I recently inherited an assortment of gunsmithing equipment and odd rounds of ammunition. Among the ammunition samples (many of which I'd never heard of) were .219 Zipper, .257 Roberts, and .32 Winchester Special. There was also a single live round of what appears to be a .45 ACP cartridge. The headstamp says E C 43. Can anyone shed some light on what this cartridge is, where it was made, etc.? Thanks in advance, and please be polite when telling me I'm stupid for not previously knowing that a .219 Zipper is a necked-down 30-30 (learned that at http://home.mindspring.com/~morrison3).

EC means it was made by Evansville Chrysler. It has a steel casing and a corrosive primer. The government used a lot of steel casing ammo for training purposes.

The 43 should be the year of manufacture... antique ammo at this point. It should be safe to shoot, but why do it?

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Proud anachronism

Now you need to buy a 1943 produced .45 auto to go with the round. (display only). I have a 1944 Winchester M-1 Carbine and a box of 1944 ammo for display. (I still shoot the Carbine, but I use relatively current '70's ammo).

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Minimize the variables

I'd love to have a 1911 (recent manufacture); but that's not in the budget right now (got a daughter getting married soon). As for your Winchester, I'd gladly trade my AR for an American-made, wood-stock M1!

Hi
I have six 50 round boxes of E C 42 pistol ball
brass cases not steel
lot E. C. s24115
Evansville ordnance plant
Came along with my Colt 1911 serial no. 185xxx-reissued in WW 2
Neat things are still out there .
Keep looking
The best to you
carbone131

If you have more than 20 or so rounds of the .32 Spl., you might want to advertise it for sale. There are still a lot of old Win. Model 94s and other lever guns chambered for it and it's fairly hard to find. It's a nice round almost identical to the .30-30.

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USAF, 69-92
Vietnam, 72-73