Looking for the approximant manufacture date of these shells

my guess would be '68...

IMO, Mid 60s. I used its predecessor, the paper cased 16 gauge 1 1/8 oz load with 2 or 3 shot as a goose load. Killed on one end, crippled on the other out of a H&R single.

I'd guess early '60s given the price and the "All New Plastic" splashed all over the box.

I like that "Better patterns, up to a full 10%".
Reminds me of why everybody I knew was sort of sorry they owned full-choked guns.

John

<frames weak hand index and thumb - thinks...>

Put me down for 1964.

Indiana Gal, good looking honey come down and I was in the 4th grade best recall.
She had a new '64 Mustang, a box of shells like that and this good looking honey could flat shoot a shotgun.

Being the Southern Boy I was, it was the proper thing to ride shotgun in that Mustang, and we headed down to fell ducks.
Had to sit close in that blind, as it was cold, and a Southern Boy shares his body heat...

Them Indiana gals sure do make a pair of Hodgen Chest Waders look gooood!

Barbara, where are you now?
It was '64 wasn't it?

*southern boy tips hat*

About 1962.

I've got a box of 16ga just like that in my cabinet behind me. Still full, I haven't shot them. I know some people collect shell boxes. Just wondering now if they are worth anything?

M162 plastic-hulled buckshot loads didn't replace M19 brass-hulled loads in Army inventory until the late 1960s, according to Swearengen. The experiments that brought about the Winchester Mark 5 were conducted at Frankford Arsenal beginning in 1962.

I don't know when the shells pictured were made, I'd guess late 1960s.

lpl/nc

My '67 Shooter's Bible has a page or more of Mark 5 Plastic Shotshells and another page of Western Plastic Shotshells, although the 28 ga. and .410 shells were still paper.

In '67 the box pictured had a list price of $3.95.

The box had to be made pre-69, because the Trademark (the last two teeny lines) on the back still says Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation. It changed to OLIN in '69.

The East Alton address on the back of the box does not have a zip code. Zip codes came into use in '64. Also, it says "NEW PLASTIC ", that puts it about 1958 or so.

"ZIP Code began on July 1, 1963, as scheduled. Use of the new code was not mandatory at first for anyone, but, in 1967, the Post Office required mailers of second- and third-class bulk mail to presort by ZIP Code."

From a history of shotshells posted on shotgunworld.com -

"Remington was the first American ammunition manufacturer to introduce shotshells with plastic hulls in 1960. ... The company claimed they could be soaked in water for a week or more and still fire properly. ... In 1961, another year-marker appeared on all shotshell boxes manufactured and sold in the U.S. It was the warning "Keep Out of Reach of Children." "

Plastic shells came out in 1965. I have a Winchester catalog from that year.
The date range I would give would be 1965-1968.

I have some in 12 ga. just like your 16 gauge. That is when I remember buying my shells.

I remember buying the plastic Winchester super X shells when I first started hunting seriously. Had to be around 1965 - 1967.

My dad had several boxes of paper-hulled shells that I used up first, and I remember being amazed at how much slicker the plastic shells fed into the chamber.

Miss the smell of the old paper hulls, though. I sometimes used to sniff them right after firing and the aroma was very memorable.

When I became a rookie cop in 1966, these shells had just come on the market. A friend had several bird dogs that we used on our days off. He was not thrilled with the tight patterns of his bird gun that the plastic shells gave him, so he went back to the paper shells. We all were wary of the plastic for a year or two but eventually that was all we could find to use. By 1968 or so, the paper loads were hard to come by.

The price on that box is $2.60. I have a box of Revelation plastic 16 ga. marked with the date of 3/59 and price of $3.25 purchased at a Western Auto store in Montpelier Idaho in Early 1960 when I was a junior in high school. The box is in good shape and 12 rounds are still in it. Hulls are purple and I think Federal made them.

In the mid 60's minimum wage was $1.07/ hour and gas was selling for $.35/gallon. I was a high school student and I remember having to save up for quite a while to get a new box of shells costing $2-$2.50/ea.

Viewed in that light, the cost of most 20 and 12 gauge shells today is pretty much a bargain.

My dad ran a little country store while I was groing up. He used to keep open boxes of shotgun shells and .22 cartridges behind the counter, and would sell them one round at the time. That's all some folks could afford...

lpl/nc

Lee, my uncle tells me that my grandpa would buy one box of .22 shorts once a year at butchering time. That was all he could afford. They used them to put down the steers. My uncle and my dad were supposed to use what was left for hunting but usually couldn't control themselves and would shoot the rest of them up in short order. Of course then they didn't get any more until next year!

My dad ran a little country store while I was groing up. He used to keep open boxes of shotgun shells and .22 cartridges behind the counter, and would sell them one round at the time. That's all some folks could afford...

lpl/nc

Click to expand...

thats how my grandfather and his family ate. They could only aford a shell or two at a time. They hunted for food or to sell ( to buy food)

Well, I was going to say late 60's but many have beat me to it. My Dad had several boxes of paper hull shells in boxes like that - and the plastic ones that he had I know came from the late 60's