Late last year I was able to pick up a couple of boxes of Winchester WW1 era 175gr FMJ roundnose ammo. In truth my plan and intent was to just get the actual bullets, and reload them in modern brass etc, since no one makes roundnose FMJs anymore. Anyway these two boxes weren’t cheap, between the two well over 100$ but I had hoped they would be salvageable boxes. One was heavily wrapped in plastic, and so the ham-handedness of its opening (the red box) wasn’t obvious until I drove the 300km back home…
Anyway it was interesting to simply look at the ammo the boxes contained, and I thought a few words might be in order.
Firstly, this stuff is NOT rare, don’t buy it at ridiculous prices if you just want a collectable. If you look around (libertytree for example) you will see boxes of this stuff selling for 15-20$ in the US. Sadly that is not Canada, so as much as I would love to buy a few hundred cheap rounds and salvage the projectiles it isn’t an option really. But as a collectable, these would be over priced at 40$ Canadian (IMHO).
If, and I mean IF the box is in great shape and not torn open half-assedly, then I would say a fair price would be 75-100$ just for a collectable box, but otherwise buying these is really just for show, and make note of what you are likely to get.
First up is a plain brown box, I got these cheap-ish because of the collapsed rounds, and the advanced state of decay. A lot of split necks, some tarnishing, but truthfully both of these boxes had beautifully polished brass, just lovely looking casings.
The second box is a red lable, the contents showed no collapsed rounds, but on looking closely some neck splits were noticeable, and internally they were not much better than the last box.
When pulling a few rounds apart the internal decay is obvious, some clumps of powder, but more so corrosion on the inside of the casing, and end of the bullets.
I cut a round in half to see inside better:
The primer/case head area
And the upper half, looking inside the neck / shoulder area
Anyway these rounds are still out there if you look around a little. Just be wary of them, even though some looked good on the outside, I wouldn't be keen to try actually firing them.
Anyway it was interesting to simply look at the ammo the boxes contained, and I thought a few words might be in order.
Firstly, this stuff is NOT rare, don’t buy it at ridiculous prices if you just want a collectable. If you look around (libertytree for example) you will see boxes of this stuff selling for 15-20$ in the US. Sadly that is not Canada, so as much as I would love to buy a few hundred cheap rounds and salvage the projectiles it isn’t an option really. But as a collectable, these would be over priced at 40$ Canadian (IMHO).
If, and I mean IF the box is in great shape and not torn open half-assedly, then I would say a fair price would be 75-100$ just for a collectable box, but otherwise buying these is really just for show, and make note of what you are likely to get.
First up is a plain brown box, I got these cheap-ish because of the collapsed rounds, and the advanced state of decay. A lot of split necks, some tarnishing, but truthfully both of these boxes had beautifully polished brass, just lovely looking casings.
The second box is a red lable, the contents showed no collapsed rounds, but on looking closely some neck splits were noticeable, and internally they were not much better than the last box.
When pulling a few rounds apart the internal decay is obvious, some clumps of powder, but more so corrosion on the inside of the casing, and end of the bullets.
I cut a round in half to see inside better:
The primer/case head area
And the upper half, looking inside the neck / shoulder area
Anyway these rounds are still out there if you look around a little. Just be wary of them, even though some looked good on the outside, I wouldn't be keen to try actually firing them.
