IMPROVED CARTRIDGES FOR GALLERY AND SHORT RANGE RIFLE PRACTICE AND METHOD OF MANUFACTURING THE SAME
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Henrique Dunn at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 18th April 1883.
JOHN HENRIQUE DUNN of Haverstock Hill in the County of Middlesex Captain
in the 7th Surrey Rifle Volunteers "IMPROVED CARTRIDGES FOR GALLERY AND
SHORT RANGE RIFLE PRACTICE AND METHOD OF MANUFACTURING THE SAME
"
The object of my said invention is to give greater facilities for accurate rifle
practice at short ranges say from 10 to 50 yards without recoil and with little or
no report and is particularly applicable for gallery practice.
According to the first part of my said invention which refers to a permanent
cartridge adapted for the Martini Henry Rifle I form the cartridge case of a
suitable metal of the same bore throughout but the exterior I form similar in shape
to the ordinary cartridge used in the Martini Henry rifle thus the lower portion is
much thicker than the upper. In the base of the cartridge is suitably fitted a
nipple to take an ordinary gun cap of the Boxer cartridge. A cartridge case
constructed as above may be loaded in the ordinary way but with a small charge
of powder say from 10 grains. I prefer to employ a conical bullet in the above
cartridge with a concave aperture at base thereof and weighing about 216 grains.
The above described case can be used over and over again.
The second part of my said invention consists in a new method of charging used
cartridge cases of the Martini Henry rifle and making up cartridges for the
purposes of my said invention. After having recapped and sized the case by any
known method I load it with a small charge of powder say 15 grains of ordinary
powder or by preference 13 grains of E O gunpowder (this latter firing without
smoke) I then insert a disc composed of cardboard or other suitable material such
disc being of the same diameter as the interior of the base of the cartridge case
and in order that this disc may pass through the upper or smaller part of the case
I cause such disc to assume a conical form (by any suitable means) thereby reducing
for the time being its diameter sufficiently for it to pass freely down the smaller
bore of the case and when it reaches the powder in the larger bore and is rammed
home the cone will flatten out and form the original disc so as to fit this larger
portion of the case. I next ram in a compressible wad about half an inch thick
D

page_text: and of the same diameter as the disc. The rest of the case may be filled up (with
cotton wool or mill waste) to the neck. I then place a wax wad above and a
bullet as before described fastened to top. Used cases charged as above may be
fired from thirty to fifty times.
Used Snider cartridge cases being of the same bore throughout would be
recharged in the ordinary way but with the small charge of powder as aforesaid
and for this cartridge I employ a spherical bullet weighing about 26 to a pound!
Although I have described cartridges for practice with the Martini Henry and
Snider Rifles cartridges for other rifles of a different bore to the above may be made
up in a similar way.
I may of course manufacture new short range cartridges according to this
invention instead of using the old cases as above stated for sake of economy.