✅ SOLVED Possible WWII casing??

[gberl001]

I found this casing about four inches in the dirt of my backyard. I looked around online and the best I can come up with is that it is a Frankford Arsenal round possibly around the WWII era. I could make out "F A" on the upper portion and "3 05" or .3, the round is smushed so it's difficult to tell. I have no idea about bullet casings or how to read them but I assume this is an easy identification.

 

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[Charlie P. (NY)]

Good find. That may well be a Frankford Arsenal .30-03 brass case. In 1906 it was altered a bit to become the .30-06

 

[BosnMate]

The 3 05 probably means March, 1905.

 

[1shotwade]

Measure the inside diameter of the neck and the over all length and you should be able to match it up with any modern cartridge. For instance a 308 is actually 30 cal projectile and the case 7.62 is the length,or 30-06 is 30 cal x 7.61.
You might check the neck to see if it has a small bend at the end. If so it is from being ejected from an auto loader.That may help narrow it down some.

Wade

I just re-read this and I must have had a little "senior Moment " when typing this. I was trying to get at 308=7.62x51 vs. 30-06=7.62x 61 .Any,correction made.Wade

 

[gberl001]

The 3 05 probably means March, 1905.

Wow! I wasn't even going to bother investigating this at first because it seemed fairly recent and likely a common find, I figured it was just some old casing from someone shooting a pest. As another member mentioned, I will definitely dig out my calipers for this one, now I am really intrigued. I guess this is no longer a possible WWII casing then.

Also, I should've taken a profile picture so I'm posting some now next to a convenient ruler... I won't be able to get my calipers out until later tonight.

 

[DixieLandMan]

I have to measure some of my brass but it may be a .308 round and the '05' would mean 2005. I'll measure some tonight and make sure though.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

I think Charlie P and BosnMate are correct... it is a "developmental" US Army .30-06 Springfield Rifle cartridge-casing. As BosnMate said, the "F A 3 05" marking means it was manufactured in March 1905 at the Frankford Arsenal. Go to the following webpage and scroll down to the "Development of the .30-06 Cartridge" section (with time-dating info, and a photo showing the markings). According to the info there, your fired casing is a Model-1903, shown third-from-the-left in the photo.
THE CARTRIDGE COLLECTOR

 

[gberl001]

That is really interesting, any idea what type of gun would have fired this round at that time or were there a bunch? I'm curious because I live in a fairly residential neighborhood, even looking at maps from 1904 all of the neighboring houses are shown. My house was built in 1892. I am just wondering why someone would've owned/fired a round like that in such a populated area. Sorry, I like to really get into the story behind these sorts of things, I like to think of what might have been going on around that time, I realize that it could just be some random casing that someone kept as a keepsake and lost or any number of other reasons.

The red square is my lot in the 1904 map (77' by 154.5') and the blue mark is where I found the shell. The part behind my lot (looking from the road) is all open now, can't tell what it was in 1904, maybe it was wooded and someone was actually implementing pest control or maybe just target practice...


Oh well, enough conjecture, thanks for all of the help, I think this one is solved.

 

[BosnMate]

Like CBG said, it's a developmental cartridge, the people at Frankford Arsenal were developing higher velocity smokeless cartridges, which ended with the 30-06. The numbers in 30-06 represent .30 caliber, and the 06 stands for 1906 when the cartridge was adopted. Odds are it wasn't fired in your back yard. My swag (scientific wild azzed guess) is the guy brought the developmental case home to show to others what he was doing at work. The army replaced the 45-70 which was adopted in 1873, with the 30-40 Krag in 1892, and in 1903 the army wanted a higher velocity cartridge, so they adopted the .30-03. In only three years the 30-06 was adopted, and that one lasted for 50 years. I still shoot 30-06. Your case is dated March of 1905, so I would figure your case is a .30-03 and fairly rare as far as cartridge cases go.

 

[gberl001]

I know I marked this as solved, and it is, but I was curious if a value could be placed on this, or should I post that in the 'How much is it worth' forum? I know it isn't in the best condition but after reading online a bit about the 1903 rifle and the 30-03 cartridge, it does seem pretty rare. I probably wouldn't sell it even if I could even find someone wiling to buy it but I am really glad I didn't toss this, it crossed my mind but this has some really neat history tied in that I would've missed out on.

The other thing I'm curious of too, can you tell if it has been fired? BosnMate, you mention that it was likely not fired in my backyard, however, Frankford Arsenal is in Philidelphia while I live in western NY so I don't think he worked there unless there was some subsidiary somewhere nearby.

 

[Red James Cash]

The other thing I'm curious of too, can you tell if it has been fired?

If the primer is indented by the firing pin then it was fired.

 

[BosnMate]

If the primer is indented by the firing pin then it was fired.

Yes, it's been fired. In the condition it's in, I'd figure it isn't worth much, it's worth more to you as a find than it is to a collector. I collect 45-70 ammo, and for the most part I want loaded cartridges in fairly good shape, not badly damaged empty's.

 

[gberl001]

Great, thanks for all of the help... maybe I can find a buried rifle...