cartridge conversions reverse engnr.

[.22-10-45]

Hello, I saw the post about the .40-60 Maynard, and thought this was as good a time as any to bring up something that has been on my mind for more years than I care to admit. Have you ever thought about how fortunate we are in being able to re-make old obsolete cases by using .30-40 or .303 brass? Has anyone thought why? Back in the late 19th century the bean counters were just as interested in saving $$ as we are today, perhaps more so seeing the many "panics"(depression) there were then with no financial controls in place. I believe when the army brass (NO pun intended!) went to frankford arsenal with an idea for a smallbore, they in turn probably asked Rem. or Win. for advice, looking at a .40-70 sharps straight they probably envisioned a shortened bottlenecked case, and viola! new case, useing same basic forming dies...somebody probably got a bonus that year. Just a thought.

[NickSS]

You are more right than you know. If you look at any cartridge family you will see the same basic case made into all sorts of different cartridges. A prime example is the 45-70. It came first then it was stretched to the 45-9-, 45-100, 45-110 and 45-140. It was also necked to get the 40-50 sharps BN, 40-65 Winchester and 38-56 Winchester to name just a few. The all time winner though is the German 8mm Mauser. This basic shell is the basis for almost the entire family of cartridges used around the world for over 100 years. Just look at all the cartridges that need a Lyman Number 2 shell holder to reload and you will be surprised at the number.