Rifle Musket /53 .568 Cartridges

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Written by: David Minshall

Brothers Edwin and Alfred Ludlow were Birmingham small arms ammunition manufacturers. Illustrated below is an original pack of ten of their cartridges for the Enfield Pattern 1853 Rifle Musket, dated 1864. With their .568 diameter bullet they were probably intended for Rifle Volunteers engaged in target shooting competition. The service bullet at the time was .55 diameter.

Paper Cartridges has posted pictures on facebook of an original 1862 dated P.53 Enfield cartridge bundle. That package was tied with string and the wrapper folds into itself. The carefully opened pack shows the manner of folding.

The pack of cartridges by Ludlow was folded in a different manner and is glued (so won’t be being opened). There is no sign of wear to suggest it may previously have been tied. Similar packages are illustrated in Malloy, Thomas & White’s ‘Percussion Ammunition Packets’ (Thomas Publications, 2003) and Pritchard & Huey’s ‘The English Connection’ (Thomas Publications, 2014), and again are not tied.

Hopefully, and as Paper Cartridges’ post, this will interest/assist those who enjoy historical shooting and seek to recreate original style packets.

Rifle Musket paper cartridges .568
Rifle Musket paper cartridges .568

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