THE CARTRIDGE COLLECTOR

When it was originally introduced in 1891, the 7.62x54R cartridge for the Russian Mosin-Nagant rifle had a round nosed (Jager) bullet, and is referred to as the M1891. The pointed 'spitzer' bullet made it's appearance seventeen years later as the M1908. I was fortunate some years ago to receive an assortment of 7.62x54R cartridges from a collector in Russia which were excavated in Petersburg, Russia. All of these cartridges were unfired when found, and were made inert by drilling the cases so as to emove the powder and denting the primers prior to being shipped. Included were a number of examples of the M1891 cartridges with the round nose bullet, none of which I had previously been able to find here in this country. I have included some of the headstamp variations of these early ones in my write-up this month. Both bullet types are shown in the photo to the right.

All of these cartridges had been buried for one hundred years, more or less, and are in remarkably good condition considering. Headstamps of some are a bit worn, and trying to photograph them so that they were legible took some effort, and in some cases fell a little short,. Most of these have headstamps made up of four elements or sets of characters, positioned at 12, 3, 6, and 9 o'clock. On these, a two digit production year is at 12 o'clock, a single Cyrillic letter or symbol for the brass producer is at 3 o'clock, a roman numeral for the trimester of production during the year is at 6 o'clock, and a single Cyrillic letter representing the ammunition factory where the cartridge was produced is at 9 o'clock. As far as I have been able to determine, not a great deal of information is known about the brass producers.

The headstamp shown to the left, the earliest example that was in the group I received, indicates that the cartridge was made during the last trimester (September through December) of 1897; the case was made by the unknown brass maker designated by the Greek letter phi, and it was loaded at the Lugansk Patronny Zavod (Lugansk ammunition factory) designated by the Cyrillic letter for L. The Lugansk ammunition factory was in the Ukraine and commenced production of Mosin-Nagant ammunition in 1895.

This cartridge was produced in the second trimester of 1902, using brass from the same unknown supplier as the one above, at the Petersburg ammunition factory as indicated by the Cyrillic letter for 'P' at the 9 o'clock headstamp position. The Petersburg factory was the first to produce Mosin-Nagant ammunition, commencing at the introduction of the cartridge in 1891. I don't know if the dots to either side of the trimester indicator have any meaning or not.

Also produced at the Petersburg factory, in the third trimester of 1902, this cartridge was made with brass thought to have been produced by the Rozenkrants Copper Works in St Petersburg, as indicated by the Cyrillic letter P at the three o'clock position in the headstamp, which translates to R in English. At some point between the production of the cartridge shown above and this one, the change was made from impressed to raised headstamps at the Petersburg factory.

Produced at the Petersburg factory in the third trimester of 1904, this cartridge was made with brass from the supplier designated by the the Cyrillic letter K, which is K in English as well, and is thought to represent the Kolchugin metal works in Kolchugino, Russia. This company was formed in 1871 and is better known for its tableware production, and for being the primary producer of Russian tea glass holders (who knew?), two of which are shown here for those like me who are not familiar with tea glass holders.

This is the least legible of the headstamps, showing the corrosive effects that could result from the cartridge having been in the ground for so long. Again a product of the Petersburg factory, it was made in the third trimester of 1905. The brass supplier designation was omitted, resulting in a three element headstamp. The Roman numeral III is clearly visible at the 6 o'clock position, the 05 can just be made out at about the 2:30 position, and the letter designating Petersburg can be made out at about the 10:30 position.

Apparently, the change to the three element 1905 headstamp above wasn't a permanent change, as shown by this Petersburg cartridge made in the following trimester (the first trimester of 1906), which again has the raised four element headstamp with brass supplier's designation the Cyrillic letter P (Rozenkrants) again.

This cartridge has just two elements in the headstamp, which indicates production at the Tulskiy Patronniy Zavod (Tula cartridge factory) in Tula, Russia in 1904. This factory probably began production of the 7.62x54R cartridge in 1893.

Included among the dug cases were several that were imported to Czarist Russia from other countries. This 1905 case is thought to have been made by Hirtenberger in Austria. The two dots at 3 o'clock have some meaning that I am not aware of.

The source of this 1906 cartridge not certain; one source indicates that it is Swiss and made by Berndorfer Metallwarenfabrik, while another indicates that the 'B' is the Cyrillic V, and indicates it was made in Budapest, Hungary by Manfred Weiss.

This 1906 cartridge was made by Deutsche Waffen-u. Munitionsfabriken A.-G. in Karlsruhe, Germany.

It is interesting to speculate how these cartridges may have come to be where they were dug up in St. Petersburg, Russia. A number of revolutions occurred in the first two decades of the twentieth century. The first of these was the Revolution of 1905, a series of strikes, riots, mutinies, and assassinations directed at the Czarist autocracy, which commenced on January 9th, 1905 when troops opened fire on a group of peaceful workers marching to the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg to present a petition to Czar Nicholas II. Between 200 and 1000 died as a result; the massacre was hereafter referred to as Bloody Sunday. Strikes continued afterwards, centered on St. Petersburg and other industrial centers. The revolution continued until April 23rd, 1906, with the institution of a constitution and the formation of an elected group of representatives called the Duma.

Sources:

Wikipedia-Revolution of 1905- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolution_of_1905

7.62x54r.net, 7.62x54r Ammunition Identification, http://7.62x54r.net/MosinID/MosinAmmoID.htm

International Ammunition Association, Cartridge Forum discussion, April 2010, http://iaaforum.org/forum3/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=8380&hilit=7.62x53r+dug+in+the+ukrane&start=0

Wiipedia - photo of the Russian tea glass holders - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolchugino,_Vladimir_Oblast

Thanks to Bob Taylor for information regarding brass suppliers and for adding the uncertainty regarding the origin of the 'B' headstamped carttridge.