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Cartridge Trading Table Featuring a wide range of antique, obsolete, and modern ammunition for collectors Picture Page March 2009 The 9.95m/m (.38) Tesching needlefire cartridge........
The two cartridges in this picture are variations of the 9.95 m/m Tesching needlefire cartridge,
the one on the left being a shot load and the one on the right a
. .
Two early 7.62 x 51 (NATO) headstamps.....
I assume the cross in a circle symbol on the headstamp is a simple
representation of the star on a circle
.
Those early W.R.A.Co. .32 Long (center fire) boxes....
Here are two early variations of Winchester two piece boxes of .32 long
centerfire cartridges. This cartridge is the American version of the British
.320 long centerfire originally made for use in the Webley and Tranter
pocket revolvers, even though its case
This first box is the earlier of the two boxes discussed here, made sometime in the mid-to-late1880s. The early characteristics of this box include the caliber designation as No. 32 Central Fire, and the lack of a mention on the side-sealing label of the firearms (Webley and Tranter, or Colt, Webley and Tranter) for which the cartridge was adapted. It is interesting to see the 'No. 32' used on a centerfire box, as this is typically seen on early Winchester rim fire boxes. While the cartridge illustrated on the label is unheadstamped, the cartridges in the box have the early style headstamp which has a narrow space between the '32' and the 'L.'; later headstamps will have a noticeably wider space. Winchester began applying headstamps in the mid-1880s. . .
These cartridges with the narrow space headstamp have the early style cases with folded heads, as can be seen on the sectioned cartridge in this photograph. These were produced using many of the same processes that the company used in making its rimfire cases. Thomas G. Bennett , Oliver Winchester's son-in-law and an officer in the company who became President in 1890, was issued U.S. Patent 224,765 on February 24th, 1880 for a process to produce solid head, drawn cartridge cases. While solid head cases were not immediately utilized for all cartridge production, it can be assumed that Winchester was using them on most of their cartridges by 1890. The copper primer used for these cartridges is the Winchester # 1 1/2 primer produced under U.S. Patent 208,589, issued to John Gardner, Winchester's cartridge superintendent, on October 1st, 1878. . . The box shown below is most likely the last box style produced by
Winchester for this cartridge before it was dropped from the catalog around
1904. Late characteristics include the caliber designation '32 Long Center
Fire'. The cartridge
on the label now has . .
. . Label on the inside of the top: .
. . . .
.
. . .
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ball
load. Both have a paper sabot with a cup in each end, one for the
shot or ball to seat in and the other holding a disc of priming
compound. The powder charge is situated below the base of the wad. All of
the inner components are wrapped in a paper envelope that is closed at the
base and twisted or tied at the mouth. Attached to the thin paper base is a
cardboard disk with a hole in the center, the disk serving to protect the
fragile base as well as to form the rim. The needle, essentially a long
sharp firing pin, passes through the hole in the disk and through the powder
charge, striking the priming in the base of the wad with sufficient force to
detonate it and the powder charge. These two cartridges are
uncharacteristically shiny due to a previous owner having coated them with
shellac. The sabots in both are evident as the whiter-colored center portion
of the cartridge. 
Here
are two variations of the first 7.62 x 51 cartridges produced in quantity by
Fabrique Nationale in Belgium. These were made in 1954, probably intended
for use in trials of the Belgian FN FAL rifle that was being evaluated by a
number of counties at that time. Canada was the first country to
adopt the FN FAL in 1955. The earliest headstamp is on the left; at some
point during the year, the headstamp was altered, replacing the '7.62' with
the NATO symbol. This is believed to be the first use of the NATO symbol on
the 7.62 x 51, which was adopted as the NATO standard rifle cartridge in
January, 1954. 
design
of the NATO flag. It is supposed to be used only on ammunition produced at NATO-approved
facilities in member countries, and indicates that the ammunition meets
strict interchangeability standards for velocity, chamber pressure, barrel
erosion, waterproofing, and a number of other characteristics.
is a little longer than the British
cartridge. It can easily confused with a number of other American
cartridges, including the early.32 Long Colt with the outside lubed
bullet and the .32 long centerfire rifle, especially when trying to identify
an unheadstamped cartridge. Of course, headstamps tend to make
identification much easier,
although there was little consensus among the different headstamps used by
the ammunition manufacturers, so even those with headstamps can sometimes
cause problems. 
two grooves approximately the same width rather than
the single wide groove, and it has a headstamp. The side label includes
'ADAPTED TO Colt's, Webley's and Tranter's Double Action Revolvers', which
indicates that the box was made after about 1900, when Colt was added to the
label; prior to this, only the Webley and Tranter revolvers were mentioned.
One other difference in this box from the earlier one is the addition of a
label on the bottom which extols Winchester's experience in ammunition
production, and includes a rather empty guarantee: 'We guatantee all properly
constructed arms for which these cartridges are adapted, when used with
these cartridges, to the extent that the manufacturers of these arms
guarantee their product'. 
