Vintage cases

[Majday]

I recently came across a garage sale with a random bag of brass. Upon looking later at what was in there I noticed many old steel cases. They seem to be in pretty bad shape but I thought it was kinda cool seeing the old cartridges in 40-60 on down to 25-20. Many are wra co head stamped. Some have nothing. I don’t know much about them and was hoping to find out more about them.
Thanks for any input.
Jameson

 

[M-61]

That's a great find

 

[Majday]

Also was a 50 case I believe with lc43 on it. I paid 30$ for the bag and another box and sold new 357 brass to pay for the whole thing so net cost was 0. I know there is some I believe 30 Gibbs brass but other pieces I’ve just read about used to be in lever actions years ago.

 

[Tommie]

Color me jealous.

 

[snert]

Most of those are not steel, just old brass. You should have a fun time identifying them. You might measure rims, length and diameter and then see if you can match old drawings. Some look like old balloon head , making them pre-1900

 

[358WCF]

Some history in those boxes...
There's a 25 Roberts case in the 4th pic. An interesting headstamp variation from the 30s or 40s? Remington-Union Metallic Cartridge rather than the Remington-Peters most of us grew up using. If you choose to go down the rabbit hole, Frank Barnes' "Cartridges of the World" is a good starting reference.

 

[Majday]

Wow I didnt realize some could potentially be pre 1900. So did the balloon head cases act like a rim fire based on no visible primer pocket? I don’t have much knowledge of older cartridges. Is the uscco case an old military piece? The 2nd pic has a umc 45 govt not real clear. If there are some closer up pics you’d like just ask I can single out cases for a closer look. Like I said some are in rough condition- makes me wonder where they’ve been through the years.

 

[Majday]

Some history in those boxes...
There's a 25 Roberts case in the 4th pic. An interesting headstamp variation from the 30s or 40s? Remington-Union Metallic Cartridge rather than the Remington-Peters most of us grew up using. If you choose to go down the rabbit hole, Frank Barnes' "Cartridges of the World" is a good starting reference.

Thank you for the reference to a guide to find out more about these cases.

 

[Majday]

Here’s another

 

[dellet]

Probably can’t send the kids to college, but wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t end up with a couple hundred dollars worth of collectibles. $3-5 is pretty common but you have to find out exactly what you have.

You have a potential first year 30.06 cartridge pictured, if there is a similar with a 1903 date, it would be pretty rare. The 30 caliber 1903, government is slightly shorter than the 30 caliber 1906, government.

Remington bought out Union Metalic Cartridge in 1912. So the UMC headstamp vs the Rem-UMC would help date some of those cases. WRA CO became WRA about 1930 and different cartridges changed headstamp over the next few years.

Some people collect the brass, I shoot it. Same cartridge but the 28-30-120 case puts it into the Blackpowder cartridge era. 28 caliber, 30 grains powder, 120 grain bullet.

Here’s a group at 50 yards doing load work up with that UMC case above.

Quite a find if you ask me. Lots of history there, if you enjoy that type of stuff it will be a pretty deep rabbit hole finding out what you have. Probably a member or two of Cartridge Collectors in the area if you found it local.

Have fun tracing the history you have.

 

[Majday]

Thank you so much for the info. I had no idea. It doesn’t happen by chance all these are in one spot like you said it was probably a collector. I did not find any other of the potential first year 3006 but I did find another 10-12 pieces. I was inspired by the fine members here to dig more into the bag and came up with more cases that may be interesting history. There’s are two 270 wcf cases, a hornet rem umc case among others. The ussco has an 18 on it- assuming it is from 1918. I’ll post the pics.
Thank you again

 

[Majday]

Here’s one more

 

[dellet]

I know just enough to about some of this to either have you up all night, or having you pack all that stuff up in a container that has a safety seal that can’t be broken, that you can bury in the yard and forget you ever saw that stuff.

You have 41 SDA case pictured. 41 Colt Short Double Action. Here’s one discussion of many on that single cartridge.

.41 Short Colt

The items at hand: .41 Short @ .64" case length and .41 Short Double Action @ .77" case length. OALs about the same. Should both of these be considered “.41 Short Colt” for a designation? Am I correct to assume the “Short Double Action” (S.D.A. headstamp) is to indicate a later application...

forum.cartridgecollectors.org

And your 38 S&W does not belong with your 38 Special cases.

Probably a pretty early 22 Hornet case in there also

Now you know why SAAMI was created

 

[Majday]

Haha yeah I’ll probably gradually learn more and more about what all is there. Thank you for the info. I read that and it seems very confusing haha I noticed I also have a 41 lda in the first pic up top furthest left is the long double action. Like the article said simpler times then but so many variations on a cartridge.
I’m sorry ha I was just putting 38 together with the wra co t wra to rem umc. Yes the cases seemed much thinner back then. Thanks again.
Jameson

 

[358WCF]

Great stuff. That 30 Newton isn't a common sight. It's very close to the 30 Nosler dimensionally & is the original beltless 2.5" 30 cal. magnum developed pre-1920 by the guy who also designed the 250-3000 (250 Savage) & a whole bunch of other cartridges. Without looking in the books, I believe it pre-dated the 300 H&H by a few years. When the 30-338 almost became a Winchester cartridge it was also called the 30 Belted Newton in some older loading manuals.

 

[M-61]

Bottom right is DA↑ 1917 GP-B
Strange to me is 2nd row far left: KYNOCH 9mm M S
Had been collecting since 1963 with great success in Great Falls MT when I lived there, swept up Eldon Stevens gunshop. What a fine gentleman and gunsmith.
Sold nearly everything ( 250+ rounds from 22 BB to 600 Nitro)) a few months ago to one individual. One site member got a 22-15-60 Stevens