Indian/Spanish War Ammo

[steelheadwill]

Hello All,
Found several of the 45-70s & there are probably hundreds of the 45 acp's
in a small area, Must be an ammo spill off a boat.
Does the '00' mark on the rifle cartridges denote 1900?
Found other spanish war relics in general vicinity.
Thanks for looking & HH
Wow, just saw poor photo, bottom of rifle cartridge reads WRA 00 45 70

 

[NGE]

Re: Spanish War Ammo

WOWSER! All I ever find are the brass or the bullet separately. I found most of mine at the "Michigan Military Academy" in the city of Orchard Lake, Michigan. It was active from 1877 till 1907. I was always told that those numbers would be the date the cartridge was made. Monty will probably chime in soon...........NGE Here is the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_Military_Academy Her's some info on headstamps.....http://harringtonmuseum.org.uk/USACartHeadstamps.htm

 

[NGE]

Re: Spanish War Ammo

Here is another excellent site, it has other links to nice sites for ammo collecting and I.D.'ing........NGE http://www.cartridgecollectors.org/index.html

 

[Digger54]

Re: Spanish War Ammo

When I first started relic digging in 1994 I was kind of disappointed when I found anything dating post civil war. Well that was 17 years ago, and now I am starting to get a kick digging Spanish American War stuff.

Good to go, maybe you will find some buttons and coins there too.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Re: Spanish War Ammo

Two versions of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company's various headstamps may be relevant for your 45/70 cartridges. The headstamps are "WRA" and "WRACO" (for WRA Company). As you mentioned, your photo is blurry. Please re-examine to see if your cartridges' headstamp actually says "WRA CO" -- instead of WRA 00.

Here's a photo showing the headstamp on Winchester cartridges in an Original box of Model-1886 Winchester 45/70 ammo.

Although the photo is titled "Indian Wars [1866-1897] cartridges" (because the 45/70 rifle's primary usage was in that era), we know for certain that 45/70 rifles and ammo were used in the Spanish-American War (1898). So yes, the 45/70 cartridges you found could have a connection to that war.

 

[steelheadwill]

Re: Spanish War Ammo

Two versions of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company's various headstamps may be relevant for your 45/70 cartridges. The headstamps are "WRA" and "WRACO" (for WRA Company). As you mentioned, the photo is blurry. Please re-examine to see if your cartridges' headstamp actually says "WRA CO" -- instead of WRA 00.

Here's a photo showing the headstamp on Winchester catridges in an Original box of Model-1886 Winchester 45/70 ammo.

Although the photo is titled "Indian Wars [1866-1897] cartridges", because the 45/70 rifle's primary usage was in that era, we know for certain that 45/70 rifles and ammo were used in the Spanish-American War (1898). So yes, the 45/70 cartridges you found could have a connection to that war.

Thanks CannonballGuy,
Indian War relics are Great!
The stamp is tough to read, but the first '0' is larger than the second,
same as your photo, meaning they do read WRACO.
So case closed, & thanks again for great info
sheesh, I surely wouldn't want to get hit with one of these, really heavy round :P