SPECIAL TOOL Headstamp

[0verkill]

I received a bag of brass and while sorting it came across one piece of 38 Special brass with only the words "SPECIAL TOOL" for the headstamp. Has anyone else ever ran across any of these?

[NuJudge]

It was made for powder actuated tools. I used to work in a Steel Mill back when it used ingot molds, and they would nail thick sheets of steel over cracks in the ingot molds. The guns that drove the nails had, IIRC, 5 chambers and shot really high powered blanks made from .38 Special cases. Another vendor's guns shot blanks made from similar .38 S&W cases.

I used to have several coffee cans full of them. They get a lot of mouth cracks.

[0verkill]

Thank you for the info, not that I needed to know, but I really wanted to know. I thought it was cool that I've always considered guns tools and I finally found a piece of brass to prove it.