TRANSITION FROM PAPER TO PLASTIC SHOT SHELLS?

chief38

chief38

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When my Dad passes away 3 years ago I inherited many boxes of Shot Shells and I am trying to date them. They are marked with code stamps but they do not help me much since I do not know how to read their codes. Some of the Company's are not even in business anymore but most of the boxes have a burst of advertising on them stating that they are the new Plastic Type Shells. Brands are Peters, Western, Smith & Wesson, Remington and Winchester.

When I was a kid and first started hunting (1967 - 1968) most of the Shells were made out of paper, so I am thinking that most Company's transitioned from paper to plastic in the late 1960's but that would be a guess.

I'm not looking for exact dates but would like to narrow it down within a year or so if anybody is more educated about this than I. Not worth hours and hours of research, so I figured I'd throw it out here.

I am going to use most of the #5's and #6's for for Pheasant, Grouse & Quail and the #7 1/2's #8's & #9's for Trap & Sporting Clays. I'll save a few of the pristine boxes for posterity and will get a thrill out of hunting and shooting with 40 or 50 year old ammo.

Thanks!

Chief38
 
Hi Chief. Like you I remember seeing the plastic shells around 1966 or 1967. If they were producing them before then I didn't see any.
 
Paper hulls generally are a little softer on recoil but may in your
case still have the paper wads, that can be a problem if shooting into a wind.
Wad flakes may come back and get into your eyes... take care.

If you plan to reload these paper hulls, there are a few wads that
may still work but most use the Federal paper hull, today, since there is data for it.
 
I still remember the smell of my grandfather shooting through boxes of paper hulls.
 
Don't let the eco-weiniees hear you might have lead shot. You'll kill off all the remaining Kali-condors. Those that remember the smell of dad's shot gun shells were playing with death. The priming compound had lead in it. Its what is responsible for our retarded hobby. But its all OK. I remember it too, along with Hoppes #9 and gun oil. And leather.

Don't be foolish and just "shoot up" the old ammo. Just use it sparingly and hope it lasts till you croak.

You could go back and read old shooters bibles or American Rifleman and see the ads. Plastic shells were touted as being a big improvement. They were because they didn't get water logged. I was kind of foolish and gave my oldest son all of his grandfathers reloaded ammo. Along with his Win M12. I still have some of the stash. And I've bought more along the way. About 7 or 8 years ago I found and bought 25 all brass 00 buck shells. But I'm not shooting those.
 
I remember the mid to late 60's as well. As the 1 post stated the Peters were Remington and the Western were Winchester. That is also about time the Remington Express or "High Brass" as we called them came out. They really gave the 2 3/4 inch shells a welcome boost on those long shots and bigger birds like ducks and geese.
 
This is interesting to me as well.
I am trying to date an as new Texan reloader that was made for paper only (and maybe brass).
It does seem to work with plastic (AA) as I have made a couple of good test rounds so far.
The model is their "Crownloader" model A.
I had to make a metal tube for it that enables the priming process and added a MEC black wad guide.
When I get the manual digitized, I will write up a little article on it.

I had guessed that this machine was from the 60's but early.
Your thoughts could put it anywhere from there to the early 70's.

===
Nemo
 
I did post the results in a new thread, but want to report that they all worked 100%. Brought down 9 pheasants with 10 of the old Shells (one bird required two shots as he was flying through the trees. They were marked Remington #6 High Brass and were blue rather than the normal Remington Green.

I thought it was pretty cool hunting with 50 some-odd year old Shells my Dad bought when I was a Kid.
 
I seem to recall that the very first plastic shotshells started appearing in the late 50s and I'm pretty sure I was using them in 1961.
A shotshell collector says that Remington introduced plastic shells in 1960.
http://www.rbs0.com/shotshell.htm
 
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I shot all my Winchester paper wad ammo but still have a few old boxes around like this one...........that I use on special occasions.

241pdlw.jpg
 
You might want to re-consider just shooting these up as some old shells in the original boxes and particularly those by obscure makers have value as collectors items.
Jim
 
I still load paper hulls with blackpowder & use card wads. Cheddite makes primed hulls.
 
If you post the lot numbers on the W-W ammo I might be able to date them for you.

Remington started loading plastic shotshells in 62-63, the Power Piston wad came out in 1963. W-W started loading plastic shotshells in 1964, these were the first compression formed shells. The 28 & 410 shells were still paper through the late 60's.
 
Plastic started being common in mid '60s , and by early '70s was dominate. For a while there plenty of old farts prefered the tried and true paper instead of that newfangled plastic. Just like everybody didn't sell off their revolvers and 1911's the first month Glock 17 went on the market.

However the Express aka High Brass was not an introduction of the 1960's . The High Brass aka 3 3/4eqiv 1 1/4oz @ 1330fps dates back to at least the 1920's . They were initially best known in the Winchester version known as Super X . What DID come into semi common usage in the '60s was the *Short Mag* , aka 2.75 inch with 1.5 oz shot .

The biggest revolution in shotshells wasn't the external hull material , but the one piece shotcup/wad . As an entire class they patterned much tighter than the previous fiber and felt wads , with the shot actually touching the bbl.
 
Another weird thing is that there are BLUE Shells in a Remington box - and this was an unopened factory fresh one too! Guess someone screwed up!
 

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chief38 said:
Another weird thing is that there are BLUE Shells in a Remington box - and this was an unopened factory fresh one too! Guess someone screwed up!
Click to expand...

Are they head-stamped Remington? For a long time blue was used for Peters brand shells while Remington used green. After WWII both were made in the same plant. Each had it's own head-stamp, either Peters or Remington. In the late 60's they phased out the Peters line, wonder if they just used up material on hand?
 
If you look at the first photo closely you can see that they are marked Remington - Peters. I guess by using both names they covered the bases. I wonder of any Green Remington Shells made their way into Peters Boxes.....
 
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