38-40 WRA Brass with Small Primer Pocket

[Suo Gan]

I have a few rounds of 38-40 WRA brass with small pistol primer pockets. Are these rare at all? Thanks

[Whitespider]

Are you sure they’re the standard small size? How old is this brass? At one time, during the black powder era and into the early smokeless era, there were a dozen or more different size primers. I have some .45 Colt ammunition, head stamped WRA, with small, odd sized primers. Although not exactly rare, the original loaded ammunition would be worth something to certain collectors, the empty brass is probably only worth its scrap weight.

[runfiverun]

it was probably from when they made express rounds.
for a time there they made 44-40 rounds that rivaled the 44 mag and the box was labeled as such and were for the model 92 only this was before the 44 mag.
they done the same thing with the 38-40 also.
this was about the time the 357 came along and many of the earlier 25-20 and 32-20's were made into 357's for the the way hot loaded 357 round of that time.

[Bent Ramrod]

Specimen cartridges in good shape and boxes of them in good condition are of interest to collectors. The fired brass wouldn't be.

I have a few in .44-40, with small primer pockets and semi-balloon heads. I salvaged some of them from loaded ammunition and it was all black powder loads, 42 grains with a wax disc under the 198-grain 0.426" lead bullet. Apparently only WRA made the small primer version. I load them with small pistol primers and black powder, just for nostalgia's sake. They do actually hold 40 grains of black powder, but only last a few firings before the necks split.

[Suo Gan]

Here is a picture of some of them. WRA Co. 38 WCF...

[Bent Ramrod]

I guess I was wrong again. I have some UMC that also has the small primer pockets.

I don't know any sites, but you might try "cartridge collecting/collectors" in your web browser and see what happens. Some of the shooting sites have cartridge collecting fora; I believe 24-hr Campfire is one of them.

Mostly I see the cartridges at gun shows going for 50 cents to 75 dollars a round, depending on whether it is ordinary or rare or of huge interest. Boxes go from 30 dollars up, again depending.