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Picture Page December 2011 I'm in the process of getting my house ready to sell, which can hopefully be accomplished before this crazy economy reduces it's value below what I bought it for 25 years ago. Who'd have ever imagined that renting would become more preferable than owning. I'm doing a lot of the work myself, so I have a lot less time to give much attention to these old cartridges and boxes. As a result, I'm not running across any new items to write about on my picture pages, So, I will be taking another look at items that I've included on these pages over the years.
A box of early Peters shotgun shells.......
I included an article about this box on my July 2007 picture page; it is one of my favorite boxes that I no longer own, so I'm dusting it off and discussing it again this month. Here's a great Peters 10 gauge shot shell box. It was produced around
1888 or 1889, and is possibly the earliest Peters shot shell box known to
exist, and believed to be the only
The two indent crimp was patented by G. M. Peters on May 27th, 1884
and the three indent crimp on April 10th, 1888. In producing these crimps,
the shell is sliced at the base of the indent and forced inward over the top
of the wad to hold it in place. This often caused tears in the hull at each
crimp when the shell was fired, which most likely is the reason for the
short I've included a couple of advertisements that included the early indent-crimped shells, the first
of these from an 1888 Marlin Firearms Company catalog, and the second from
the April 11th, 1889 issue of Forest
The box above is labeled PETERS "Special" Cartridges, the 'Special'
probably being an early brand name that they used. This box was included in
with a crate of shotshell loading supplies, including a variety of loaders,
early black powder cans, primer tins, and an assortment of unused primed
empty shotgun shells. with these items were 23 American Buckle & Cartridge
Company shells headstamped
. .
. .
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one like it in existence. The Peters Cartridge Company began the production of machine-loaded shells in 1887 after
Gershom Moore Peters received a patent for his loading machine on March
19th, 1887. Notice that the label says 'loaded by' rather than 'manufactured
by'; this points to the fact that the shells loaded by Peters during their first few years were
not actually made by them. Instead, they were purchased from members of the Ammunition
Manufacturers Association, a monopolistic organization formed in 1883 by the
Union Metallic Cartridge Company, the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, the
United States Cartridge Company, and the Phoenix Cartridge Company for the
purpose of controlling ammunition prices and the supply of ammunition making
components. These early Peters loaded shells will typically be found with W.R.A. Co. STAR and U.M.C. STAR headstamps,
and can be readily identified based on the
unique
two and three indent crimping method patented and used by Peters during their
first couple of years
of their shot shell production. 
period of time the company used this form
of crimp and the resulting rarity of examples of these shells. The shell on
this box uses he three indent crimp. The four dates under the illustrated
shell account for the indent crimp patents, as well as two patents Peters
received for his improvements in loading machines. 
& Stream. As is obvious in the later
advertisement, Peters had already introduced an improved "Peters-Crimped"
roll-type crimp by this time, but was still offering their "indented"
cartridges.
SPECIAL
No 12. Both 12 gauge and 10 gauge SPECIAL headstamped shells were made by
the company between 1885 and 1889, when they were bought by the American
Ammunition Manufacturers Association. I have never seen any published
information regarding the background of these shells, but it is interesting
to note that this company's shells typically included A.B.C. in the
headstamp. That these do not would indicate that they were probably intended
for loading
by another company. The Encyclopedia and Price Guide of American Paper
Shotshells by Dick Iverson and Bob Strauss has an illustration of this
same 'SPECIAL' headstamp in 10 gauge attributed to the Standard Cartridge
Company of Pasadena, California. This 'Special' box certainly suggests that these Special headstamped shells might very well
also have been used by the Peters Cartridge
Company. 