One of the guys asked me for a 450 BPE cartridge case for his collection, not a problem says I. Looked around and found an old ELEY-London case I'd found years ago. The only problem was I needed to mail this thing and the primer was still intact. OK, I'll just drop this old puppy in my 450 and drop the hammer on it, surely won't go off, and then it'll be OK to mail. Title says the rest of the story. Just finished pouring enough boiling water thru the barrel to make high tea for twelve followed by a slathering of oil and will check again in a day or so.
Those old guys made good primers, that one had to have been 120-130 years old! I'm sure that if the cartridge had been complete it would have gone of in fine form. Not sure what the moral of the story is other than old ain't nessesarily dead.

So what eneded up getting a .450" hole on the recieving end?

Not a thing, it was an empty case with a live primer. No way would I have done this with a loaded round, no matter how old.