Old Ammo

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Cokeman

Cokeman

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I acquired these boxes of old ammo this week. I think they were made in the 70s and 80s.





 
Some of that is older than from the 70's. The Peters 30-06 wit "Rustless" inside the red oval is from the 30's -40's and the Western 38 special is 50's or early 60's I believe. A suspect theWinchester 38 special in picture 2 is from pre 1970 also
 
Nice. Mid-20th century Americana at it's best. I agree about being before 70's and 80's. By that time, I think most makers were beyond bragging about non-corrosive primers.
 
Most of those boxes are somewhat older than you think. The green and red Remington .30-06 and .38 Special boxes will actually date between 1946 to 1960. The Winchester .38 Special Mid-Range will date from mid 1930s to mid 1940s. The Peters .30-06 is pre-WWII. The Western .30-06 and .38 special boxes will also likely date from the mid 1940s into 1950s. The FederalHi-Power 12 Ga. shotshell box is no newer than 1960.
 
Chances are good that if you shoot it; it will all go off. A friend of mine had some 30/40 Krag ammo
from the Spanish American war era we shot it, and It all went bang.

Zeke
 
There was a lot of 22LR and lots of loose 38 Special Wadcutters in the 12 gauge box. There were a few that I think are 32 S&W. The funny thing is that I don't have any guns that shoot 38 Special, 38 S&W, or 30-06.
 
Going back to the misinterpreted dates of production...this is when a general knowledge (or sense, really) of industrial design and packaging art style comes in handy.

Even if this stuff had been hardware items or soap (or anything else I know very little about) I would've had a rough idea of the circa date based on the packaging fonts and art. So would a lot of other people my age. The Hornady box is obviously a later packaging style (and not because of the bar code :) ) That's what makes this stuff neat...the era of the popular culture that produced it.

Thanks again for posting the pics. I might get into old ammo someday. My dad gave me a couple boxes of JC Higgins .22 ammo from the late 50's/early 60's.
 
The rounds in the Hornady box have Frontier stamped on them. I figured that different ammo was put into the box.
 
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