Rolled Nose Gardners

[ETEX]

There have been stories floating around for several years in which Josiah Gorgas, Chief of Ordnance, CSA, at one time directed Richmond to have the Gardners nose tips to be rolled at the final processing stage to prevent blow-through. I would like to hear from anybody and everybody that has any information on this as a myth/accurate/etc. I know I have several Gardners in my collection with an extemely pointed nose and was hoping this would have been a topic covered in RBTRF IV. Jim/Dean I would appreciate yall's input after doing all the research on Confederate Small Arms.

[ETEX]

I haven't had time to photo the Gardners in my collection, but a forum member sent me a pic of one.

[Jim T]

Dean says that he has never found any such directive from Gorgas. 

I'm sure all Gardner noses were "rolled" to some extent...nipping off the sprue left sharp edges that would damage other cartridges as well as the packaging.  Obviously some of the Gardner machine operators could have "rolled" their bullets more than others...that's all part of the "made by hand" process.  This "rolling" however, would have NO effect toward preventing a blowthrough.

You all need to visit our shop and "play" with our Gardner mould and cartridge machine.  After you've fiddled with the thing long enough and run a bunch of cartridges through it, you start to get a good feel for the issues related to the Gardner bullets and cartridges.

[ETEX]

Jim, Thanks for the response. I have heard that story throughout the years and have wondered about the validity and do know a limited number of the Gardners found have a nice sharp tip to the nose. With the majority of the Gardners having a blunt or rounded type nose I believe the rolled nose is still an excellent bullet to have in a collection. Again thanks for the info and another myth put to rest.