Cartridge Collecting

Some of you may have seen post from me in the past discussing cartridge collecting. Some of you may have even donated to my collection. (Thanks) Anyway, I started about 6 years ago, when I retired. I started off just wanting a loaded example of as many different cartridges as I could find. Its grown into different headstamps, different bullets, nickel & brass cases, metric cartridges, wildcats, ect. My oldest are probably blackpowder 44 WCF, 45 Colt or 45-70 with balloon head cases.

A friend just gifted me a few old Military cartridges. Two were headstamped U.S.C. Co 18 and 19. Of special interest, these had an extra heavy crimp which I believe were designated to be fired from aircraft. There were also 3 complete boxes of 20 cartridges marked US Caliber 30 - M2 headstamped UT 42. All of these are in remarkably good condition. Beside an aged patina they show no corrosion and I bet that even the oldest would fire. They have corrosive primers but I have no plans to shoot them.

So, how many of you collect cartridges? I would be interested in hearing about your collections.

Thanks for the replys everyone.

My collection has no direction. I started out with the cartridges that I load and shoot.This expanded to the cartridges that my friends or family shoot. Then I started buying cartridges at gun shows. I love looking through odd boxes of "junk" or odd stuff. I've also had a few forum members on this site and a couple of others that have given me cartridges or made trades. I also have some examples of mistakes. Like 300 Winchester shot in a 300 Weatherby chamber and 308 shot in a 30-06 chamber. Also some 223/5.56 that are separated and nearly broken in two. I even have a loaded one thats jammed into a separated case neck and then ejected. I have a few fired and recovered bullets. A couple go back to the War Between the States.