Ivan,

The Frankford Arsenal initially issued 50 kits in early 1879. Those kits were sent to various Forts in the Eastern and Southern States to receive feedback I’ve read letters from the following:

Fort Monroe, Va.
Fort McHenry, Me.
Fort McHarvey, Mo.
Fort Trumbull, Conn.
Fort Wadsworth
Fort Ontario
Fort Adams
Fort Columbus
Fort Barraucus, Florida
Little Rock,Ark
Plattsburgh
Etc

Feedback varied based on the capacity of the troops at each Fort to operate the newly designed tools and cartridges. It was all new to them at that time.

Here is an excerpt from the most competent report:

June 9, 1879
From Capt. W. Randolph
Fort Monroe, Va.

1000 rounds were loaded and fired using 600 shells, refilling them sometimes as often as five times.
I find that they shot accurately and are easily refilled.

There were a lot of complaints documented regarding flaws in the early tools that were corrected with later production kits from The Frankford Arsenal based on feedback.

I also clearly documented yearly “replacement parts” that were manufactured for the reloading tools and the bench loading tools as early as 1888. So it was a constant and continual re-supply over a 25 year period found in what remains of the partial Military records.

They were reloading at such a high volume that parts and equipment were breaking down. I really learned a lot from this research and had no idea how much reloading the Army accomplished beginning in 1879! Many millions of rounds were reloaded during that time.

Which really translates to learning the skill in the Military and those that got out and wandered the frontier took that skill with them. Amazing stuff. Not like the movies that’s for sure.

Also and lastly, the real problem was case life. Clearly documented in the records is a breakdown of copper cases, primers becoming inert in as little as 2 years once loaded with black powder.

So storing raw reloading material and reloading when needed was the initial solution and that concept lasted a few decades until machine reloading was required for automatic actions in the smokeless Era that followed.


Murph