DaleA asketh:
Quote:
Do you know how these cartridges were headstamped?
How was civilian .45 Colt ammunition marked in the late 1800's (let's say between 1874 and 1900)?
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Cartridges made by Frankford Arsenal in the 1870s bore no headstamp, they were copper cased with Benet primers, and bore no similarity to commercial ammunition. Later cartridges were Boxer primed and were either tinned brass or plain brass. The H/S was always F A and the last two digits of the year, such as F A 89. This continued up through WW I. Some early .45 M1875 cartridges are H/S FA R 83, the "R" indicating "Revolver" but this was short lived.
Commercial ammunition of the era is pretty much as current practice. I have "UMC .45 Colt", "WRA .45 Colt" etc. Early black powder ammunition has a brass case with a copper primer, semi-smokeless with a brass primer, and smokeless with nickel primers.
Semi-smokeless powder was used in place of smokeless powder in handgun cartridges as it worked at lower pressures than the smokeless powder of the day while giving less smoke and flash.
Head stamps have always been placed radially around the head of the case and reading right-side up with the mfr. in the upper half and caliber designation in the lower half
Bob Wright