Mystery Cartridge

01 May 2002, 07:08

<Juneau>

Mystery Cartridge

Need some help with this one. My sister-in-law is an antique dealer, and the other day through an estate purchase, she became the owner of a cartridge belt with 14 rounds of mystery ammo in the loops. There are no head stamps (some kind of basic brass?), but my brother miked one of the rounds, and I have the following specs. (measurements in inches or fractions thereof). This is a rimmed/flanged, bottle neck, cartridge.

1. Over all length of loaded cartridge = 2.830
2. Length of case = 2.230
3. Length of neck = .450
4. Diameter of rim = .635
5. Thickness of rim - .098
6. Diameter of case midway from rim to shoulder = .512
7. Diameter of case neck - .457
8. Diameter of bullet (non-jacketed)= .427

Someone who saw the cartridges made a guess of a "43 Spanish" (whatever that is). Any other suggestions as to what it might be?

01 May 2002, 07:14

Brent

quote:

Someone who saw the cartridges made a guess of a "43 Spanish" (whatever that is). Any other suggestions as to what it might be?[/B]

There are a number of .43s, Spanish, Egyptian, Argentine, and probably others as well. Is the bullet paper patched and what sort of powder is in it?

Brent

01 May 2002, 07:44

<Juneau>

Brent,

All the cartridges are still intact, so don't know about the powder, but the bullets are NOT paper patched

JNU

01 May 2002, 13:26

LongDistanceOperator

I have a .43 Spanish round and your measurements are within .001"-.002". Another .43 round could be even closer, however.

What I find interesting is that there was apparently a machinegun for this

01 May 2002, 13:31

Nitroman

Are the belt metal or cloth? The belt if metal; are the links like chainmail looking or are they semi-open figure 8 shaped?

Better yet could you post a pic?

02 May 2002, 09:23

<centerpunch>

[ 06-15-2002, 03:57: Message edited by: centerpunch ]

02 May 2002, 08:09

bpesteve

Another possibility might be the 10.75x58R Russian Berdan; most of the measurements would come close except the neck diameter stated as .457". Berdans also were typically paper-patched as well.

The .098" rim thickness seems odd to me for a Spanish, but Spanish seems the most likely.