing interest in live firing in our unit, I've been scratching my head about how to hold the style of live rounds I make. Today, I tried out a new box size (also from Michael's) and have been very pleased with how they fit in my Ulrich tins. With 10 rounds and 12 caps it's a snug fit but fits the cartridge tin beautifully. These Mark 1* boxes can be loaded, fully sealed with a wrapper and a rip string and coated in shellac for a truly period experience at the range. This style will almost certainly not fit any import cartridge tins. I will also say, this current style of flat based rounds I'm using doesn't fit the wooden inserts inside the tins. If you changed glue location from the base ring to the ring tail (or choke the cartridge on the ring tail like some originals) they should fit fine.
Comparing the fit of the 10 rounds and 12 caps in our Mark 1* model looks very similar to photos of originals. For full construction details be sure to check out our how-to video.