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Thread: Help identify rim fire cartridge

  1. #1
    Boolit Mold
    Join Date
    Jan 2018
    Posts
    2

    Help identify rim fire cartridge

    I'm new to this forum and looking for help identifying an old brass rim fire cartridge. I found it with a metal detector in an old abandoned town site in Northern California. The cartridge appears to be .50 caliber, with a length of about 1 and 1/16th inches. The site dates back to the 1840's and was generally abandoned in the 1880's.Click image for larger version. 

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ID:	211482 Thanks in advance for any help!

  2. #2
    Boolit Mold
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Posts
    25
    Without actually measuring it, it seems to be a .56-50 Spencer cartridge case

  3. #3
    Boolit Master

    merlin101's Avatar
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    Mar 2010
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    Rochester NY heading to Gaults Gulch
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    To be sure we do need more accurate measurements as length, diameter at rim and above rim and at the neck.
    It's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years (Abe Lincoln)

    "A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government.” George Washington

  4. #4
    Boolit Master
    elk hunter's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Central Oregon
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    Looks like the strike from a Spencer firing pin on the right edge. Also looks like a tooling mark on the base. Different company's used different tools to spin the case to spread the priming compound to the rim. Sometimes it is possible to tell which company manufactured/loaded the round from those marks. Most Spencer cartridges are so similar that it can be difficult to determine which caliber it is/was due to expansion of the fired case. Good measurements may solve the mystery.
    BIG OR SMALL I LIKE THEM ALL, 577 TO 22 HORNET.

  5. #5
    Boolit Mold
    Join Date
    Jan 2018
    Posts
    2
    I don't have a caliper or micrometer. Here's a picture or two with a scale. Base is about 5/8" diameter.Click image for larger version. 

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check