THE CARTRIDGE COLLECTOR

THE CARTRIDGE COLLECTOR'S EXCHANGE

Note: Beginning January 1st, 2018 California law requires that all ammunition sales be conducted face-to-face, meaning no internet sales to California residents. Therefore, any ammunition being shipped to California address will need to be shipped to the address of a Federal Firearms Licensed dealer, either yourself if you are the licensed dealer, or to the licensed dealer who will handle the face-to-face transaction.

Home of the Old Ammo Guy's Virtual Cartridge Trading Table

Offering a wide range of antique, obsolete, and modern ammunition and related items for collectors

Please note: Unless otherwise indicated, the pictures on this web site are my property, and should not be used by anyone without my permission.

Cartridge boxes, guns, gun parts, powder flasks and cans, loading tools, and related items for sale or trade..

I will list here cartridge boxes and other gun and ammo related items as I get them in. Any boxes of cartridges listed here will be full and factory loaded cartridges unless indicated otherwise. These will usually be singles, but I will indicate if I have more than one if that is the case. When I do have more than one of an item, the one you receive may not necessarily be the same one pictured on this page, but any condition problems that differ from the pictured item will be discussed prior to finalizing the sale or trade.

Frankford Arsenal .45 Revolver box:

1889 blanks - stamped on top OCT. 4 1889; sealed with it's pull string intact, and in excellent condition, cartridges made after 1881 will be externally primed $80

Frankford Arsenal bar primed .50-70 cartridges made in 1867

Pictured here is a full carton of Frankford Arsenal bar-primed .50-70 Springfield cartridges, taken from a wood crate that was packed at the arsenal in April of 1867. The full crate held 25 of these cartons when originally found in the 1950s by a gentleman in Utah, who sold a number of the cartons in the succeeding years at local gun shows. The carton contains eight small 5 round boxes, each of which will be labeled on the front 5 CENTRE-PRIMED METALLIC CARTRIDGES CALIBRE .50 FRANKFORD ARSENAL 1867. The stenciling on the wood crate shows that it was initially sent to Major John R. Edie in Omaha, Nebraska. Major Edie was on temporary duty as Chief Ordnance Officer for the Army's Department of the Platte in Omaha. He had been tasked with making arrangements for the supplying of troops under the command of the department with the newly issued Model 1866 Breech-Loading (2nd Model Allin) rifles and the new center fire bar-primed ammunition that was initially issued with them as replacements for their Civil War muzzle-loading rifles, which had become a high priority issue for the Army following the December 1866 Fetterman massacre. Major Edie had been a member of the military board which selected the Springfield trapdoor rifle for adoption by the Army. In 1873, he was the Ordnance Department officer who signed the contract with Colt's Firearms Manufacturing Company for the first 8,000 Single Action Army revolvers. His signature as the Armory Ordnance Inspector, along with that of Armory Sub-inspector O. W. Ainsworth, appears on the inspection reports that were made for these revolvers after their delivery to the armory.

From Omaha, the crate was shipped to Lt. Col. William H. Lewis, Commanding Officer of Camp Douglas, near Salt Lake City, Utah. Lt. Col. Lewis also had an interesting military career. During the Civil War, he received a Brevet promotion to Major in March of 1864 for gallantry and meritorious service involving the destruction of a Confederate train at the battle of Peralta, New Mexico. He was the commanding officer of Fort Dodge, Kansas when, in 1878, troops under his command engaged a band of renegade Cheyenne Indians near White Woman Creek in Scott County, Kansas. During the battle, Lt Col Lewis sustained a wound to a femoral artery, from which he died the following day, September 28, while enroute to Fort Wallace, Kansas. He has the dubious distinction of being the last casualty of the last Indian battle in Kansas.

The 40 round cartons with their 5 round packs were made for less than a year; a similarly labeled 20 round box replaced it in the later part of 1867.

The 5 round packs are $600 each; a 40 round carton is $5000.

Full box of UMC Co military contract .50-70 cartridges made in 1873

This is another box of .50-70 cartridges that was found in its original wood shipping crate; in this case the crate was packed on Christmas Eve in 1873 at UMC's Bridgeport ammunition works with fifty of these boxes of cartridges, destined for the Army depot in Washington, D.C. These were probably part of two million .50 caliber cartridges that the government contracted with UMC to produce in late 1873. At that time, the government arsenals were focused on production of the new .45-70 cartridge, as the Model 1873 Springfield had just been selected as the standard for Army use in May of 1873. Once the crate was packed and the top secured in place, it was painted a dark red, then stenciling and the date stamps were applied to both ends, and it was ready to be shipped. Upon arrival in Washington, it was probably packed away and forgotten for a while. Some time later, the top was re-painted gray, and addressed in black stenciled lettering for shipment to the Adjutant of the Virginia State Militia, in Richmond. Typically, the guns and ammunition issued to the states were, in turn, distributed to the various county militias. These were usually stored in the county court house where, more often than not, they were never needed. This was certainly the case for at least a portion of the boxes that were in the crate, as the ten unopened boxes that came with it were in very good condition. The fact that the original top was still with the crate would support the likelihood that it was still screwed in place when found by the previous owner. One opened box was also found with the crate, revealing the cartridges also to be in excellent condition. They are the Berdan primed, unheadstamped case style with the raised ring head typical of early UMC cartridge production. The box labels are rather plain, lacking the 'dog's head' UMC logo that was standard on the company's ammunition intended for commercial sale during the 1870s and 1880s. Four patent dates are printed on the labels; these include Hiram Berdan's patents of March 20, 1866, for the external primer cap and fixed anvil in the head of the shell, and September 29, 1868, for a cup fitted inside the case to strengthen the head. The other two are S. W. Wood's patents of April 1, 1862 and April 2, 1872, both of which I believe applied to the processes for forming drawn brass cartridge cases.

The boxes themselves are constructed of four separate pieces of cardboard, consisting of two pieces to form the body of the box and two end pieces, all held in place by a pasted-on buff colored paper wrapper, with a pull string for opening the box. When viewed from the end, the top and bottom do not form 90 degree angles to the front and back, but instead are canted slightly. As a result, when the cartridges are placed in the box, the bullet tips resting against the angled bottom cause the rims of the front row of cartridges to be positioned slightly above the back row, allowing for easier removal of the cartridges from the box. The pull string can be seen to the upper right in the picture. Pulling this string tears the paper wrapper across the end of the box, then across the back and the other end. The top can then be opened and 'hinged' on the untorn wrapper along the front top edge of the box to expose the cartridges.

This box is solid and in very good condition, with the exception of several areas of silverfish damage on the ends. $700.

Rim Fire Boxes:

Federal Lightning .22 long rifle........

This is a full box of Federal Cartridge Corporation Lightning .22 long rifle cartridges. Brass case with F headstamp. Cartridges and box are in excellent condition. Product number 510; 'Howard's' $1.00 price sticker on end flap. $6.00

Winchester Wildcat .22 Long Rifle.......

The Wildcat line of .22 long rifle cartridges was designed to be a promotional brand for sale through discount stores. This box format was introduced about 1980 when Olin Corporation combined the Winchester and Western brands to the single name Winchester-Western. In 1981, after the sale of the firearms part of Winchester-Western to the US Repeating Arms Company, they reintroduced the Winchester brand. This box was made after the 1981 change, and is full and in excellent condition. $4

Center Fire Handgun and Rifle Boxes:

Full boxes of German WW2 9mm Luger.....

I have a few of these boxes, which are in excellent condition but have had their sealing labels split along the box edge due to mishandling. The cartridges are headstamped asb St+ 26 44, indicating that they have steel cases and were made at Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken AG (DWM) in Berlin-Borsigwalde, Germany as part of the 26th lot of 1944. The 'Provisorisch bezettelt' at the top of the label indicates that it is a provisional label, used because they were out of the blue label paper when this lot of ammunition was packaged. $50 each

These next 9mm Parabellum boxes were recycled by the Germans, refilling the empty boxes and attaching a new sealing label. The cartridges are headstamped ak St+ 9 44, indicating that they have steel cases and were made at Munitionsfabricken Prague, Czechoslovakia (formerly the Sellier & Bellot ammunition factory) as part of the 9th lot of 1944. These boxes are in excellent condition, but are open as a result of having had their sealing labels split along the edge of the box due to rough handling. $30 each.

Full Boxes early .40-82 WCF Smokeless (1898 - 1900).....

I have a few of these early, green-labeled two piece Winchester boxes of .40-82 Smokeless powder cartridges. These were recently found by a picker, packed away in a non-original wood crate in a garage. All of the boxes have excellent label color, with scattered edge flaking, and all will display very well; the cartridges are all original Winchester factory loads with the W.R.A.CO. .40-82 W.C.F. headstamp, and are in excellent condition. Each box still has it's colorful two sided New Rival shotshell advertising insert. This is a rare box in one of the less commonly found calibers for the Winchester Model 1886 rifle. The better boxes are $250 each..

One of these boxes was on my May 2018 picture page; the write-up with additional pictures and a full description of the box can be found HERE.

A-Square .475 No 2 Jeffery (3-1/2" case) Monolithic Solids

These have a BELL 450 No.2 N.E. headstamp.

$75

Kynoch .450/400 3" Nitro Express soft point

$70

Kynoch .450 3-1/4" Nitro Express solid

$65

Kynoch .475 3-1/4" Nitro Express soft point

$65

Kynoch .475 3-1/2" No 2 Nitro Express soft point

$65

Kynoch .500 3" Nitro Express solid

$70

Westley Richards .470 3-1/4" Nitro Express soft nose

$65

Westley Richards .470 3-1/4" Nitro Express solid

$70

Westley Richards .500 3" Nitro Express soft nose

$65

Westley Richards .500 3" Nitro Express solid

$70.

Sealed boxes of 7.5 x 54 French MAS cartridges......

These are sealed 15 round boxes of 7.5 x 54mm French MAS cartridges manufactured in Syria in 1957 and intended probably for use in French Model 1949 MAS rifles that the Syrians imported in the early-to-mid-1950s. $10 per box

Full boxes of 8 x 56R Austrian and Hungarian.......

These are full 10 round boxes of 8 x 56mm rimmed cartridges intended for use in the Austrian and Hungariand Model 1895 rifles converted to this caliber in the early 1930s. They were produced in 1938, shortly after the Germans took over production of ammunition in Austria, as evidenced by the Nazi eagle grasping a swastika in the headstamp and on the box label. The boxes are opened; the cartridges are in 5 round clips. The large red 'S' on the labels indicates that they are loaded with pointed (spitzer) bullets. $25 per box

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