jy3855 wrote on Apr 12^th, 2016 at 11:16am:


You're as short on 38-55's as I am.  I got the Marlin Cowboy, a relined Roller sporter; and a Uberti Hiwall.  Just got rid of a Winchester 1885 that I couldn't get to shoot and have had a half dozen other Marlin 1893 and Win 1894's.    The Marlin and Uberbi both take the .382 and the Roller is .378.  The latter may get reborn into a 40-50 SBN before its over.

I think the lubed lead bullet was first. Then the paper patched bullet and then the long lubed bullet then the jacketed bullet. 

        Joe.

Looking in the 1910 edition of the Remington UMC catalog,
you'll see a number of rifle cartridges that were available only as blackpowder rounds topped off with paper patch bullets... no greaser bullet version shown, take it or leave it.

And don't forget those thin animal hide patched balls used by early longrifle hunters... paper and cloth was often an expensive and scarce commodity to be using for patches in some areas at times.

Well, I'm no firearms historian, but to the best of my recollection, at least in the USA, the Minie ball was the first significant deviation from the patched round ball, and it would be a GG.  I'm thinking, like Joe says, that GG came before PP.

I think that GG became more popular than PP due to the ease of preparation of the bullet, not due to any superior properties or performance.

Cupro-nickel jacketed bullets and smokeless powder killed off the paper jacket.

the girls at sharps were taken over by machines.
factories were still loading pp ammo in 1912.
keep safe,
bruce.

It didn't take long at all in early 1880 Hugo Borchardt started designing a PP machine. He hadn't finished it when he lost his job when the Sharps factory closed for good. He Patented his design assigning it to the Peters Ammunition Co also in Bridgeport. He modified the design and also patented that, again assigning it to Peters. 

Later Peters amalgamated with Remington and I still wonder if there is some ancient old warehouse belonging to Remington, there isn't one or more of these machines gathering dust. It was powered by a belt drive from overhead wheels like almost all machines were at the time. A dozen or so PP machines were patented by various people but none appear to have survived. Borchardt's design was certainly the most complex of them all. I'd love to have seen one operating.

Harry

I'd like to see a bullet roller in operation. Seems like it would  be nearly impossible to accurately install wet paper on a bullet with 19th century technology.