Just wondering if you can list your Africa calibers, or meaning the big classic rifle calibers that are in your collection, the more I read about cartridges, the more odd and seldom heard cartridges I hear of. Mine are quite simple at the moment being the 375Holland&Holland, .458Winchester Magnum, and a huge empty brass case being the .460Weatherby Magnum. I also have a .405Winchester made famous over there. Care to name some names?

You can call your African Caliber collections exactly that , or split it into British Sporting, American Sporting , European Sporting , Magnum calibers - whatever suits your need.

What you do need is a list showing caliber ,headstamp , projectile type , any other important information etc.

Once you have some sort of referance listing you know what you have and what you need. My referance is a small , loose-leaf folder that basically details every specimen I have listed by caliber so I can flip to a page of 375 H&H and say " yeah , I have that one " or " theres one I need " .

Once again , you will amass an accumulation of common calibers and variants fairly easily , then you will find you are specifically interested in ,say, rimfires and set out to get as many different rimfires as you can. that will amuse you for a while - till the ones you need cost more than you find acceptable , so then you go off on another tangent and collect , say , 5.56x45 variants , and so on.

Sounds like you have the bug , and there really is no cure except keep collecting . Have fun

Partial list of my commercial "african calibers". I have several wildcats too

375 - 378 - 416 - 460 Weath mag
470 capstick
458 Win mag - Lott
416 taylor
416 Hoffman
416 Rem mag
416 - 450 Rigby
500 Jeffery
505 Gibbs
404 Jeffery
11.2 x 72 Schuler
10.75 x 68
425 Westley Richards
375 RUM - JRS- Blaser - Black Mesa
375 - 404 - 416 - 450 Dakota
375 - 416 Lazzeroni short and long versions
475 Lazzeroni Lilmufu
400/450 3" - 400/450 3 1/4" - 450 - 450 #2 - 500/450 - 500/465 - 470 - 475 - 475 #2 - 476 - 500 3" - 577/500 - 577 3" - 577 3 1/4" - 600/577 - 600 - 700 NE ' s
376 Steyr
375 H&H belted & flanged
375 - 416 Ruger
495 - 460 - 500 A-Square
450 Ackley mag
577 T-Rex
...

Dirty
Check your e-mail

If you want to get into cartridge collecting you need to start with a copy of CARTRIDGES OF THE WORLD by Frank Barnes. You can usely find older editions of the book at gunshows for alot less than the lates and there not that much added to the newer. Its a rule of thumb that "the bigger the shell the more it will cost" and you are looking for big shells. Here are the addresses of three places online that have a good list of shells and prices. www.colcartinc.com www.ammo-one.com www.oldammo.com/index.htm After you get the book mark the page with the shells that you already have so you don't get a 2nd one and mark the pages of the ones you want with the price that you can get it online. When you go to gun shows you will see a lot of the tables will have a coffee can(or tray) with old shells in it for 25 or 50cents. You are not going to find a 600 Nitro or 577 in there but for 25 cents each you can get alot of shells that you don't have. I have found $5 shells in coffee cans for 25 cents. The thing you need to know is what you can buy a shell for online before you buy. Some shows even have a couple of tables selling mainly shells. If you see a box of shells that you want, ask if they will sell you just one as they may have a partial box.

quote:

CARTRIDGES OF THE WORLD by Frank Barnes.

Sir - wash your mouth out with soap!

That book is the bottom of the list as a referance work of any merit . In fact , its only merit is the number of mistakes each successive publication of it perpetuates , both older cartridges and newer listings.

If someone gives you a copy , you could be excused for actually doing as you said and marking those calibers you have in your collection , but as a serious reference book - nah , nyet , nein , non, no, no, no .

There are many , many far more reputable books on the cartridge subject than that one .

rant over ...

Muzza, I have the 9th edition .I think that chapters about British cartridges is written quite well...they only scratched the surface writing about pistol/revolver cartridges and European numbers. Only the most common wildcats are described in the book.Very scarce info about military cartridges too

I think that P.O. Ackley books are the best sources for wildcat infos .Also the Donnelly book describes a lot of wildcats.Huon and Hoyem for GENERAL military cartridges , Brandt for Pistol/revolver ammo , Brad Dixon for European stuff are very good works, in my opinion

Muzza: you need to yank you head ot of your Obama. This person is just starting to collect. This IS the book to start out with. He wants generel information, not if a rim dia. is .532 not .536".

Guess we will have to agree to disagree FA.

We all collect differantly , differant ideas of what we want . I know what I dont want as a referance book......

Thanks for the links!!

I ordered a copy of Cartridges of The World, not long after I got started.

Muzza

What are the other books you refer to for infomation?


All I have is Barnes book also.


Cal30

Guys - any of the books by Amory Publications are good , the 3 by Hackley,Woodin and Scranton are excellant for US martial cartridges post 1880-ish. Chuck Suydam wrote several very good books on rimfire US cartridges and US handgun cartridges and there are a multitude of others out there covering very limited fields like say , The Maynard cartridges through to the likes of 5.56x45 development.

Pretty much name a cartridge or calibre and there will be a referance book featuring it .

Another very good set that evry collector should own is the 4 volumes "Cartridges for Collectors" by Datig , readily available on Ebay and from Amazon and other places.

Once you see some of these better referance works you will also see how Cartridges of the World really is the poor relation of the referance library. Its an ok book for a first book , but in my opinion you soon move beyond its capacity. jmho