A gift from an old boy

[BenBhoy 4,706]

6 minutes ago, Stavross said:

I bought it from a shop called, iffy shaha infidel shooting ( ISIS ) 

ISIS for all your jhadi needs

I bought a thermal vest from there. It's great but makes an annoying ticking noise.

[Dervburner 2,549]

On 08/02/2020 at 13:23, Stavross said:

I bumped into a lad I’ve not seen for a long time, now this old boy was out every day and night feeding the family, He’s well in his 70’s now and no longer shoots and as he no longer has a ticket he said would I take some cartridges for him, so I’ve been round to see him and apart from one box they are all paper, we have eley Grand Prix in 4’s and 5’s, eley impax in 5’s and another called the sherwood loaded by west and son, 10 bridge street Retford, the plastic ones are old as well “ topmark game 1 1/16 oz of number 6, he wants to see them put to good use so I’m taking a young lad from the shoot out this afternoon to have a go with them, hopefully we can bring him something back for his dinner

That’s good of the old fella. I’ve always favoured impax in my sxs. I’m sure your old friend will be pleased to hear from you when you tell him how you got on with his old cartridges

[Meece 1,958]

Some people ask about the safety and effectivenessof old cartridges but generally it doesn't matter. in the past I've been given some and also picked up the odd dropped cartridge which was as rusty as an old horseshoe. Generally they go off just as new.  The very odd one that don't go off has been a primer failure. The 4,s would be ok for a fox drive and the Topmark were a Winchester. Good for a phesant drive.  Shot sizes were always larger years ago and a lot of shooters used #5 for everything from a rat to an elephant.

[Sausagedog 7,381]

1 hour ago, Meece said:

Some people ask about the safety and effectivenessof old cartridges but generally it doesn't matter. in the past I've been given some and also picked up the odd dropped cartridge which was as rusty as an old horseshoe. Generally they go off just as new.  The very odd one that don't go off has been a primer failure. The 4,s would be ok for a fox drive and the Topmark were a Winchester. Good for a phesant drive.  Shot sizes were always larger years ago and a lot of shooters used #5 for everything from a rat to an elephant.

Elephant

[Meece 1,958]

Yep. That's what the ole boys used to say.   Eley Grand Prix . 1:-1/16th #4 in full choke. Rat to an elephant !

Mind you most of the guns that the ole boys had were so worn out through shooting black powder cartridges with corrosive primers through Damascus barrels and just bringing them in from the cold outside and propping them up in the corner of the kitchen, that any choke that they may well have had once was well and truelly worn out and they were cylinder anyway.

[Stavross 17,982]

3 hours ago, Meece said:

Some people ask about the safety and effectivenessof old cartridges but generally it doesn't matter. in the past I've been given some and also picked up the odd dropped cartridge which was as rusty as an old horseshoe. Generally they go off just as new.  The very odd one that don't go off has been a primer failure. The 4,s would be ok for a fox drive and the Topmark were a Winchester. Good for a phesant drive.  Shot sizes were always larger years ago and a lot of shooters used #5 for everything from a rat to an elephant.

I noticed that the topmark say Winchester on the box, I haven’t fired them yet or “ the sherwood” these certainly look to be the oldest of the selection, the eley fired without fault and have that lovely old cartridge smell, sparks a bit of nostalgia a bit like a good old 2 stroke

[Meece 1,958]

You'll notice that the  of the crimp of the TopMark cartridges have been melted.  This was to hold the crimp tight , make the burn cleaner and give a better velocity. Those Top Mark are probably early eighties. At that time the common Winchester cartridges were trap 100, trap 200, winners, AA's,  Western and Winchester GB's. I used to use GB's for game shooting and general walked up.  These were really good and are not available anymore. I think that they are in France.  They were a lot better than the majority of cartridges that are available today.  Those Top Mark were a top cartridge.  It's like the American Remington Peters cartridges from when they were built up to a standard and not down to a price. The same as Rottweil.

[philpot 5,089]

I shot thousands of Topmark cartridges around 1978 -1980ish and I think meece is right, they were made by Winchester and when no longer available, Trap 100 and AA seemed to take over that market.

You reminded me meece, I used to pick up as many empty Remington RXP and Peters cartridges for reloading as I found them to be superb for that job.

I hope you kept a couple of the cartridges just because of their age.

Phil

[Stavross 17,982]

1 hour ago, Meece said:

You'll notice that the  of the crimp of the TopMark cartridges have been melted.  This was to hold the crimp tight , make the burn cleaner and give a better velocity. Those Top Mark are probably early eighties. At that time the common Winchester cartridges were trap 100, trap 200, winners, AA's,  Western and Winchester GB's. I used to use GB's for game shooting and general walked up.  These were really good and are not available anymore. I think that they are in France.  They were a lot better than the majority of cartridges that are available today.  Those Top Mark were a top cartridge.  It's like the American Remington Peters cartridges from when they were built up to a standard and not down to a price. The same as Rottweil.

Nice little bit of info there, I noticed the sealing on the top, cheers for that

[Stavross 17,982]

5 minutes ago, philpot said:

I shot thousands of Topmark cartridges around 1978 -1980ish and I think meece is right, they were made by Winchester and when no longer available, Trap 100 and AA seemed to take over that market.

You reminded me meece, I used to pick up as many empty Remington RXP and Peters cartridges for reloading as I found them to be superb for that job.

I hope you kept a couple of the cartridges just because of their age.

Phil

I’ve kept a couple of each purely for that reason, I’m guessing that the paper ones are older than me 

[philpot 5,089]

Pleased to hear it Stav.  I had built up a collection of old cartridges but as time went by I let them go to other people who collected them and now I do so regret it.  

Phil