Paper Cartridges Longevity

[lonewolf172]

How long can paper cartridges with nitrate paper be kept and still usable?

 

[Wildrangeringreen]

So long as your lube was on the bullet section of the cartridge only and was a wax, you didn't incorporate any oiled wadding like so many modern shooters seem to insist on, and you store them in a cooler, dryer place; almost indefinitely. BP doesn't really break down over time like smokeless does, nitrating the paper doesn't really do much to the paper, so that will be fine. Due to their fragile nature, I would recommend storing them in a hard box of some sort, to protect them. I shoot almost every ML and revolver I have/have had with paper cartridges, and I make up a bunch in the winter and shoot from my stocks all year long. There are musket cartridges from the 1860's in collections that could be used today (granted, they've been protected over the years and musket cartridges were often made of notably heavier paper). With metallic BP cartridges, what usually gets them over time is the priming chemically changes as it ages and gets weak/less sensitive over time

They are convenient, and consistent (so long as you make them that way). It's easy to just grab a couple boxes or packets of 10 or whatever and go shooting. Easy to see why they were popular, historically, with people who could get/make them.