Unfired Brass Shotgun Shell

[sierraipa]

Found an brass casing shotgun shell a little while ago. It was sliced open near the opposite end from the primer (which was not dented), and I could see the powder granules still fully intact. I got a little nervous that it could still potentially be a live round, so I threw it into a nearby river.

I didn't think much of it until I looked up the potential date of the find. It sounds like it may have been in the 1870 range. Oh well. The weird thing is that there was no lead shot in it at all. It was completely filled with powder.

Any thoughts why there would be no powder? This is in a rather historic area near the battle of secessionville in Charleston, SC if that helps.

Happy Hunting - And remember to keep everything until you know what you have!!

Kevin

 

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[westkybanded]

The shot was probably still in the hole. The shot was held in the end with a paper card that will deteriorate pretty quick when it gets wet.

 

[sierraipa]

Hmm. Maybe. I wish I had taken a picture before I disposed of it. The gash at the end of the shell cut about 3/4 inch into the casing, and it was almost to the end of the case. So, if the whole shell was 2.75 inches long, the gash was up to the 2.5 inch mark or so. And it was clearly evident that there were lots of small cylindrical powder grains all the way up to the "end" of the shell. I was wondering whether what looked like powder grains was actually some sort of metal that would have been really small shot, and I dumped out about 20 grains onto a piece of wood. Then, I used my pro-pointer to see if the grains were made of metal, but they were not. So, I am assuming that they were not shot. No evidence of a wadding either.

Thanks for the reply,
Kevin

 

[gunsil]

Most of the old brass shotgun shells used black powder which is granular, not cylindrical. Perhaps the small cylindrical things were the remains of lead shot that had oxidized to the point where they wouldn't register on a metal detector. Too bad you threw it away. There is no danger in carrying live ammo, many hunters just stick a few shells in their pocket and go. If the shell was split moisture would have gotten in and made the powder inert anyways. I wouldn't have thrown it in a fire, but carrying it wouldn't have really been dangerous.

 

[ekeisler]

Cool find! I live in Charleston too. Nice to see another person who hunts in the same area! It's hard to get permission to hunt places in Charleston.

 

[westkybanded]

There are also companies and indivduals that make NEW brass shells these days with smokeless powder.

 

[sierraipa]

Thanks for the replies guys. I guess I may never fully know on this one. Lesson learned

ekeisler, I sent a PM your way. Maybe we can get together and detect sometime since you are in the area.

Happy hunting to you all!