Interesting Casings find!

[Bigjohn]

Sometime back, a fellow shooter said he had received some bits and pieces from a deceased shooters estate. These items included several barrels, chamber reamers, homemade forming dies as well as cartridges; mainly .303" MkVII.

Well recently, I meet the Son in Law of the former shooter cum gunsmith tinkerer and he gave me another tin with some casings and clips. Upon going through the tin, I found several casings which appear interesting;

4755

From left to right:- 6.5 X 54 Mauser; .410/.303" Shotgun Casing; .224"/.303 Pygmy and a .243"/.303".

I believe all but the 6.5 were formed with the forming dies I received earlier from the estate. I have found it interesting to try and work out what each item was made for; as no notes were left by the deceased.

The 6.5 X 54 was a commercial round which lost out in favour of others like the 6.5 X 55 Swede.

I sorry fellowes, but I must close this post now with so little info included but I have a cold and it is making it hard to work the computor and measuring equipment. Back when I have more to post and feel better.

John.

[Bigjohn]

Well, I'm down with a cold that is progressing fast; work wants nothing to do with me, so I'm stuck at home ALONE! (That could be dangerous! [smilie=1: )

I have had the chance to take the measurements and follows are the results.

(The names are what I have given to these examles, not those given by the designers.)
.210"/.303" Pygmy
Diameters
Case mouth = .260" O.D.
Shoulder/Neck = .261" O.D.
Shoulder/Body = .445" O.D.
Base of Body = .455" O.D.
Rim Diam. = .513" O.D.

Lengths
Case Overall = 1.235"
Base to Neck = 1.100"
Base to Shoulder = .915"

6.5 X 54 Mauser
Diameters
Case mouth = .291" O.D.
Shoulder/Neck = .295" O.D.
Shoulder/Body = .420" O.D.
Base of Body = .470" O.D.
Rim Diam. = .462" O.D.

Lengths
Case Overall = 2.138"
Base to Neck = 1.683"
Base to Shoulder = 1.450"

.410/.303" British
Diameters
Case mouth = .401" O.D.
Base of Body = .460" O.D.
Rim Diam. = .540" O.D.

Lengths
Case Overall = 2.165"

6.5/.303" British
Diameters
Case mouth = .291" O.D.
Shoulder/Neck = .294" O.D.
Shoulder/Body = .410" O.D.
Base of Body = .460" O.D.
Rim Diam. = .540" O.D.

Lengths
Case Overall = 2.222"
Base to Neck = 1.970"
Base to Shoulder = 1.845"


I could post some drawings if I can work out how to do it without tieing up too many Kb's

More info as research continues,

John

[johniv]

Sir, interesting find. It's always neat to find old stuff and see how it was done back when you couldent buy everything from the local store. Just somebody using what was at hand to improve his equipment.
John

[Bigjohn]

Sir, interesting find. It's always neat to find old stuff and see how it was done back when you couldent buy everything from the local store. Just somebody using what was at hand to improve his equipment.
John

Yes, it is. Since I received the pieces that the other fellow didn't want and bought the reamers from the estate; I have been try to work out what they are and how they are intended to work.

As I mentioned; the Gunsmith/tinkerer didn't leave many notes. I do have the drawings he was making for the 6.5 Mauser cartridge and they are very basic.

To view the work he had done to fit barrels to various actions; you can see that he only had basic equipment. I have a .25" calibre barrel here which he chambered for the .256" Winchester Magnum and is designed to be attached to a Martini Cadet Action.

I continue to study he work when I have some spare time as obtaining the information from his daughter is difficult, mainly because he did not discuss with her what he was doing.

John.

[fourarmed]

A now-retired LEO who belongs to our gun club showed me some of his cartridge collection. Among other exotics were .30 and .35 Newton loaded rounds, all sorts of uncommon magnums and obsolete BP stuff. He said he got them when some collector or shooter would die, and their widow or heirs would fearfully turn them over to the police department for disposal.