Finally I got a 45 convertible

[Driftwood Johnson]

Would you mind telling me the headstamps on those cartridges? My guess is that they are commercial ammunition?

Howdy Bob, happy to oblige.

The head stamp is U.S.C.CO. As I said earlier, this ammo was made by the United States Cartridge Company, and that is the head stamp the US Cartridge Company used. I live quite close to where the factory was in Lowell, MASS, so I have learned a fair amount about the company. US Cartridge Company was founded in 1869 by Union Major General Benjamin Butler. Butler was a colorful character, born in New Hampshire but raised in Lowell. In addition to being a businessman, Butler was a lawyer and a politician and was governor of Massachusetts for a short while, and had presidential aspirations. The United States Cartridge Company supplied 65 percent of American small arms ammunition production for World War One. At one point the company employed 15,000 workers in Lowell and several nearby towns. In 1903 there was a massive explosion in one of the company's powder magazines in nearby Tewksbury Mass, which killed 22 employees and residents, injuring another 70 and destroyed about 70 houses in the neighborhood. The United States Cartridge Company went through several different owners after 1918, and was taken over by Winchester in 1927. Most of the equipment was moved to New Haven CT and the Lowell operation was shut down.

Lowell was of course an early American industrial city, incorporated in 1826 as a mill town, named after Francis Cabot Lowell who built the first textile mill in the area using water power from the Merrimack River. Lowell was also where Rollin White founded his Rollin White Arms Company, making revolvers which employed his patent for revolvers with chambers bored through to accept cartridges. He sold his revolvers to S&W, which was licensed to use White's patent but could not produce enough revolvers to meet the demand.

But I digress. All the cartridges in this box bear the U.S.C.CO. Headstamp. Most are also marked '17' to indicate the cartridges were made in 1917, but a few are marked '18' which indicates they were made in 1918.






The box is marked November 7, 1918. Interesting to note the cleaning instructions for the brass.






As I said earlier, there are 7 clips in the box, one is missing. The poor box is falling apart now, but I hope I am in such good shape when I am 102 years old.






I cannot swear to it, but it seems to me, given how much ammunition the United States Cartridge Company made for World War I, and given the markings on the box, I suspect this box was shipped to the military in 1918.

 

[BobWright]

Thanks Driftwood!

What I was after was whether the H/S bore the caliber (as in commercial ammunition) or a date (as in GI ammunition). Those cartridges bear the "17" which indicates military contract/issue. So, I'll retract my statement that the ammunition was not issued in clips.

However, all FA and LC .45 ACP ammunition I ever saw was in fifty round boxes with two pairs of clops included. This was WW II and later issue.

In 1957 or so, my company commander carried a Colt M1917 revolver. Don't know if it were a holdover in my arms room or his own personal property. He was a Korean War veteran.

Bob Wright