M1868 Egyptian Remington Rolling Block

[Mala Tempora]

Hi everyone, I'm collecting info about clashes happened in Sudan in the '70s of the XIX century between Egyptian governative troops and Sudanese rebels.
At that time Egyptian soldiers were armed with Remingtons rifles, in fact in 1868 a large order was placed with Remington by the Egyptian Government for the No. 1 Remington Military Rifle to be chambered in the ".43 Egyptian" cartridge, because they asked some sort of "proprietary cartridge".
My main question now is about the .43 cartridges: in a contemporary chronicle of a battle, an Egyptian officer awaiting for supplies for his troops (armed with Remingtons) states that "finally the long awaited barrels of black powder and leand ingots arrived to the battlefield".
I've seen pics of the .43 cartridge and it seems to me an industrial factory made one, quite similar to the modern ones...was it possible to somehow recharge those cartridges? A supply of ammunition was to be intended as boxes of already assembled cartridges or was it possible also for the soldiers to assembly their own ammo starting from blackpowder and lead?

[Greg T]

When one considers what type of soldier made up the Egyptian army at that time, I doubt very much that they would be capable of reloading any cartridge casing at any time. If, in fact, the Egyptians or some of them, might have been using muzzle-loaders of some kind, even casting lead bullets on the battlefield would have been totally impossible. My guess is the author of that report was mistaken or not even an individual present at the location of the battle. Cartridges were shipped in wooden cases. The wooden cases were lined with lead foil. The .43 Egyptian cartridges and the .43 Dutch Beaumont cartridge were largely interchangeable, quite similar. The bore diameters may have been a bit different. Your rifle appears to be in pretty good shape consider the years of use and mostly abuse it went through!
Greg Topp

[Mala Tempora]

Hi Greg, thanks for your reply.
It is clear now that the author, Romolo Gessi pasha who was serving as a commander and local governor under general Charles Gordon, did a mistake or omitted something in his report of the battle.
My other guess is that some of the ill armed Egyptian troops and moreover the Sudanese hotteria (indigenous militia) were armed also with old muzzle-loading muskets and for those weapons they tried anyway to cast bullets from lead because their situation was really desperate.
The Remingtons' ammo then were clearly supplied by assembled cartridges cases....

[Spud]

Just an interesting footnote for you. During the late 1980's I spent a lot of time in the field in W. Sudan (Dafur). The local tribesmen were very well armed (mainly modern weapons but many also carried broad swords) but I did see and handle some Reminton No1 RBs in .43 Egyptain that were still being used with old ammunition as well as blank cartridges that were reloaded with locally made BP. The barrels were worn smooth (inside & out) and the cases were v old. They were mainly used during celebrations (weddings etc). The lee enfields & soviet autos were used for the serious stuff!
Spud

[logcabin48]

In his Karthoum journal Charles Gordon wrote that he was sniping at the Deverishes and a primer ruptured and he got gas back in his eye. He complained about the remington as being not as good as the Martini in this respect. I believe he also indicated they were reloading cartridges and that this also contributed to the incident. I actually met a man who was in Mexico in 1915 and he said the Revolutionaries were reloading 45/70 cartridges with nitrate movie film for propellent and thumb pressed round ball. Buffalo hunters would get government cartridges from the army and pull the bullets and powder to reload in the field their brass. In my mind it is entirely possible that even in the field ammo could be reloaded. I will try to find the reference in the journal.

[Mala Tempora]

Thank you all for the replies so far. Interesting contributions!

[stanforth]

I regularly reload 43 Egyptian in the field. Stamp out the primer, punch a wew one in, fill with coarse black powder and push a cast bullet in. No need to size or crimp and it's acqurate.

If you only have a few cases you do what you can