✅ SOLVED Old bullet casings

Lamy Lineman

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Can anyone give me an approximate age of these casings? I found them in the Glorieta Pass area, NM,. One casing has no markings at all. The history of this area is historic. Spanish Conquistador, Pueblo Indian, and Old Santa Fe Trails. Civil War battle, Amtrak ( Southwest Chief ) line.
 

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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.
 

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Winchester manufactured the .45-60 from 1879-1938...but the WRA Co headstamp was in only in use from 1886 to the mid 1930's. It's a nice find.

Doug
 

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Thanks for the info. This Glorieta area is so full of history. Hope I can find more. Want to say, This websight is the AWSOME... Many Thanks...
 

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