Combustible Cartridge Range Report and a Problem

I shot the paper cartridges yesterday and also got to try some RWS 1075+ caps. Both worked great. Loading using the cartridges is much faster than with loose powder and ball. I'd smeared a bit of Bore Butter on the ball end of each cartridge last night and that helped keep fouling soft.

I had three varieties of cartridges:

1. Some made with the papers included with the Guns of the West kit, paper trimmed to length and glued to the ball.

2. Some with the same paper left full length and then twisted over the ball.

3. Some made from Zig Zag rolling paper, left full length and then twisted over the ball.

The cartridges with the full length papers twisted over the ball were easier to make and more robust. Going forward that's how I will make combustible cartridges. The Zig Zag papers aren't quite as wide as I want for .44 cartridges but should work well for .36s.

The paper did not completely combust but this did not impede subsequent shots.

The RWS caps were very hot and fragmented quite a bit. I did not get any cap jams with them. I also tried some CCI No.11 caps, which resulted in a few cap jams.

For the last cylinder of the day I used plastic ring caps sold for use with toy cap guns. They also worked fine with loose powder and ball (by that point I was out of cartridges). A few had to be pried off the nipples after firing, however.

Towards the end of the day I noticed that the hand was flopping back and forth in its slot, instead of being spring loaded. It's not uncommon for hand springs on the Italian Remington replicas to break, so that what I thought happened.

Today I detail stripped the gun for the first time and it looks like there never was a hand spring. WTF?

There should be a flat spring in that slot. The picture below shows a spare parts kit for Pietta 1858 Remingtons. The hand is to the left of the hammer.

My Euroarms revolver was made by Armi San Paolo, who went out of business in the early 2000s. Replacement parts are largely unobtanium.

After doing some research it looks like I can make a new hand spring from a bobby pin, so I bummed one from my daughter.

I'll post a follow up after I'm able to do some 'smithing.