What caliber is this???
I was out in the desert a few weeks ago at a spot where people shoot fairly frequently. The ground was littered with the usual assortment of common caliber spent cases. As I was picking up the mess that someone else left behind, I stumbled upon this little curiosity, shown in the center of the picture below. It almost blended in with the 7.62 x 39 cases that were near it, but not quite. I picked it up & tried to figure out what it was. I just didn’t know. When I got home, I tried to look it up in Cartridges of the World, but I couldn’t find an exact match. The shoulder diameter of this thing was a bit too big. The closest thing that I could find was a 7.92 x 33 Kurz. Now that caliber only fits one gun that I am aware of & it’s a class III that’s not supposed to exist here in the US, so I am really not sure exactly where this thing came from. I would have thought wildcat, but this is a steel Berdan case, so that doesn't seem too likely. If anybody knows what it is, please let me know.
I took the following measurements –
Neck ID .329”
Neck OD .365”
Shoulder OD .454”
Base OD .470”
Rim OD .468”
Case Length 1.289”
Neck length .172”
The cases on either side are a 7.62 x 39 & a .223. The headstamp looks like an “04” & a “58”.
Thanks,
Jim