Vintage Ammo Headstamp ?:
Some of you may remember my asking about the 38-55 last week. By coincidence, I bought a small box lot of old ammo (primarily just to get one nice box of red/blue/yellow Winchester 8mm). There was a box of 30-30 in the lot and when I finally got around to opening it, the cartridges had all been replaced with 38-55s of different manufacture. There are 2 different Win headstamps, one reads W.R.A. CO 38-55 which I've seen before. The other reads W.R.A. Co. 38-55 W.H.V. I'm guessing that the WHV stands for Winchester High Velocity, but, curious about what anyone might know. They are all soft points. There are a couple of U.S.C CO. 38-55 also. Is that United States Cartridge Company? Thanks all.
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woods,
Winchester / Western did produce a line of "High Velocity" rounds for some of the calibers which were originally BP loadings but had made the transition to smokeless loads in more modern, or renovated, firearms. I'm not sure how much more robust the .38-55 loads were, but typically these HV loads wouldn't roll any socks unless used in a weaker BP action. This line of ammo was produced in large enough volumes that it doesn't command much premium as a collectible unless in the box, but neither is it terribly common. U.S.C. Co is indeed US Cartridge, which was a major manufacturer of ammo from the late 1800s until shortly before WW2, when it was bought out by Remington. Those rounds, if in nice condition, would be worth saving. Not terribly valuable, but somewhat scarce. Looks like you did a lot better than you expected on that box - mixed ammo or not.
"There is nothing lower than the human race - except the French." (Mark Twain)0 -
Thanks for the interesting info. If I'm not careful, I'll soon be an ammo collector. There was one .32 S & W W.R.A in the box, also. Interesting because it has a W engraved in the middle of the primer. It's always fun to bring stuff home and "discover" something. My thanks to Gunbroker for the forums!! 0 -
woods, if you watch the older ammo, circa 1900 - 1930 (I never got too deeply into the details of civilian production), you will see a capital "U" in various styles on UMC (and Remington after they bought out UMC circa 1917), an "R" on Robin Hood ammo before they were taken over by UMC, an intertwined or linear rendition of "U" and "S" on USC Co rounds and a few exotics (but this is only in the US!). Sometimes this distinguished smokeless from BP rounds or factory loads from reloads (the primers offered to the public typically were plain) and at some point I believe it was employed as just a trademark thing.
Yeah, this stuff can get addictive for some people. I saw an incredible collection of primers last spring at the IAA show, where the man had devoted decades to obtaining specimens of every primer ignition device from the first breech caps to the newest offerings. The exhibit not only had entire specimens, but masterfully sectioned examples of each type. Not my personal thing, but a definitive work of research which would impress the most jaded of observers. And this is only the variation in primers, breech caps and the like! I know of ammo collections encompassing hundreds of thousands of, if not a million plus, rounds . . . and are not "complete," "one of everything" collections, but limited to, say, military loadings & headstamp variations. There are something like 10,000 plus known headstamp variations in 9mmP, for example (may be it's 30,000 plus; not my thing). Some of these guys have entire rooms (very large ones) and even buildings dedicated to their collections! With neither the money nor the space [:D], I settled on a specialty early in my career and even that has grown larger than I ever expected.
Sorry for the long post, I tend to get rather enthusiastic on this hobby . . . .
"There is nothing lower than the human race - except the French." (Mark Twain)0
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