45r - - - - - Loading a pellet arquebus
Figure
It is necessary to make a wooden pipe 4 or 5 fingers wide that is perfectly hollow, according to the open end of your barrel, of the form represented in A. Then, having cut some paper, which has to be as strong as that of large printed books, in the form indicated in D and as wide as you want your cartridge to be long, wrap the paper around the baton B and at the top, where the pointed tip F will be around the aforementioned paper, and the cartridge will be formed. But, in order to make the bottom more uniform, put it into pipe A, then introduce baton B and, in the other end of the pipe, which is marked G, insert baton C and pack so as to compact and press the folded tip of your cartridge, then take it out, and the charge in this, put three or four drageons or larmes. Then, with a punch, marked E, of the same caliber of your arquebus or pistol, punch round pieces on cardboard or felt or waxed cloth, and put this round piece into your cartridge, and push it until the drageons with the baton B, the more drageons, 3 or 4, then a round piece. And continue like that until the cartridge is full, the put it into the arquebus. If you want your pellet to scatter earlier, make round pieces out of paper. If you want it to reach further without scattering, make the piece out of cardboard. If you want it to reach even further, make the round piece out of waxed cloth, or either of leather or felt, and a piece of waxed cloth on the top. And if you make the cartridge in part with waxed cloth or waxed paper, it will reach one hundred paces and will make a big hole, and the pellet, barely scattering, will produce a big opening. But if you make your cartridge with waxed cloth or a material stronger than paper, it cannot be so long, with the cardboard tip being like in D, because it is enough if it wrapped around twice. In such a way, the pellet barely scatters and makes a big hole in porte—corps armor or others.