antique 45 Colt bullet WRA Co. found

[Step N. Mud]

Not a biggie, but wondered when this 45 Colt ammo was made. Searched a bit on google. Coolest part about finding this was on our property in far west Texas, way out in the desolate high desert where no man ought to be. Can only imaging a lost pistolero with a 45 Colt revolver dropping this round while hunting or running. Made before rifles could chamber 45Colt ammo.

 

[lestert357]

Is that a nickel shell?

 

[Step N. Mud]

Believe it to be brass.

 

[DWalt]

It could be any time before the 1960s when the W-W headstamp began. If the case is nickel plated, that wasn’t common prior to the 1930s. If you wanted to pull the bullet to check the powder, Smokeless powder would probably make it from post-1900.

 

[pmanton]

It doesn't seem to have much of a rim.

 

[ralph7]

It could be any time before the 1960s when the W-W headstamp began. If the case is nickel plated, that wasn’t common prior to the 1930s. If you wanted to pull the bullet to check the powder, Smokeless powder would probably make it from post-1900.

Seems to me, the lack of a rim makes it a very old cartridge, think the nickel look is due to it being cleaned rigorously.

 

[Bruce51]

The case is the old balloon head rather than the solid head type.

It lacks the cut above the rim because that area is not solid.

I have found the regular .45 shell holder does not work with the balloon head cases.

I have several of these marked W.R.A.
45 Colt Also WRA CO and Western.

B51

 

[ArchAngelCD]

I'm not up on all the older cartridges but that sure looks old to me by it's construction.

How many do you have?

 

[Step N. Mud]

Only have this one, as me and son where camping on our piece of ground some miles north of Big Bend Park and son found it on top of the ground and did clean the case. We got some more exploring to do.

 

[TripleLock]

The headstamp on Winchester manufactured .45 Colt cartridges transitioned from W.R.A.Co. to WRA right around 1938.

Jim

 

[Tim357]

It doesn't seem to have much of a rim.

Correct. That's the original design for the cartridge. All that was needed was enough to keep the cartridge in the chamber. That's why the original repeating rifles weren't chambered in .45 Colt, not enough rim for decent extraction.

 

[30-30remchester]

I like stuff like that. My suggestion is to mark the spot where found. A 10" house spike could be cold stamped with find info and drive the spike into the ground. I always leave any fired brass, that I shot at game, where it fell after the shot. Let's people wonder years later what happened at this spot.

 

[glowe]

Depends on the caliber when changes were made with regards to the stampings on Winchester cartridges. There are some calibers that still show the W.R.A. Co. up to WWII. This stamp dates back to the 1880s. Your case is nickel, it does not have a heeled bullet, and it has a domed primer, so my best guess is sometime in the 1930s-1940s.

The silver appearance is almost certainly nickel since polished brass will show a gold/yellow color. Nickel does not show up until sometime after the turn of the Twentieth Century. Heeled bullets were mostly exposed, the same diameter, or slightly larger than the outside case dimensions with exposed grease grooves. A major reason to get rid of this type of bullet is that the greased bullet would collect dirt and wear off if handled. Looking at the head of the bullet, only a small part of it is set inside and the majority of the bullet is left exposed. The attached shows a heeled bullet. Domed primers were available into WWII.

 

[bigmoose]

OP, you own some beautiful land out there in West Texas.

 

[DWalt]

I’m not aware that the .45 Colt cartridge (or the .45 S&W/Schofield) was ever loaded using a heeled bullet, only inside lubricated. Its immediate military predecessor was the .44 Colt cartridge, which did use a heeled bullet having a .45” diameter and was adopted by the US Army to a limited extent for a very short time. While it was actually a .45 caliber, for some reason it was called a .44. Probably because it was used in cartridge conversions of the .44 Colt 1860 Army C&B revolver.

 

[glowe]

I’m not aware that the .45 Colt cartridge (or the .45 S&W/Schofield) was ever loaded using a heeled bullet, only inside lubricated. Its immediate military predecessor was the .44 Colt cartridge, which did use a heeled bullet

The early CF bullets were most often heeled, as the ammunition manufacturers were still influenced by the 22 rimfire bullet design. In the early 1870s, most popular handgun calibers were not heeled. As DeWalt mentioned, the 44 Colt was heeled and the image I posted was a 44 S&W American. Other heeled bullets are pretty easy to spot and were often called, and were called "balloon head". I think most were hollow base, making it easier to crimp into the case and theoretically the expanding skirt added accuracy and velocity.

 

[DWalt]

The .44 American cartridge used a heeled bullet, but the Russians had a better idea, namely, to use an inside lubricated bullet cartridge for their revolvers. Thus the .44 Russian was developed which much later begat the .44 S&W and the .44 Magnum.