Paper shells

[10ga Hammer]

"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 !

[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.

[Phil C]

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.

[Researcher]

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