In the period from the mid-1880s until after WW-I, many shooters used shotgun shells loaded by their local gun stores. The shipping costs were a significant part of the price of shotgun shells back in the day, so shipping the much lighter NPEs or even in the case of Peters Cartridge Co. they catalogued their various shells just loaded with the powder and wads, ready for the local folks to put in their shot and crimp the shells. The biggest outfit loading shells in the west was Selby in San Francisco, California.
CHALLENGE was UMCs new primed empty equal to their NITRO CLUB loaded shell.
Here in Spokane we had Ware Bros. This 10-gauge shell is a 1901 LEADER --
