The cartridge without the head stamp is a very early Benet Primed, which means the primer was in a cup on he inside of the cartridge, and crimped into place by the crimp seen on
your find. The 45-70 government round for the 1873 Springfield rifle was about 2.1 inches long. Yours appears to be a shorter cartridge, probably for the .45 Colt single action
Army revolver, adopted in 1873. From Wikipedia, --- The service cartridges were Copper-cased .45 centerfire Benét inside primed “Colt’s Revolver Cartridges” loaded with 30 grains
of black powder and an inside lubricated bullet of 250 grain. They were manufactured at
Frankford Arsenal, Philadelphia, PA, through 1874. In 1875, the cartridge was shortened so
that it would also function in the newly adopted S & W Schofield revolver. It was designated “Revolver Cartridge” and loaded with 28 grains of black powder and a bullet of 230 grain.
The Bénet-primed cartridges were manufactured until 1882 and then replaced by reloadable cartridges with brass cases and external primers.
The other cartridge case is head stamped Winchester Repeating Arms Co. 45-60, and the W. C. A. stands for Winchester Centeral Fire on early cartridges, and later on, Centeral was
changed to "center" fire. Just off hand the head stamp would date the cartridge, but I don't have time to look right now. 45-60 was not a real common cartridge, and that might help
date it also. My swag in late 1800's early 1900's.
