Large "US" Rimfire

montanamuzik

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Mar 26, 2012
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Big Sky Country
Dug some new casings this weekend on my place I hadn't found before. The one I am wondering about is the Rimfire on the left stamped simply "US" By "large" I mean larger than a 22. The head is 15/40" or about 9.5mm. Any ideas on age/caliber? Also found a nice UMC Co 12 New Club. (late 1800s maybe) It appears to be unfired. Others I dug this weekend that I hadn't found previously are WRA Co 38-56 WCF, WRA Co 38-55, WRA Co 38 WCF, WRA Co 45-60 WCF, WRA Co 25-35 WCF, WRA Co 32-WCF and a couple very large ones with no markings on head that I can see.
 

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Just a guess, but your rimfire sounds like it is a .38 extra short. It was made by the United States Cartridge Company. It is a nice old find.

Your UMC New Club will date from 1891-1911 and probably right at the turn of the century.

You have some great calibers there. I am very impressed by your finds.

Doug
 
Thanks Doug. I didn't even know there was rimfires larger than a 22 cal until I started snooping around the internet tonight. Sounds like there were quite a few. I have a gallon ziplock just about full of casings I have found within a hundred yard radius of my place. I don't get much yardwork done with a detector in one hand. Someone must have liked to shoot a lot of different guns here back in the day. (No visible remnants of structures until I recently built) Odd thing is there doesn't appear to be any of these casings that date after the 20s/30s or so? I did find those 1880s military buttons here. Makes me go hrrrmmmmmmmm????.......
 
It would make me go just about nuts wondering what had gone on there. I see that you found what looks like a .45-70 too. It is the one on the bottom left. Is there any markings on it? I am wondering if there might have been an outpost near you.

Doug
 
Just looked through the pile. I have a few of the ones you refered to as possiby .45-70s. The are a ittle over 8mm on the head, and a hair under 40mm in length. None of the ones like that have any markings on the heads. I don't THINK they are wore off as these in particular aren't coroded too badly. If there was ever any stamp, it must have been very light but I can inspect them with a lighted loupe and not see any remnants of any stamp at all. I'm fairly well versed on local history and to my knowledge there wasn't any documented military activity from that time period on my property. Not that everything was accurately documented but I don't think anything major. After detecting here for severa weeks now there is signs of a homestead I believe. Big iron stakes, square nails, broken glass, horse shoes. I did find a 99 IH and a 1910 Barber dime as well. I wish I had detected prior to building as I have had a fair amount of excavation done....foundation, septic/drainfield, driveway etc. I might have had a ittle better idea of what lied where. I do have to have a dozer back here at some point to move topsoil around, eve some ditches and such so am looking forward to that. I'm sure new targets will be exposed.
 
The bad news is the majority of my finds have been right aong the new boundry to the property I lost to the X. (She got 15 acres, I got 5) DOH!
 
Guess you meant .32 Short RF. It's case length is nominally 14,22mm and max diameter at the rim is 9,47mm. So pretty close.

Voriax

The reason that I said .38 extra short is I thought the OP was saying that the neck was 15/40 or .375 which is close to the 38 extra short (.370) and the length being 23/40 or .575 where the .38 extra short is .575. Sorry if I misunderstood.

Doug
 
Yeah, it is easy to misread those numbers..been happened to me few times too..spent some time hunting down some cartridge case and then I realize I've misread dimensions... Hm..I really should write some guidelines about cartridge/bullet id..

Voriax
 
Sorry if I confused anyone with my dimensions. I have an old set of calipers from Germany and inches are divided into 40 segments. Not sure if that's the norm or not.
 
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