What is a Primer Box?????

[Major Matt Lewis]

So I read "The Civil War Diary of Wyman S. White" this weekend.  It is about his adventures with F Company 2d US Sharpshooters in the Civil War.  At one point, he was talking about his role in The Wilderness Campaign.  Quite a fight....Now, he, being a Sharpshooter, had a Sharps rifle.  He talked about the high rate of fire that he and other Sharpshooters were able to maintain because of the breechloaders, and Primer Boxes.  Now, I know what a primer is and I know what a box is , but how did this device work in which it was able to take the place of the percussion cap...

[Trailrider]

Sir:

I do not have a definite answer for you...  No excuse, sir!  But let me offer an opinion... A "primer box" may refer to the Lawrence patent pellet priming device found on the Sharps Model 1859/63 breech-loading carbines and rifles.  While the Sharps were breechloaders, the cartridges were paper or "skin" rather than completely self-contained metallic rounds.  The Lawrence system consisted of a reservoir built into the sidelock lockplate, which held a number of small (about the size of a baby aspirin or smaller) fulminate of mercury pellets.  A sliding bar, connected to a milled groove on the inboard side of the hammer stem, caused one pellet to be slid off the stack, timed to arrive over the cone (n--ple) just as the hammer nose came down on it, setting off the pellet and the main powder charge.

Another mechanism that might qualify would be the Maynard tape-priming system.  This was primarily used on some of the early CW series of muzzleloading rifle-muskets.  It consisted of fulminate of mercury "spots" on a paper tape, much like a 1950's child's cap gun, and served the same purpose.  The tape would allow more rapid fire than fumbling for a tophat percussion cap in a pouch.  As they were not continued in use, I would suspect that the Maynard system was (a) unsafe, due to the possibility of setting off the whole tape's full, or didn't have enough fire to ignite the BP.

The coming of self-contained, primed metallic cartridges doomed such contraptions early-on.

I have NOT heard the term "cap boxes", but suppose this may have been what was the term in contemporary usage.

Respectfully submitted,

Now, I admit

[St. George]

Generally - it's considered to be the 'box' for the Maynard Tape Primer system - though the Lawrence Patent pellet system could easily qualify.

Apparently - the Sharpshooters were of two minds on this - some preferring it, while others placing more faith in the issue 'Top-Hat' percussion caps.

Properly-functioning - the Maynard Tape Primer would eliminate any fumbling for separate percussion caps and seating them - thus wasting valuable time - thereby increasing the Rate of Fire of the weapon.

Obviously - proper cleaning and maintenance of the weapon was paramount for all of this to work - but in accounts of these particular shooters - that didn't seem to be an issue as it was with some of the Rank and File.

Vaya,

Scouts Out!

[Major Matt Lewis]

Obviously - proper cleaning and maintenance of the weapon was paramount for all of this to work - but in accounts of these particular shooters - that didn't seem to be an issue as it was with some of the Rank and File.

Vaya,

Scouts Out!

You know, he does mention more than once in his diary cleaning of the rifle so, I am of the same opinion.  Making cleaning cloths out of dead Rebs uniforms and such.  Mentioned it more than once so I reckon that it was important without him actually saying "this is important."

[Frenchie]

Another mechanism that might qualify would be the Maynard tape-priming system.  This was primarily used on some of the early CW series of muzzleloading rifle-muskets.  It consisted of fulminate of mercury "spots" on a paper tape, much like a 1950's child's cap gun, and served the same purpose.  The tape would allow more rapid fire than fumbling for a tophat percussion cap in a pouch.  As they were not continued in use, I would suspect that the Maynard system was (a) unsafe, due to the possibility of setting off the whole tape's full, or didn't have enough fire to ignite the BP.

Many Regular Army infantry units, including the unit we portray, the Third U.S. Regular Infantry, had the Model 1855 Springfield rifle-musket fitted with the Maynard Patent tape primer system until the middle of 1862, when they were issued the 1861 Springfield. The main problem with the tape primer was that it wasn't moisture-proof and was rather too delicate for field use. The Regular Army units that had Maynard systems went back to using the standard percussion caps for most of the time they had those arms.

[Guns Garrett]

I reference to the Sharps, I do believe Trailrider is most accurate in his description of the pellet feed.  I don't know of Sharps being fitted with the Maynard System.  I've read the pellet system was used only on some rifles - imagine depending on that little pellet to fall on a carbine's nipple while riding horseback!  Even afoot, the pellet feed was undependable, so eventually it was discarded in favor of the regular musket cap.

[Trailrider]

Fortunately, the Sharps percussion models had cones that would accept the regular tophat musket caps.

Getting back to "pinging" M-1 clips...  I was too young (born in 1942) to have fought in either WWII or Korea.  But when I was a teenager, my Dad, who was a reserve officer and went on 2 week's active every summer, was able to fix it with the Post S-3 so that, if the unit commander didn't object, I could shoot with them.  The Army Reserve units came out with M-1 Carbines, and I popped away with them.  Then the Marine reserve units came out...  Their NCO's were mostly WWII and Korean veterans.  The Marines were armed with M-1 Rifles!  Those old gunnies taught me to shoot!  When I later went into the Air Force, I never saw anything hotter than an M-2 carbine, and only the Site Security guards had them. AR-15's were pipelined to 'Nam.

Last week, I went out to our local public range to chronograph some loads.  A gent out there had a "tanker" model M-1A (semi-auto M-14, with a short barrel).  He offered to let me shoot it, and provided a 20-round magazine.  The cartridge, of course, was 7.62 NATO, but there isn't much difference between it and the .30-06 (except it AIN'T a .30-06!).  Well, I started shooting, and subconsciously started counting rounds.  And...I kept waiting for the "ping"!     Twenty rounds later...I was still waiting for the "ping"! 

[River City John]

As the rifle used prepared linen cartridges that were loaded from the breech, there was no need for patches nor a patchbox. Could it be referring to the cap box in the stock as the primer box?