Brass shotgun shell

pulltabMiner

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Yesterday I found a bullet that may be a .38 at this site and this morning I found a brass shotgun shell. A quick Google search tells me that they quit making these after WWII (although they are making them again for competitions). Two things to note:

1) There have been houses 100 yards in any direction from this spot since the 1920's, so who was shooting guns here and why? This goes for the possible .38 slug as well.

2) This was a good 4 inches deep in a nice open area. You could not miss the loud signal if you were deaf. The bullet was a little closer to the edge of the woods. So, no one has hunted this area since this shell was dropped possibly back in the '40's or '50s?

I haven't had a lot of time to detect this area. Altogether I have spent a little over an hour here. I also found several clad dimes all 3-4 inches and all with early '70's dates.
 

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Hi,

I don't believe that your shotshell head is an all brass shell. I believe it is a "high brass" head off of a high quality paper shell. Below is a pic of a complete shell (being sold on AuctionArms).

img_1378.jpg_thumbnail1.jpg


Since you have good knowledge about the area that you are hunting, it helps in dating this shotshell head. Since their were houses in the area since the 1920's, my guess is that this shell was made, shot and dropped before then. This line was introduced in 1894 and was made through the 1930's. There were several variations to the headstamp over the years, but here is a 1906 Winchester ad that shows one like yours.

picture.php


Nice find! I am guessing that you are hunting in an area that had activity well before the houses were build.

Doug
 
Thanks Doug! Now the shell has a life history.

This site was woods until the city bought it and turned it into a park in 1922 (from our Parks and Recreations website)

The inside of the shell has some kind of lining. I was wondering what that may be but now I know.

Thanks again for the info. It sure makes finding this a lot more fun.
 
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