Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Cartridge Box

In Cowboy Fast Draw, it's cool to show up with a cartridge box, At sanctioned shoots, it doesn't matter much, because the host supplies the ammunition and it's waiting for us at the firing line.

But, for the smaller shoots we bring our own ammo.  It's one thing to walk up to the line with an MTM/Caseguard box, like I do.  I have several and they're certainly durable.  But, a cool little cartridge box is certainly a plus.  It doesn't help your shooting, but it does help your "cool" factor.  Ideally, a match is three rounds (Three up, three down.  Go sit down.)

I had made Belle a small box that held 12 rounds, which should be sufficient, but she wanted more capacity, in case a bout went long.  So, I started looking at some old Frankfort Arsenal boxes I had laying around, and decided to cut one down with the table saw.

On the outside, it's a small wooden box with her name stenciled on the lid.

When the lid is opened, it accepts 20 cartridges.  That should be sufficient for any single bout.  She has her own Caseguard box with plenty of ammo available.  You might wonder why the ammo is staggered in the box.  We've found that this method is the best for carrying ammo to the line.  Those lose primers are "fiddly" and easily lost.  Many of us have found that loading in that staggered manner makes it much easier when you're standing on the line.

I think she'll like this much better, and we'll call it version 2.0 of her cartridge box.

3 comments:

Old NFO said...

That is nicely done! I wouldn't have thought about cutting down a box. :-)

DocV said...

Would a little red or green primer seal help with the loose primer issue?

DocV

Pawpaw said...

No, Doc, in this particular case, loose primers are a feature, not a bug. The case is designed to let the shooter drop in a shotgun primer, and that is the whole propellant. We want the primers to shake out easily.

I admit that I thought it was strange the first time I saw it, but after two years and ten thousand rounds, it seems to work very well. Before I got into this game, I reloaded a lot of standard ammo, and any cartridge brass with loose primer pockets were immediately discarded.