Log In
On my way back from my cabin trip up north, I have a few favorite antique shops that I hit along the way. The 3 full boxes were on a shelf priced at $7.50 each. So I quickly added them to my “pile” 😂
Were these some sort of contract ammunition. To my knowledge Winchester started with the 7mm with the model 54 in the 30s? These are much earlier…..
April 15, 2005
Offline
The box label indicates that it was created in December of 1914. Undoubtedly, the boxes are at least a few years older than when the label was created.
Winchester added the 7mm to Model 54 in the 1930 catalog, which means that rifles for it were undoubtedly assembled in the latter half of the year 1929. Winchester first chambered the 7mm Mauser (7×57) cartridge in the Single Shot rifle (October 1905).
Bert
WACA Historian & Board of Director Member #6571L
December 30, 2011
Offline
George
I believe Winchester loaded ammunition for just about any firearm, if there was a market. I’m butchering a quote from Henry Brewer here, but while Winchester was known around the world for their guns, they made the real money in ammunition sales.
Winchester sold a lot of military ammunition during the Mexican Revolutionary and WWI years. The big hardware stores on the Mexican-American border bought a lot of 7 m/m ammo, too, along with 30-06, 44 WCF, 30 WCF, etc. Western cartridge also had big ammo contracts at that time, and I remember looking at records in the McCracken Library, while working on the Model 1895 book, that indicated that Winchester acted as a subcontractor for some of that. Not long before, Winchester, UMC and US Cartridge (if I remember correctly) had formed the Ammunition Manufacturers Association to make life difficult for companies like Western.
I don’t know about those specific boxes. There might be an example in the Giles and Shuey cartridge box book.
