Name that caliber 2..........
 

Ok, you guys did pretty good on the new stuff. Here are a few cartridges from about a century ago that might be a little more difficult. I did include a scale to help you along!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1363780787.jpg

Hint, there is one British round and one rimfire round in this group. Good luck!

Your best shot.........
 

What, almost 50 "lookers" and no guesses? Come on, give it your best shot!

That is some strange looking stuff there Fred! I'm definitely not a candidate for your quiz, but do wonder about the center round in the pic? How in the world is it loaded into the weapon?

strange stuff indeed. Do you have a piece for each of those rounds? Can we see pics?

Cheers Richard

Stranger than friction......
 

The round that you are asking about came into existance during the American War of Secession. Without giving too much away, the breech block would swing up exposing the chamber. The round was inserted from the front and when the breech was closed it would move forward slightly. The bulge at the bullet end would act as a seal between the breech block and the barrel. Oh, yes, this cartridge required a percussion cap to fire. A large number of these weapons were purchased by the US govt and issued to Calvary units.

#3 looks like a .41 rimfire, swiss.
I've seen #7 before, but cannot think of it just now. Also, it is the one I think is the brit round.

Nice try......
 

#3 is an inside primed round. The small crimp near the base holds the primer in place. #7 is for an American military rifle and machine gun.

#4 looks like a .54 Burnside carbine cartridge. War of Northern Aggression union firearm.

i sucked in the first go around..this round is CRAZY!! how does that tapered round load up in a chamber?

I caught that.....sure your family was in the south before the War of the Southern Rebellion

The beveled one was probably for a block loader and slid into the bolt(block). I'm thinking the 7th ones is a French Lebel ?

Oops some reason I missed Fred's 2nd post .......ya what he said....

Yes! .54 Burnside. 6 to go!

Number 2 kind of looks like a cartridge round for an 1851 navy 36 cal with a cartridge conversion.

Except #2 is over 50 caliber!

Just a guess on #7 being 30-06.

I apparently suck at this too...

No. 7
 

Nope, #7 is less than 30 caliber.

The order is......
 

The first one on the left is over 69 caliber, #2 is almost 58 caliber, #3 is over 50 caliber, #4 is the .54 Burnside, #5 is over .45 caliber, #6 is over .45 caliber and #7 is less than 7mm. As I said earlier, all are cartridges for American firearms except for one and the firearm that uses it was invented by an American!

Wow Fred neat stuff but I have no idea!!

Last cartridge on right....
 

Is a 6mm Lee Navy aka 236 USN. It was a very early attempt (circa 1895) to go with a small bore, high velocity round. It was used in the Winchester Lee Navy Straight Pull rifle and was chambered in the Colt potato digger machine gun. This was the rifle that the Marines at the American Legation in Peking would have had during the Boxer rebellion. This particular cartridge is a dummy functioning round. It has an inert primer, no powder and two small holes drilled in the case body.

Another freebie.........
 

The cartridge that is second from the right is the bottle necked Spencer 56-46 rimfire cartridge. It was made for the small number of Spencer sporting rifles that were made between 1859 and about 1880. The Spencer rifle loaded by way of a tube in the buttstock much like many .22 rifles do now. The Spencer operated by cocking the hammer, operating the trigger guard lever to move a round into the chamber and then fired by pulling the trigger. The next shot required repeating this operation. When the lever was pulled down the second time, the empty cartridge is ejected and a fresh round fed into the chamber. During the Great American War of Secession, Union calvary troopers equipped with Spencer carbines chambered for the 56-56 or 56-52 version of this round were able to put down a heavy volume of fire, allowing smaller numbers of Union troopers to repel larger forces of Confederate calvary and infantry. Extra rounds were carried in a device known as a Blakselee box. It had as many as 7 tubes, each holding 7 rounds of ammunition. When it became time to reload, the spring fed follower tube was removed from the buttstock and a tube of 7 fresh rounds was simply poured into the stock tube. The spring follower was replaced and the gun was ready to fire again.

Far right looks like it may be a 38-40 or possibly 44-40. There were a few larger cal rim fires then...Henry rifle, and a 45 and 44 Schfield.

Third from right is............
 

.50 Navy rolling block pistol. It is an inside primed round with the telltell crimps just above the rim. The case is a balloon head style so it is easy to mistake one of these for a rimfire. The US Navy bought a couple thousand of the Remington rolling block pistols, some in 1865 and some in 1867. There was also an Army version of this pistol that used a slightly different round, also 50 caliber.

One in the middle........
 

.54 Burnside carbine round. Required a separate percussion cap to fire. Wierd design, but these guns were popular with the Union calvary troopers as they were very reliable and easy to clean and maintain. As long as they are not damaged (mashed) the cases can be reloaded.

Third from the left is.........
 

a .58 Carbine inside primed centerfire round circa 1867-8. It replaced the .58 rimfire round originally used in the Springfield rifles converted to breechloaders. The inside primed cases were of the balloon head style but having the primer assembly in the base made them less likely to burst at the rim. These rounds were only used/made for 3-4 years until the outside primed center fire ammunition was developed. Of course, the .58 caliber was used to allow the original barrels in the Springfield muzzle loaders to be retained thus lessening the cost to rebuild them into breechloaders.

Second from left is
 

.577 Snider with the coiled brass case. This is an externally primed centerfire cartridge for the British Snider rifles and carbines. The Sniders came along about the same time as the Springfield Trapdoors. The design was created by an American who offered his conversion method to the U.S. but was turned down. He then took the idea to the British where it was adopted. The British Snider rifles and carbines were used well into the next century, especially in areas like India and Afganistan.

The big boy.........
 

The cartridge on the left is the very rare Winchester 70-150-900 centerfire round. The numbers indicated a bore of .70 caliber, 150 grains of black powder and a 900 grain bullet. While the case appears to be a necked down brass 12 gauge piece, it is actually a special case made to use a large rifle prime instead of a shotgun primer. I can't even begin to imagine the recoil this thing must have generated! Depending on who you believe, Winchester made either one or a very small number of double rifles based on their 12 gauge shotgun frame. It is thought that most of the examples of this cartridge have come from Winchester bullet boards from the late 1880s. As far as I know, no one at this point in time claims to have one of the double rifles or knows where one is located. Winchester did make a few double rifles chambered for the 45-70 cartridge but that, of course was a much smaller (.45 caliber vs .70 caliber) bullet.