Old Shells...

[sm]

Remembering old shotgun shells:

- Paper hulls with a wax coating.
- All brass shells.
- Buying loose shells from a tin bucket on the counter.
- Wood crates shotgun shells came in.
- When shotgun shells were made to specifications.
- The back of the box had a chart with suggested shot size and choke for various game.
-Activ, the all plastic shotgun shell.

 

[foghornl]

I remember the "waxed paper" shells. Have seen a few all-brass ones, but never shot any.

Have bought a few 'bucket rounds'

Anyone else remember when powder charge specs were in "Dram Equivalent", and the suggested shot size/choke info was on the back of the box?

I very vaguely seem to recall an all-plastic shell in 12-Ga called Alcan. Red plastic, very slightly tapered at the front, with a kind of press-in plug holding the shot charge in place.

 

[chas08]

All of the above with the exception of all brass shells. I rememember when the brass had designs embossed into them and the boxes qualified as works of art.

 

[mswestfall]

How about 20 boxes of shells to a case.

I don't need the extra cardboard they use to make 10 box flats. I need MORE SHELLS!

 

[Oldnamvet]

I still have a half box of paper Eley 20 ga. (made in Canada) #6 shot. Kind of a dried corn color, certainly not the yellow of today. My father bought them back in the 60's for pheasant.

 

[sm]

Getting brand new box of shells , I mean whole box was pretty neat as a kid.
Opening the lid right there in the Mom & Pop Gun, Hardware, Feed, Seed & Tractor store and looking at all them brand new shells , one going one way, the next one the other...

"We got a drawing for knife going on, just tear off that box top, put your name on it, don't need a phone number, we know how to reach you, and you might win a brand spanking new knife..." - the nice man or lady said.

Whole box of brand new shells ...but the thought of a brand spanking new knife...still a whole box of brand new shells....but that knife...

Wooden floors creaks as a little kids puts weight on one foot, then the other, looks up at a mentor, "Up to you, gotta pay to play you know" and then looking at the brand spanking knife you might win.

Little boy starts to hand the box to mentor, pulls back and then finally he hands the box to a mentor.
Mentor tears the lid off perfect and writes the little boy's name on that box top and the little boy is picked up and he puts his box top in the sealed box.

Some stiff paper is put on top of that new box of shells and tied with string.

Drawing is held and folks have shown up, kids up front, all antsy and hoping really really hard. Adults, watching kids, and looking at each other...

A girl wins that knife, she is so excited, and everyone claps. All the kids go over and congratulate her, and get to see that really neat knife.

Then the kids look for that box top that had been in that drawing box with their names on them.

Cellophane tape puts box tops back on boxes with some of the shells missing...

Take a look at some old shells in a box, with tape holding that lid on, and see if a name was written on the inside on the lid...

There just might another story that old box of shells could tell, if it could talk.


*wink*

 

[Oldnamvet]

Before I was old enough to carry a gun, I used to follow along with dad while he was hunting. when he shot and shucked that pump gun, I'd grab the hull and put it in my pocket before I took off running to get the rabbit/pheasant/ whatever (he seldom missed). Later at night I used to keep those empties in my room and sniff them. It would instantly bring back going hunting with dad. Still does. Hulls kept that smell a long time. Usually mom would find them and throw those "dirty old things" out. OK, I'd always get some more. I used to also stick my head out the car window and smell the gas when dad used to fill up on the way out of town to go hunting. Hmmm ... sniffing gas and old shotgun hulls as a kid. That might explain a lot.

 

[Starter52]

I remember Activ shotshells. I liked 'em. Easy to reload.

I also remember when factory paper shells had a small circle of paper over the crimp, marked with the shot size.

 

[John Peddie]

Earliest memories of shells are the old (here) dark blue 12 ga. made of paper.

Just a kid, only a BB gun, hunting rabbits with shotgun-toting "elders" in winter.

Those old shells had a smell all their own when freshly fired...nothing ever smelled that good to a small boy. Well,maybe Christmas dinner, but that was only once a year. Shells could be anytime there was snow on the ground.

 

[mswestfall]

What's up with this 20 shell box??? That's like getting a 18 or 20 can case of beer. Niether works for me.

 

[ants]

Activ plastic shotshells were packed 20 shotshells per box. That's what kept the price per box the same as regular shotshells. Later you realize you only got 20 shells. Nevertheless, Activ did reload very nicely. I still have a couple hundred squirreled away.

 

[Oldnamvet]

20 shell boxes are a marketing ploy. Hunters don't count their rounds like clay shooters. They buy a "box" and dump it into their hunting coat and hit the field. Some of them take a while to realize that they aren't getting what they used to get in a box. I'm surprised the marketing gurus haven't made the boxes the same size and just somehow packed the shells to take more room.

 

[Snarlingiron]

Did they look like this?

Remingtons on the left, and a couple of Winchester Ranger from the same era on the right.

 

[sm]

Neat!

Snarlingiron,

Thank you for posting them pictures!

I remember...

Do you have any other old shells you could share with us please?

How about one with chart on the back with suggested shot sizes and chokes for various game.

Some of our newer folks have never seen any of this and ...err...they are a great excuse for over the hill folks like me to see these again.

*yep*

 

[Snarlingiron]

Dogone it, that's all I have that are appropriate for the Shotgun forum. I do have a couple of boxes of S&W 9mm rounds. Don't see those much anymore either. The shotgun shells turned up when I helped move my father a couple of years ago, and I thought they were pretty neet too, so I kept them.

 

[Snarlingiron]

Hey, since we are talking about old paper shells, I remember a trick my cousin showed me when we were both kids. We would take a shell, and cut it vertically down the side so we could determine where the shot stopped. We would then cut most of the way through the paper sides, so that when the shell was fired, the front of the shell would seperate and theoretically hold the shot together longer for a tighter pattern. Seemed to work. Probably a miracle we didn't blow ourselves up. Anybody else ever heard of this?

 

[sm]

Snarlingiron,

I understand and really do appreciate your great pictures.
About what year are those shells? I am trying to peg a year.

S&W 9mm, how neat! I remember them and the other loads like 38spl special as well.

 

[Hornet 6]

We would then cut most of the way through the paper sides, so that when the shell was fired, the front of the shell would seperate and theoretically hold the shot together longer for a tighter pattern.

Yep done that, with plastic hulls, works ok.
Gives almost the same result as a slug, which we ain't allowed to have over here on a shotgun certificate.

Neil.

 

[Starter52]

Snarlingiron - thanks! Those pictures bring back memories. . .

Hornet 6 - Another trick is to open the crimp and pour melted wax into the shot load. This holds the load together and hits like a slug.

Hornet 6 - for a Brit, you write a lot like a Yank.

 

[MarshallDodge]

I have a friend who still reloads a Federal paper hull. I'm not sure on the specifics but I think they are the Gold Medal hull. I guess his neice was in the Junior Olympics and got a whole bunch given to her. When she stopped shooting she gave a bunch to him.

 

[Rampant_Colt]

J.C. Penney
Montgomery Wards
Sears Roebuck "Ted Williams"

They all had their own brand of shotgun shells and shotguns

 

[Hornet 6]

Another trick is to open the crimp and pour melted wax into the shot load. This holds the load together and hits like a slug.

I have tried it and it works well, but cutting is quicker, and I may only do it once or twice a year.

for a Brit, you write a lot like a Yank.

To much time on USA based forums

Neil.

 

[evbutler462]

Just looking at my old shell display. I have a few brass shells from the 1940's. Quite a few paper shells with the shot size on the end of the shell. A couple of Activs, a few Smith and Wesson shotgun shells with the silver colored heads. Paper buckshot faded out over the decades of sitting in my display case. Bunches of old rifle cartridges that were obsolete when I was born.

Just picking up old pieces that I found at estate sales and at older gun shops that let me rummage around in their junk rooms.

 

[coltm]

winchester super x's still have shot recomendations on the back last time i bought 'em (about 2 months ago).

 

[stellarpod]

Oh I miss the smell of recently-shot 16ga. paper hulls mixed with that *unique* Permian Basin aroma in west Texas. As a child I spent many an evening with my father, sitting around a tank waiting for the dove to fly in. The sun would set and we'd head back to the car, through the cantaloupe or watermelon patch, pick one up and take it home.

Dad was a Methodist minister who would occasionally sneak a Viceroy on the way home too. Come to think of it, the smell of that burning ember was an important part of the olfactory mix as well. Sorry if that offends the modern politically-correct among us.

I do miss you dad.

stellarpod