Old .38 Special ammo

[CLT65]

Funny what you can find at the range. I got a bit of a kick out of this, thought I'd share just for fun. People are digging out the old odds and ends for shooting ammo, it seems.

It's rare to find any brass besides 9mm, .40 S&W, .45acp, and the occasional .380 on the ground, so I picked up some .38 Specials when I spotted them. One round was still live.

I noticed right off that it was different. I've never been a serious collector, but I've been interested in, accumulated and handled old ammo since I was a kid. I knew this was an OLD round- balloon head case, copper primer, headstamp. Also not a reload.





I got home early today and am sitting at my desk, saw the round sitting there so I stuck it in the kinetic bullet puller and pulled it apart. Instead of the typical small amount of gray gunpowder that you'd find in the typical .38 Special, I find a case full of white powder. Under magnification it looks like Rice Crispies.

My first thought was one of the early "bulk" smokeless powders, black powder substitute. I did a little looking around on the internet and read about DuPont #2 Bulk, and found a photo on a forum, which I borrowed and attached (credit to w44wcf, whoever that is ) That sure looks a lot like what I found.

Anyhow, I thought it was an interesting thing to find laying on the ground, one dud and two empties that did fire. I wonder if whoever fired them realized that they were well over a hundred years old.

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[Andy54Hawken]

Someone's granddad....
Is looking at his cartridge collection board and wondering WTH...
Where did all my .38 Special go...?!!!!!!
Andy

 

[Mikej]

...And, "Cat Litter" was invented!
And 60 years ago my dad made it MY job to find dry dirt in the yard for the cat box in the basement!

 

[RVTECH]

I once found a similarly old, and probably one of the first, .357 Magnum rounds while kicking up some brass in the dirt at an outdoor shooting area near me that has been used a lot over the years.

It had probably been there a long time as the brass was getting corroded through but it was an old one.

Also as an avid metal detectorist I have found many old rounds over the years as well, including a couple all brass SG shells.

 

[jbett98]

I bought a 1924 Colt Official Police .38 Spl from a pawn shop for cheap that had 6 lead bullets lodged in the bulging barrel.
I always wondered what ammo could have caused it, now I know.

 

[CLT65]

I know some people hate Unique gunpowder, call it "flaming dirt". Well, I guess they've never laid eyes on this stuff.

BTW, I like Unique myself, but to each their own.

 

[Mikej]

I know some people hate Unique gunpowder, call it "flaming dirt". Well, I guess they've never laid eyes on this stuff.

BTW, I like Unique myself, but to each their own.

"Flaming Dirt"

I can respect it for what it is, but, I'll leave it to you guys. I found other powers to do the jobs I needed done.
When is the last time anyone even saw Unique on shelves or on-line anyway?

 

[RVTECH]

When is the last time anyone even saw Unique on shelves or on-line anyway?

Probably when I bought an 8# jug a couple years ago - and glad I did!

A finer mid range . 30-30 powder doesn't exist and in .30-30 it burns completely with no residue!

 

[whiskeybill]

"Flaming Dirt"

I can respect it for what it is, but, I'll leave it to you guys. I found other powers to do the jobs I needed done.
When is the last time anyone even saw Unique on shelves or on-line anyway?

Unique is a much more flexible powder than most folks think, and it is one that I have an ample supply of. As far as seeing it on the shelves these days, it's manufactured by Alliant, and we don't see much of any of those powders on the shelves.

Speaking of a dirty powder, Re 15 has a similar reputation amongst the rifle snobs. "It's too dirty". But it too is a very flexible propellant. I just bet there's a lot more "closet" users of Unique and Re 15 than people think. Several years ago a rifle snob was short of powders, and I offered to sell him a couple pounds of Re 15. He looked down his nose and declined. (It's too dirty). A few months later he "discreetly" approached me to see if I still would sell him that Re 15. Now that''s desperate!

 

[fredball]

Someone's granddad....
Is looking at his cartridge collection board and wondering WTH...
Where did all my .38 Special go...?!!!!!!
Andy

Hay hay hay I resemble that remark

 

[gmerkt]

I wonder if that powder in the pictures above was white like that when the cartridge was assembled.

One time, I opened up some real old .32-20 (.32 WCF) cartridges which contained a small doughnut shaped powder. Like Trail Boss. It's hard to say what it was. In his book Complete Guide to Handloading, Phil Sharpe describes all the old powders (as of circa 1937) and there he mentioned several as "perforated discs" measuring .008 x .002.

Of the pictures in Sharpe's book, the powder shown in the OP above looks most like DuPont SR #80, which he describes as "the finest mid-range and gallery powder." But ID'ing gunpowder by pictures isn't exact.

 

[gmerkt]

...And, "Cat Litter" was invented!
And 60 years ago my dad made it MY job to find dry dirt in the yard for the cat box in the basement!

In the days before Jonny Cat?

My old cat is 16-1/2 years old now. He's been an indoor cat most of his life. But he still hankers to go outside. No longer, but there was a time when I'd let him go out for short periods. He'd want back in fairly soon. I came to realize, he would never do his business outdoors. He'd hold it and wait until he came back inside. These days, he will wait by the front door for opportunities to shoot outside. When he does make a successful break of it, he circles around to the back of the house and wants back in again right away. He spends most of his time next to the wood stove.

I've had the thought that investment in cat sand mines would be a good one. It's something that there is a continual demand for, like toilet paper.