Loading almost the whole paper cartridge into Muzzle Loaders

[Walt von Keisel-Walther]

I'm a bit confused as to why the soldiers in game are typically loading almost the entire paper cartridge into their muzzle loaders after biting off the tip of the paper, usually you are supposed to bite the tip off and then pour the powder in then the ball, completely discarding the paper itself then finally ramming. Is there a reason as to why almost the whole paper cartridge is rammed in?

[V-[8thCT(A)]Pvt.Duff]

It's obviously an "easter egg" to irritate people. Kind of like how you don't need to dunk your sponge rammer in a bucket of water every once in awhile to keep it damp so the artillery piece doesn't blow your arms off when you load the next powder charge for the next shot. I'm sure it's on their list of "graphics enhancements" for a later update.

[Femboi UwU]

Originally posted by 1stMA.ASgt.Duff:

It's obviously an "easter egg" to irritate people. Kind of like how you don't need to dunk your sponge rammer in a bucket of water every once in awhile to keep it damp so the artillery piece doesn't blow your arms off when you load the next powder charge for the next shot. I'm sure it's on their list of "graphics enhancements" for a later update.

probably just to save time when reloading as a 1to1 representation would take forever to load compared to the fact that it is still just a video game would be cool to have a 1to1 reprentation like that but for gameplay aspects im sure this is just one of those things that were either overlooked or sacrificed for gameplay

[5th Fla (H) Pvt. Proudfoot]

And loading the sharps it does show the back edge being chopped off and powder spilling. And the Sharps dont get all gummed up after 20 rounds like they often did.

They don't insert the bullet and break of the paper for the Enfield either. and the Buck and ball doesn't look like buck and ball etc....

It doesn't really hurt game play the way it is

Adding unique cartridge loading animations would suck up a ton of time for the devs

[A_P_Hill]

A minor "technical" issue. Just ignore it.

[Arminius]

most rifles in the game fire the minié ball, this round is designed to be easy to load in the barrel because it will be narrow enough to fit to be easily rammeble. once fired the explosion expands the ball so it's width gets larger, which makes sure the round catches some rifling. the paper goes with the ball and powdercharge so it can act as a wadding so the ball doesn't roll out of the barrel if you are either aiming at a downwards angle or in the trail arms (see Hardee's infantry tactics). the thing about casting the paper away comes from the re-enactment scene, where they do this for safety so you don't have a flaming piece of paper coming out of the barrel and so you don't have to use the ramrod to ram anything down and potentialy forget to take it out before firing. historicaly, soldiers would most comonly bite of the bottom of the cartridge, so that the powder gets exposed, then poor the powder down the barrel, then put the ball and the paper in and ram it home. in the game this is not represented very well as putting it all in at the same time might cause hangfire or misfire due to the paper obstructing the small sparks from the percussion cap. sorry for the whole essay, this stuff just gets me going.

[Walt von Keisel-Walther]

Originally posted by Arminius:

most rifles in the game fire the minié ball, this round is designed to be easy to load in the barrel because it will be narrow enough to fit to be easily rammeble. once fired the explosion expands the ball so it's width gets larger, which makes sure the round catches some rifling. the paper goes with the ball and powdercharge so it can act as a wadding so the ball doesn't roll out of the barrel if you are either aiming at a downwards angle or in the trail arms (see Hardee's infantry tactics). the thing about casting the paper away comes from the re-enactment scene, where they do this for safety so you don't have a flaming piece of paper coming out of the barrel and so you don't have to use the ramrod to ram anything down and potentialy forget to take it out before firing. historicaly, soldiers would most comonly bite of the bottom of the cartridge, so that the powder gets exposed, then poor the powder down the barrel, then put the ball and the paper in and ram it home. in the game this is not represented very well as putting it all in at the same time might cause hangfire or misfire due to the paper obstructing the small sparks from the percussion cap. sorry for the whole essay, this stuff just gets me going.

So basically the paper was actually put in the rifle historically as a wadding is what I am understanding?

[Arminius]

yes, it wouldn't get in the way of the ball because it had so much power and the paper would just burn up.

[Arminius]

this was done with all longbarrelled muskets/rifled muskets that use paper cartriges. musketeers who used matchlock in the old days didn't use paper cartriges most of the time, they used powder measurers and put the balls in individualy. but the sometimes put a wadding in it too.

with the smoothbore flintlock muskets the wadding was very important because the balls that went in the barrel were smaller in width then the barrels. for example the British ''short land pattern musket'' nowadays better known as the ''Brown Bess'' had a .75 callibre barrel but fired a .69 callbre (nice) round ball. this was so that the fowling from the black powder residu wouldn't make the ramming procedure harder. as you can imagine, a smaller round in a large barrel would easily have the ball rolling out, especialy since it was round. So a wadding was important, so the paper in the paper cartridge is used to store the powdercharge and to serve as a wadding. two birds with one rock.

[5th Fla (H) Pvt. Proudfoot]

Originally posted by Arminius:

......... the paper goes with the ball and powdercharge so it can act as a wadding so the ball doesn't roll out of the barrel if you are either aiming at a downwards angle or in the trail arms (see Hardee's infantry tactics). the thing about casting the paper away comes from the re-enactment scene, where they do this for safety so you don't have a flaming piece of paper coming out of the barrel and so you don't have to use the ramrod to ram anything down and potentialy forget to take it out before firing. ......

The casting the paper away comes from Hardees Infantry Tactics not the re-enactment scene. It specifies removing the ball from the paper. The re-enactors are accurately reenacting.


4. Charge- CARTRIDGE.
One time and one motion.
159. Empty the powder into the barrel; disengage the ball from the paper with the right hand and the thumb and first two
fingers of the left; insert it into the bore, the pointed end uppermost, and press it down with the right thumb; seize the head
of the rammer with the thumb and fore-finger of the right hand, the other fingers closed, the elbows near the body.

[orlathebeast]

the enfield p53 cartirdge is supposed to be loaded with the paper, it's patched and the lube it's not on the ball, but on the paper. not so on the springfield 1861 for example where the miniè ball has grease groowes containing grease. now the enfield cartiridge prooved to be a superior sistem because you can show way more bullets before the barrel gets too dirty, but it's true that not allways the cartridge was avaible and so at a certain point everybody used what they found, miniè balls would work both on the springfield and on the enfield with little adjustment in sizing. the min'è ball prooved to be sligtly more accurate in the short run, and the cartridge was faster to manufacture, but the enfield with the pritchet ball was superior in the hands of skilled soldiers... wich both confederacy and expecially union had not.