Found cartridge. .351 win.?

[DLCTEX]

A fellow who lives at Mobeetie, Tx. brought this cartridge into the coffee shop and thought he had found a round from the old Ft. Elloit days. He finds lots of old artifacts on his property dating back to the 1870's. I immediately knew it couldn't be that old due to the jacketed bullet, and offered to identify it for him. It is headstamped WRA Co .351 S. L. It is centerfire. Is this a 351 winchester? It seems in my memory that it would be for a semi-auto rifle, not sure. The rimmed case measures 1.4 long. .405 base .378 forward of the extracter groove straight walled to the .351 dia. bullet measured above the crimp. Rounded soft nose bullet. Any knowledge on this round and it's date of origin? DALE

[cuzinbruce]

It is .351 Winchester Self-Loading, used in the Winchester Model 1907. An early autoloading design, made 1907 to mid-late 1950's. Nice gun, but a little heavy as it is straight blowback design, and depends on the weight of the breechblock to contain the cartridge when fired. No locking mechanism, just a blowback deal like a .22 auto. Cartridge is considered marginal for big game, say deer size animals. It was a fairly popular gun with police departments and prisons back then.
Bruce

[floodgate]

dale:

Yeah, it's a .351 WSL - Winchester Self-Loading - for the Winchester Model 07 self-loading rifle. This was a magazine-fed blowback with a massive weight shuttling back & forth in the forend to slow things down. They were used a lot by prison guards, among others. I seem to recall that the Ranger who shot Bonnie and Clyde Barrow used one of these. The WSL family included the Model 1903 using the inside-lubed .22 Winchester Auto rimfire (later redesigned for the .22 LR as the Model 63); the '05 in .32 and .35 WSL (.the .32 was - sorta - the ancestor of the .30 US Carbine round), the .35 was shorter and weaker than the .351; the '07 in .351; and the '10 in .401 WSL - the best of the lot. On the 07, at least, the magazine could be remooved and replaced with 10- or even 20-round units. See Flayderman's Guide for more info and values.

Floodgate

[hydraulic]

Former Texas Ranger Frank Hamer was using a Remington Model 8 in 35 Remington with a 20 round "police" magazine. I don't recall any of the others in his party using a Winchester '07, but I could be mistaken.

[floodgate]

hydraulic:

I stand corrected! At least, it WAS a .35 cal. semiauto with an extended magazine...

Floodgate

[Sprue]

Floodgate is spot on.......

351 Cart (http://www.loaddata.com/members/search_detail.cfm?MetallicID=1691)

I have a pretty nice cond one in .351 although I've never shot it. However, things are going to change. I recently started to get some components together. Soon I hope to have a newly aquired lathe up and running so I'll then be able to make my own casings out of 357 maxium.

The forestock on this one has a faint indentation that (to me) resembles as to where it may have been stored - clamped in a rack of some sort.

As for the live round that you mention, the factory or reloaded ammo is real pricey. You might list it on one of the auction sites LOL.

[DLCTEX]

Thanks for the information. If this group can't supply an answer, it isn't wqorth knowing. DALE

[Bullshop]

I think I have a set of new RCBS dies put away that I would trade for sumthin if needed.

[hydraulic]

About 25 years ago the Nebraska State Patrol decided to get rid of their Winchester 1907's. They asked for bids and the bid had to be a new Ruger Mini 14 plus X rounds of ammo; the most ammo winning the bid. A friend of mine won and wound up with something over 50 of these .351's, all with the scarce 10 round magazine. Some of the Patrol officers bought their old gun back from him because they were engraved with NSP and the officers badge number on the receiver. About half of them were marked Nebraska Penn. I bought the last 12 of them that he had for $160 each and pedaled them around Nebraska gun shows for $200. It took about a year to get rid of them. Up until a few years ago I would get an occasional call from some old retired Highway Patrolman asking if I still had any of them left. I took them to the Denver Merchandise Mart gun show that first year, figuring the collectors would fight over them. Never sold a one, but a local guy told me about a hardware store in a little town east of Denver that had several boxes of shells. I stopped there on the way home and bought 9 boxes (all they had) of Winchester .351's for $6 a box. Made some money on those.