collectable ammo

[Battis]

I bought a .32 Winchester Self Loader that came with 76 rounds of original loaded ammo. I'm guessing they were made in the 30s or so. I found a site that advertises individual, original loaded cartridges for $4 - $5 per round. I do not know if they are actually selling.
I want to shoot this Winchester. I can form cases out of 32-20 brass that is not available anywhere until the spring (a generous Castboolits member sent me a dozen empty cases to test and see if they'll work, and they're fine). Loaded cartridges are not available.
I have a set of dies and a Lyman mold on the way.
Anyways, I'm thinking of using the original brass and saving the bullets, powder and primers. How would brass that old stand up?

[GRUMPA]

If I were you I would make my own from 30-30 brass and leave the originals alone. Seems you think highly of those factory rounds so that's the route I would take.

30-30 is what the 32Rem was based from, not to mention the brass is much easier to come by. That's all I use, just look at the pictures I have up...http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?228409-25Rem-30Rem-32Rem


Oops, not enough coffee read it wrong..

[Bigslug]

Gonna depend a lot on how it was stored and whether or not it was loaded with corrosive primers. The corrosive stuff can make the brass brittle over time. You can also get a galvanic reaction between the copper of the bullet jacket and the brass that causes the two to fuse together. I've seen a number of bottleneck cases separate at the shoulder from this.

I'd suggest pulling a bullet first to see if you even CAN, the disassemble the rest of the round (GENTLE ON THAT PRIMER!) to see if what you're dealing with is shootable. If you've got the stuff in the original boxes, you can probably get some hardcore collector to pounce and heavily finance your .32-20 option.

[mozeppa]

i would like one for my collection!

i have a 401 self loading!

[Battis]

Yeah, saving the factory ammo makes more sense. In theory it's worth more than the rifle. 32-20 brass is popular so Starline should be making more in the spring.
Mozepa, I have the .32, .35 and the .351. I really hope I don't find a .401 soon. Great rifles.

[w30wcf]

Batts,
if you're like me, I like having cartridges with the original headstamp to reload. For example, I have an original Winchester '73 made in 1882 in .44 W.C.F. Caliber. I have sought and found original factory cartridges with that headstamp and dissected them for reloading. I pulled the bullets with an inertia puller, dumped the powder and removed and discarded the original primers.

I then annealed the case necks to keep them from possibly splitting, then reloaded them. So far they have been reloaded about 8 times and all is well.

If I were you, I would take a dozen of those cartridges and do what I described.
After discarding the old primers and replacing them with current ones you could place the original powder and bullets back into them if you wanted to.

Have fun!

w30wcf

[Battis]

The rifle came with two boxes of factory ammo. One was full (50) the other partial (26). I think I will pull a few apart, anneal the case mouths and load them up.
Yep, I'm flip flopping on this one.

[joatmon]

Don't know how collectable it is, I've tried a couple times to sell 50 rounds pretty cheap and interest was nill. Guess you just gotta do he right place right time thing. Good luck with the loading.
Aaron

[Battis]

If you look at this site, the stuff is golden but, like you said, if there's no interest in the old ammo it will go nowhere.
http://www.ammo-one.com/32WSLs.html

[joatmon]

Wow! I wonder if they move any?
Aaron

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

If you look at this site, the stuff is golden but, like you said, if there's no interest in the old ammo it will go nowhere.
http://www.ammo-one.com/32WSLs.html
Interesting.
I have some vintage 30-40 krag ammo they need to buy and list on their webpage :)

[too many things]

you will find the ammo is not worth much ,unless the box is in very good shape . Bought a box of 25-35 was in a very nice box
but after I got it, was reloads. Well the ad stated original {shells}. YES they were the correct shells, but they were reloaded
make sure you read the ad fully

[Battis]

I saw a full box of older 30-40 Krag in a NH antique shop today for $125. It was there a few months ago and I'm guessing it'll be there in a few more months.

I contacted that site last summer to see if they wanted some 7mm pinfire ammo. They offered me about $80 for 12 rounds, which is pretty good, but look what they're selling it for:
http://www.ammo-one.com/7mmPinfire.html

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

ammo-one dot com replied back to me with a lowball offer of 50¢ a round for Western headstamped "29", I included photos of the mint condition ammo. 5 boxes, 4 are still sealed. The Brass is worth 50¢ ea. :evil:

They offer current production 30-40 ammo on there website for $2.75 a round.

[Guesser]

I was offered a really nice Colt Police Positive Special in 32-20 back about 2011; nice gun and the price was a little on the high side, but I didn't have a 32-20 in that particular configuration so I went for it. He handed me the gun and then 4 boxes of ammunition. The boxes were pristine Super X from the 50's with 100 gr. JSP. Beautiful Winchester-Western bright yellow with big red X. Wow & double Wow!!!! I didn't need the ammo, as I cast and load my own. I took the ammo to a gun show a few months later and made more selling those 4 boxes than I had paid for the gun. Collectible ammo is definitely "collectible". I went home and rounded up all my other collectible ammo and took it in the next day, took home almost a thousand dollars from that deal. It was ammo I had been given or got in trade, etc. I was never going to shoot it.

[Battis]

I still have the 7mm pinfire and some 41 Swiss that came with a Vetterli.


http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m217/pohill/DSCF4636_zps9ef939f8.jpg
http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m217/pohill/DSCF4810_zpsae3d1ad8.jpg

[Geezer in NH]

Gun shows only IMHO, try shipping 1 round sold at $5.00 shipping will be $7-8 bucks at the least. Years ago shipping1 round could be cheap but not today. The market for that is GONE

I would pull the bullets, dump the powder and push out the primers. They are not a stick of dynamite regardless of internet assumption. I have pushed out thousands of live primers with NO PROBLEM or DETONATION.

But for what it is worth this is the internet. Ever see a stick of dynamite? or a primer?? USE Common sense!!

The brass cases will make usable ammo.

[sw282]

l have a Colt Pocket Positive in 32 Long Colt. Totally different from 32 S&W or 32 Colt New Police. .299'' as opposed to .312 S&W/NP (S@&W/NP)... l am limited to shooting only Factory ammo..Usually a buck a rd when l can find it.. Winchester may do a seasonal run of 32 Colt every 17 years or so.. dies are available from RCBS or Redding for around $200...No bullets,brass around. Esp bullets.

[Battis]

A Forum member sent me a bunch of 32-20 cases to experiment with. I found a set of RCBS dies online at Midway in their marked down/special sales section for half price. I found a used Lyman mold at this site - they get one of a kind items in and they happened to have the mold I wanted (good people to deal with). The mold still had a bullet in it from the last owner.
http://www.riverjunction.com/
I'll look at the store in Maine where I buy my stuff - they take in alot of obsolete ammo and brass. That's where I got the 7mm pinfire and 41 Swiss. I'm pretty sure I've seen the .32 Long Colt.