I am pretty desperately looking around these days for shootable factory-loaded cartridges for my TCR .32-40.

I have come upon a fella who has a couple of boxes of "John Wayne" .32-40s loaded by Winchester, and packaged in an apparently "special" white box with a picture of "The Duke"on them. BUT, he wants $30 per box!! That strikes me as pretty steep for ammo that is of relatively recent manufacture (1980's, I think).

I know that whether a person wants them depends on how badly he needs them, but is that price out of line, or reasonable for what they are?

I don't collect boxes, but in this case the price is based on the boxes value as a collector piece, and on the value of the ammo (it also has a "special" headstamp) to collectors.

Over at www.auctionarms.com under ammo for shooting there are 3 sellers with boxes listed, in the $20-22 range, while on the ammo for collecting section it's closer to $4-5 per round (although there is a partial box of 13 that's currently at $7)

Now, the 32-40 case looks to be fairly easy to make from 375Win brass, Anneal the case, trim and chamfer, F/L size.

If you are set-up to reload this cartridge, I have some recent production Winchester 1xF .38-55 brass which I would sell, $25 / 100 plus S&H.

quote:

Originally posted by Iconoclast:
If you are set-up to reload this cartridge, I have some recent production Winchester 1xF .38-55 brass which I would sell, $25 / 100 plus S&H.

Thank you Iconoclast. Actually, I have several hundred rounds of new Winchester brass on hand, and DO reload for the .32-40. (Shot some of them at the range today. matter of fact.) I just like to have a few boxes of factory ammo for all my rifles, both to shoot sometimes as "controls" or "benchmarks" and to take with me when I take a rifle from one country to another. Also allows me to note some basic factory specs, such as OAL, how much the brass expands at base with factory loads, etc.

Also, thanks to all of you for your responses. The information about the collector's value is worth having in evaluating whether to buy any ammo I happen to find.

Berta,
The once fired John Wayne empty cases are bringing $1 or more each on ebay now.
Not long ago I bid on a batch of 120 once fired John Wayne nickel empties and they went for $140.
No from me though !!!