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4 members (SKB, j7l2, dogon, susjwp),
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guests, and
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Forums10
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Most Online9,918 Jul 28th, 2025
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Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 1,935
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 1,935 |
Yeah, opening that crate like you did made it 'almost a virgin'.
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Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 1,227
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 1,227 |
I've been collecting shells for awhile. In my experience, there's VERY little market for a full case of shells. And the buyer is likely to be more of a "dealer" than a collector and, as such, looking to get it "wholesale." This is a case where the full crate can never be worth more than the sum of its parts. In other words, anybody looking to buy the case is more likely interesting in parting it out than in collecting it and keeping it a "virgin."
The successful dealers have a variety of such cases. Once a year, they pull a box from the case and market it as "... a RARE FIND...a minty box, perhaps the finest in existence, blah, blah, blah." The diamond brokers are careful not to flood the market.
A couple of years ago, a fellow came across a full case of shells and asked advice on what to do with them. He was advised to auction them individually. He did so, but included a pic of the open case of 20. I bought one....for $60....to upgrade the only one I had ever seen prior....one I had paid $150 for 2 years earlier. By the time the crate was near empty, the market was saturated and they were selling for $40.
Personally, I'd offer a few boxes at auction, but as plain jane oddities, I doubt very much they would fetch more than $25 each, and only a few at that. If I could buy a similar crate in 16ga for $150, I'd shoot every one of them. 1940-1950's vintage ammo in that condition is every bit as reliable as this year's. In fact, I hunt exclusively with factory red paper 20's; and grouse are way too valuable to unnecessarily risk a misfire. The roll-crimped stuff, which dates coincidentally mosty pre-WW11, is much more spotty. I have a theory that ignition reliability is related to the pre- and post-war primer technology.
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 350
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 350 |
I agree with Bill S, I do not think the shells will fire. The primers will most likely not work after 50 plus years. I tried to shoot some well preserved shells like these 20 years ago and half of them would not work then. I still have a bunch of these in the basement, they are good paper weights. I have quite a few 16 gauge paper shells about this age too, they did not fire for the most part either. Jent ---- jentpmitchell@msn.com
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Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 1,227
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 1,227 |
C'mon Gordon, you know you're dying to shoot a box!
Any bettin' men here?
If they were red papers, I'd give 2:1 odds for 95% success. But since they're slightly imperfect Remingtons, I'll only offer even money.
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Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 1,935
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 1,935 |
I'll bet they'd almost all fire just fine.
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Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 142
Sidelock
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OP
Sidelock
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 142 |
Put your money up guys and we might see what they do. FYI, I recently purchased about 300 loose 16 ga paper shells, 5s up to 8s, with a couple 3s thrown in for good luck. I got to pick through them and reject the ones that looked really bad. There were both roll crimps and later star crimps I paid $4/25 rounds. There are Federal, Winchester, Peters, Remington and Western and a few Sears. I had the opportunity to shoot them at Pheasants in Utah last fall and the only ones that seemed to not fire were the Westerns with roll crimps. The others fire fine. I am going to try some more of them on skeet in a month or so when we go over to our place in Tulelake.
Gordon
If you don't fly first class, your heir's will!
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Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 711 Likes: 1
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 711 Likes: 1 |
They'll all fire just fine. If they had the silver colored/plated primers it would be a good chance that they wouldn't. Usually see the silver primers on roll crimp Super-X. My offer on the case still stands. Brdslayr@clearwire.net
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 9,350
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 9,350 |
When I was a young guy working in a city where the streets are paved with gold I'd buy boxes of marked-down commercial shotgun shells---CIL Canuck, Maxum and Imperial---at a war surplus store for when I came back home to Nova Scotia. I've been home 42 years and still firing from that stock; not a dud in the bunch.
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