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FW: Civil War Bullets



Let's quibble about black powder and related subjects for a while.

I'm not as nearly as familiar with black powder as Kim, (but a lack of
knowledge is no bar to submitting postings to this list).

Recently, I did a bit of research on Civil War pistol cartridges and suspect
that genuine Civil War cartridges (powder, ball, paper, and string) are rare
and have enough intrinsic value to make a curator think twice about before
deactivating one.  The Time-Life book on Confederate equipment includes an
illustration of a particularly bedraggled pistol cartridge.  If that's the
best example they could find, they must be rare indeed.  Also, as memory
serves, the Union equipment book had no illustrations of pistol cartridges
at all.  Another book did have illustrations of packages of cartridges but
it was published some 50 years ago and I wasn't sure if they were genuine
Civil War ordnance.

Also, I doubt that individual cartridges would be particularly dangerous
(unless inserted into a weapon).  The powder would still be combustible but
that would make it more of a fire hazard than anything else.

Steve, before doing anything you can't undo, I suggest that you contact an
antique firearms dealer or two and get their opinions.  You'd better do it
quick, however.  HR 1112, pending in the House of Representatives, would
extend to antique weapons and replicas (and ammunition?) the same
restrictions that are now in place for modern firearms.  Meaning that Kim
and his fellows couldn't be hauling their Springfields across state lines to
give living history demonstrations as he did last year in Fayetteville.

Peter, I guess that it is now your turn to weigh in on this topic.

Paul (no kin to Kim) Scott
Records Management Officer
Harris County, Texas

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