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Home of the Old Ammo Guy's Virtual
Cartridge Trading Table Featuring a wide range of antique, obsolete, and modern ammunition for collectors Picture Page October 2004 A souvenir from The
WINCHESTER
Store.....
An assortment of .450 Revolver cartridges.....
Here is a group of .450 centerfire revolver cartridges representing
production over a n
The .440 Argentine Nagant
cartridge........ > > Dimensions: ____bullet____neck____base____rim__case length_overall lgth #1: .439" .435" .437" .503" .882" 1.460" .#2: .430" .437" .437" .501" .874" 1.400" #3: .443" .435" .436 .495" ..874" 1.415"
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This
cartridge pencil was a promotional item from The Winchester Store, a chain
of retail stores owned and operated by the Winchester Repeating Arms
Company. While these retail stores sold other brands of merchandise, their
primary purpose was to insure that Winchester-branded products had a market
in the larger cities. The products included a wide array of sporting
equipment, cutlery, farm, garden and carpentry tools, household goods, and
fishing tackle, in addition to the company's usual firearms, ammunition, and
related items. The first of the stores was opened in Providence, Rhode Island in
April of 1920, followed by ten additional stores over the next couple of
years, all in the Northeast, in cities with populations of 50,000 or more.
In August, 1922, after rather lackluster performance, The Winchester Store was merged with the Associated Simmons
Hardware Company, giving Winchester access to that company's nationwide
network of warehouses and retail outlets. Unfortunately, this move was not
enough to ensure the success of Winchester's retail stores program. By early
1924, declining profits had led to the closings of six of the stores,
including the one in Providence; by 1929,Winchester management had given up
on the concept of retail sales, and The Winchester Store was no more. Because of their relatively short production
period, items promoting The Winchester Store are quite collectible and tend
to demand high prices. The dealer catalog described the cartridge pencil as
being "an exact reproduction of a regular WINCHESTER high power cartridge".
This one appears to be a .303 British case, fitted with a hollow round nose
nickel bullet jacket into which the pencil is inserted. The headstamp is
WINCHESTER TRADE MARK; the side of the
case is marked "THE WINCHESTER
STORE". 
umber
of years and from several different countries. The 1st, 5h and 6th cartridges in the
top picture are early examples with two piece cases, the head and case body
being riveted together by the primer. On the 1st cartridge, the
head is made of steel; on the other two, the heads are brass. The two with
the blunt nosed bullets are target loads, examples of which are shown in the Eley advertisement
shown in the reproduction to the right. The first three cartridges are
unnheadstamped; the remaining cartridges are headstamped as follows: #4 - Georg Egestorff, Linden
(Germany), #5 thru #8 - Eley (London) #9 - Marcel Gaupillat (Paris), #10
(lower picture) - Gustav Genschow (Berlin), #11 and #12 - Kynoch (London),
#13 and #14 - Remington UMC (made 1912 and later), #15 - R.W.S. (Nurnberg,
Germany), #16 - Sellier & Bellot (Prague, Czechoslovakia), UMC (pre-1912),
and V.F.M & C A LEIGE (V. Francotte-May & Company, Leige, Belgium), a gun seller for whom
headstamped ammunition was manufactured, probably by one of the major
cartridge makers.
These
three cartridges made by Eley have essentially the same case; only the
presence of the headstamps allows for positive identification. The first two
are for the .440 Argentine Nagant revolver; the last is for the Smith &
Wesson American revolver. The similarity of the cartridges leads me to
believe that the Nagant was based on the .44 S&W American. It was introduced
in 1871, was one of the first successful centerfire revolver
cartridges, and was produced by a number of foreign ammunition makers. All
three should chamber with no problems in either of the revolvers.