Oddball rounds

[Ownerus]

#22 looks like .303 Brit, 23 6.5 Arisaka maybe and 25 looks like an early .45-70.

 

[CLT65]

Still batting a thousand. #21 is also a common surplus chambering, though this specimen is a very early one that's hard to recognize (1900). The .303 British #22 is a very early one too, from the same era.

Another hint: 24 is related to 23.

 

[Ownerus]

24 is likely 7.7 Arisaka

 

[orygun]

Is #25 a 45-70?

 

[CLT65]

Absolutely!

#16 is an odd one that I've never been able to figure out definitively. The cartridge is a giveaway: a common .38 Special. The loading is a mystery. I got a handful of these at a gun show many years ago, and foolishly fired one.

As you can see, the "bullet" is precisely machined aluminum, with a bump on the tip that looks like a firing pin. I can tell you for sure that whatever it is, it's not intended to be fired in a handgun. Inside that case, under that aluminum bullet, are several more precisely machined brass components, some mesh of some kind, and more than one kind of propellant or pyrotechnic. Firing it in a revolver propelled the aluminum projectile into the forcing cone where it got stuck, then a delay, then red flames for a second or two as I recall, but that was decades ago.

The case has "ORDCO DEC. 59" and some lot numbers and such imprinted on it. The best I can come up with searching the internet is some info on a company called Ordco, that made cutters for the drogue parachute cables for the early space program. I don't know for sure if that's what these are, but they are certainly a complex, specific tool cartridge for something special. If anyone has any insight into this sort of thing, I'd be interested.

 

[CLT65]

Here's a list of what's in that photo, including those already identified, in no particular order:

.22 BB cap
7.5mm Swiss
.45-70 Govt
.410 shotshell
9mm Luger
.30 Mauser
.25 Steven Long
5.45x39mm
8x56R Hungarian
7.65 Belgian Mauser (actually I just realized there are two of these. I intended one to be an 8x57 but just noticed my mistake)
.500 S&W Magnum
.22 Hornet
.38 ACP
6.5 Arisaka
7.7 Arisaka
.25 ACP/6.35mm
.32 ACP/7.65mm
30-06 incendiary
7.62x45mm Czechoslovakian
.30 Carbine blank
.30 Luger
.303 British
.250 Savage
.44 Magnum
.45 ACP
7.62x38R Nagant
.38 Special tool cartridge