Paper shells

[Phillip Carr]

I am not sure how many do what I do, but I regularly hit the gun shows and look for SXS guns. Rarely find great guns but a few have come along. To keep things intreasting I look for paper shells to shoot, not to collect.
Usually find a box or two under $10.00 seems like a fair price for good vintage shells. I shoot a lot of RST's but really like to hunt with these vintage shells. Today I found a guy selling shells. I mentioned I like to shoot paper shells. He told me he had a lot of paper, but many were shells he had for years, none were reloaded, but were loose ( No Boxes). Spent an hour sorting through 4 large Ammo boxes. High graded the shells, did not take any that showed any signs of corrosion. Sold them to me for 16 cents each. Endeed up buying 500 12, 16, and 20 gauge shells. Bought about half of what he had as I did not want anything larger the 6's. After I got home I thought I should have bought the larger shot at that price, just not much besides coyotes to shoot with them. Now the fun begins, sorting them all out. Something about these old :) roll crimped shells with the info on the cardboard insert that is classy.

[Tom Brown]

Sounds about right, recently bought a bunch of loose paper shells of various gauges and shot size, real kool, finished assorting them and their still sitting on the kitchen table. Will probably hoard them until I find time to take them hunting. T

[charlie cleveland]

there is some thing about old shells and old guns that go together...maybe its because they go so well with us old fellows... charlie

[Bill Murphy]

Old shells are a great collecting field. However, like many of us, I have no interest in the rare and valuable, just the interesting. Ten dollars is enough to spend. However, I have made exceptions, like the sealed box of 25 Eley fours, and the Henry Bartholomew Super-X Lubaloys. My favorites are the smallbore railbird loads in #10, #11, and #12. I wonder if that's what those loads were actually used for?

[Dean Romig]

Shot sizes of #11 and #12 were refered to as "dust" shot in olden times and with as many as 1250 pellets per oz. I can't help but wonder if eating game taken with such shot might have resulted in many cases of lead poisoning and even death.

I imaging snipe, woodcock and such game as "four and twenty blackbirds" would have fallen to 10, 11 and 12 shot.

[Dave Noreen]

About a decade ago, Kevin, scored a mixed case of old paper shells at a Richmond gun show. He was really interested in the boxes loaded with #10 shot, and in that I'd driven us to the show, he gave me a nice crisp box of Winchester Super-Speed #6 shot. It was the box style used from the mid-1930s to WW-II. I took them to the Heartland with me and had one in the modified choke barrel of my bird gun, when our first Nebraska rooster of the year flushed wild about 35 yards from me. I dropped into the back trigger and the gun went click! I tried about a dozen shells out of the box and none would fire. So much for putting any faith in elderly primers!!

[Bill Murphy]

I had a similar experience, but only once. I don't shoot collector shells at wild game. Thanks, Dave.

[Kevin McCormack]

#10 shot was THE favored shot size for rail, and a lot of the clubs in South Jersey had them loaded in 100-case lots of 20 boxes ea. during the summer for use on the traditional Sept. 1 opener.

A lot of #10 and #11 were actually used inside barns to shoot pigeons who routinely fouled the hay maws with their droppings. From the barn floor shooting 3 stories up, it would kill the pigeon but not blow a hole in the tin roof. I guess a box of shells was cheaper than a good 1,000 sq. ft. canvas tarp, and definitely cheaper than a reroofing job.

I have always heard #12 shot referred to as "rat shot" but have seen at least a couple of boxes marked "Dust load" at a specialty cartridge show (also saw there the only known at the time full box of Robin Hood .22 Short ammunition - asking price $1200. The cartridge gurus were studying it like a huddle of Bhuddist monks over a prayer wheel. It was gone in half an hour after the dealer put it on the table.

[Alan Brokaw]

I have had lots of problems with these old paper shells not firing but the smell of the old powder with hoppes is pricless I just don't use them for hunting anymore still fun for targets .

[Kevin McCormack]

There is positively no finer aroma than a freshly-fired and ejected Federal Trap Load with the old-fashioned waxed paper case - instant nostalgia! I wish they made a spray-can deodorant of it for freshening up your car after a day's shooting.

[Robert Rambler]

"I wish they made a spray-can deodorant of it for freshening up your car after a day's shooting."

Along with Hoppes #9 aftershave !:rotf:

[Dean Romig]

It is proven fact that the sense of smell is the most powerful and influential sense that connects with memory.
Talk about nostalgia... whenever I smell the smoke from these old shells it brings me back to my youth - back to the fifties when I would walk out the kitchen door on my way to school on opening morning of pheasant season. On certain mornings the burnt powder smoke would hang low in a hazy layer over the meadows and cornfields and I would inhale all that I could and savor it as I listened to the closer pops and distant muffled banging of gunfire. I cherish those boyhood memories.

[Phillip Carr]

You guys are spot on. The smell is one the reasons I love to shoot these paper shells. Reminds me of hunts around Christmas. My brother and I would always ask for a box of Western Super X high base shells. Dad would buy them at FAIRS Sporting goods, our local gun shop. Most of the time we shot the less expensive shells we would buy at Western Auto on sale, or at Yellow Front.
Something about chase a covey of Scale quail early in the morning. ( Ground swiping them) whenever possible. Shooting our single barrels as fast as we could load them, and chasing some more. Smoke curling from the barrels. After the shooting stopped we would get together and count our birds. The smell of the empty’s mixed with quail feathers is a smell I always remember. When I shoot these shells today it takes me back to a time of little worries, and a time of adventure.

[charlie cleveland]

i too love the smell of burnt gun powder.. often when shooting targets pop cans i pull one of those paper hulls from the barrel and take a long whiff ...for a few moments i too am lost in time...the best memories i have are of the 10 ga 3 1/2 inch winchester record hulls...my dad had bought hisself one of those richlands arms 10 ga double barrels...this was the beginning of love at first sight and sound and smell of those wonderful and almost magical shells... ill never forget the writing on the side of these shells.. do not fire in guns weighing under 11 1/2 pounds and with 3 1/2 inch chambers... the love for these old paper shells has not waned over the years.... charlie

[Bill Murphy]

I still have the 28 gauge paper empties I shot in my first Parker when I was a pup. Maybe I should load them up one last time. Of course, then I would shoot them and have this same conversation five years from now. I don't believe I started loading 28s until plastic shells were available, so I will guess that the paper empties are still "once fired". They are Western Super-X and blue Peters with the sticker on the crimp, both #9 skeet loads. Larry, what about the shells in the picture? Tell us about them.

[Dave Noreen]

Bill,

Sure some of those paper 28-gauge hulls are not Col. King "proof shells" from his NSSA skeet shoots at Andrews AFB? He was still handing us referees Winchester Super-Speed paper 28-gauge shells for proofs into the early-1980s. I still have one in my shell collection.

Dave

[Richard Flanders]

I try to hunt exclusively with vintage paper shells except for waterfowl and, except for 16, have an ample supply in every gauge from 28 to 10. I do like the smell and have had only a couple fail to fire.

[Alan Brokaw]

The ones made in the fiftys on up seem to always go off my dad left me with a lot of these, the older ones say in the 1940's about half the primers are dead but what a wounderful fragrence the hoppes #9 boosts the experience I am sure all double gun people know what I am saying.

[Theodore LeDurt]

The smell of fired paper shells bring back memories of when I was to young to go, but was rewarded with my fathers empties upon his return.

Paper shells remind me also that about 10 years back, I made a deal with an older gentleman who lived close by, to purchase his 10 ga, He gave me two boxes of 2 7/8" paper loads. I thought the boxes had an interesting picture on them and took them to the Midwest Decoy Show in St. Charles, Illinois. When the two boxes were pulled from the bag, a collector made me a great deal, the two sold boxes matched what I had paid for the 10ga.

Wish that could happen more often!

[charlie cleveland]

who would have thought that a box of shells would bring such prices...ive given more than i would like to say for a empty box...i wish at least i could have got some loaded shells in them.... theres just something that the old paper hull shells and boxes had that bring out the got to have it in me... charlie

[Bill Bates]

Anyone know if RST paper shells have that smell.

And for those that love Hoppes #9 scent they makes airfreshners
http://www.hoppes.com/products/ca_air_freshener.html

I think I may order some for Chrstmas gifts next year.

[Eric Eis]

Anyone know if RST paper shells have that smell.

And for those that love Hoppes #9 scent they makes airfreshners
http://www.hoppes.com/products/ca_air_freshener.html

I think I may order some for Chrstmas gifts next year.

Love It problem is wife hates the smell so I guess the family room is out :rotf:

[Carl Brandt]

Bill,

Federal Gold Medal Paper shells have that smell. Ther is someone at our range who shootes these and I can't help but pick one up and smell it! I'm sure that any of the younger generation who see me do this think im on drugs, but they do remind me of the shells I used to shoot back in the day.

[Rich Anderson]

The RST paper shells do have that magical aroma as do the paper 16's i get from a friend who does my 16ga reloading. Nothing beats hunting with paper shells:bowdown:

[Mark Landskov]

It is certainly wonderful that RST and Federal provide the aroma, memories, and reliable performance, whilst allowing the collecting fraternity to acquire and preserve the paper shotshells of yesteryear. There were so many variations with topwad markings, headstamps and hull markings to ensure that a person will never run out of different specimens to catalog and add to their collection. I have been out of the collecting circle for years, and have recently started back up. It will give me something to do when my hands fail, and can no longer grasp a firearm. Cheers!

[Dean Romig]

#10 shot was THE favored shot size for rail, and a lot of the clubs in South Jersey had them loaded in 100-case lots of 20 boxes ea. during the summer for use on the traditional Sept. 1 opener.

A lot of #10 and #11 were actually used inside barns to shoot pigeons who routinely fouled the hay maws with their droppings. From the barn floor shooting 3 stories up, it would kill the pigeon but not blow a hole in the tin roof. I guess a box of shells was cheaper than a good 1,000 sq. ft. canvas tarp, and definitely cheaper than a reroofing job.

I have always heard #12 shot referred to as "rat shot" but have seen at least a couple of boxes marked "Dust load" at a specialty cartridge show (also saw there the only known at the time full box of Robin Hood .22 Short ammunition - asking price $1200. The cartridge gurus were studying it like a huddle of Bhuddist monks over a prayer wheel. It was gone in half an hour after the dealer put it on the table.

I just received a book published in 1898 which has some ads in the back and this one caught my eye. It shows all shot sizes and goes right down (up) to size 12 but then there are two tiers above size 12 but they make no mention of what size they are nor what they might be called.


.

[Robin Lewis]

Interesting, I was looking over a 1945 edition of Stoeger Arms Shooter's Bible and the same information caught my eye just yesterday. In fact, I copied the chart and posted it as an FAQ, it also had sizes I didn't know about. I also learned about the physical size change from one size to the next; the number of shot per Oz for both chilled and soft shot, interesting data.

What I posted to FAQ had one size smaller than 12, "Dust". It also had four others, "T", "TT", "F" and "FF" which were new to me!

[Alan Brokaw]

The old 22 shot loads were loaded with 12's the ones with the crimp. cci still makes the ones with the plastic dome they will kill red squirrels at close range that like to get into the cabin .