Just Something Magic About Vintage Blues.

[Jerry Andrews]

I killed my first squirrel with one of those type shells, # 6 shot out of my Dad's Iver Johnson Champion single shot 12 gauge. I was 12. Jerry

[Mike Stahle]

I’m there with you Jerry.
At 12 years old in 1973 with a Winchester model 1200 that was a little to big for me, I managed to take my first squirrel, rabbit and pheasant with the exact pictured ammo. but in #6 shot. My Dad was always very particular about the brand of meat getting high brass shotgun shells he used. This was his favorite. In his now 71+ year old mind, he says the stuff they make today is junk.

[C.O.B.]

Mike those boxes are worth more than $4ea I have some of the old Peters in 28ga and some of the Remington Express in 16ga. I don't shoot them out of the Parkers simply because I like the 2 /2 inch low pressure loads better, there easy on the gun and kill game just as well.

When you could still use lead shot for waterfowl out of anything smaller than a 12ga I used the Rem Express #5's out of a Browning Seeet 16. I wish you could find #5 shot and that I had that 16 back.

[Roundsworth]

Nice boxes, Mike, and they don't take up a lot of space, either! Hang on to them. Once they're gone, there is no turning back. Yes, I get a bit touchy about vintage ammunition! I guess 40 years of collecting has taken its toll. Cheers!

[Bill Murphy]

Mike's Remington Express shells are the absolute first generation of plastic shells by the big three. I can't remember the exact year, but I think it was 1961. My Dad bought a raft of those shells at a fire sale and we hunted pheasants and ducks with them for, well, I still have some. When the white paint wore off the outside of the plastic, you still knew what the shot size was because you could see the shot through the plastic. This was the era of the $3.40 price for the high velocity 12 gauge and I think my Dad paid about $1.50 for the smoke stained, but otherwise undamaged shells. This was at a drug store that was in the same block of 14th Street in Washington where Parker-Whelen was located. It was a great neighborhood for a young kid to hang around. Parker-Whelen was Colonel Townsend Whelen's great gun store and in the same block were numerous strip joints and burlesque houses and pawn shops. Conveniently, my Dad's office was two blocks away at 13th and K Streets.