doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Double Rifles, Paradox Guns & Gauge Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Anyone recognize this 20ga. cartridge....

...or is it a homemade affair?

OAL is 3.25", case length is 2.75", bullet has an OD of .56 at the case mouth.

I'd say it is real. Heinrich peddled some odd stuff and I think there are some collectors/a following today. Heinrich Utendoerffer founded a business or started with a facility in Nuremberg in 1856. By 1890 one sometimes sees Westphalische Sprengstoff Actien-Gesellschaft previously as H. Utendoerffer, sometimes on a patent.

I don't know what it is just yet, but it looks to be some variant of a 14mmX70mm Hochwild and a big brother to a 11.2X51R; therefore, it is probably an odd Austrian cartridge.

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

From RWS:

For more than a century now, ammunition products have been manufactured at the RUAG Ammotec GmbH Stadeln factory. The company has had a lively history. In 1855, Heinrich Utendoerffer received permission to set up a laboratory for the production of ignition charges. Utendoerffer then sold his company, which was then still located in Nürnberg, in 1877 to the "Rheinisch Westfälische Sprengstoff-Actien-Gesellschaft" (RWS) founded in 1886 in Troisdorf.

After there were repeated problems in Nürnberg with regards to concession allocations, the factory was moved in 1894 to today's Fürth district of Stadeln. A wide range of products with an "explosive character" are still being produced here today under the control of RUAG Ammotec GmbH. All RWS rifle cartridges are exclusively produced in Germany at the Stadeln location. Production is carefully monitored so that you can hunt successfully and safely.

A few rounds produced by Utendoerffer from:
http://www.munitionsauktion.de/browse.php?cat_id=2&sessionid=&lang=en

8 mm x 42 R M 88 D


http://www.munitionsauktion.de/browse.php?cat_id=5&sessionid=&lang=en

11.15 mm x 37 R Greuzaufseher


There is a problem with the double shoulder on your case. I doubt very much that it is an untouched factory round. Looks like some one was playing around with that case. The angles are all wrong and there is some bulging.

Pete

I noticed that too, it either got a bit bent along the way or was reloaded a bit too forcefully. The guys over at the International Ammunition Collectors forum think it's a homemade affair on a 20ga. case. Would be nice to find out but may never know definitively what it is. Other than a paperweight...

Here's a real Wild Ass Guess: If a person happened to have a snarky Alexander Henry rifle chambered in 20/.577 BPE with no loading dies and was attempting to cobble together something that would chamber and fire, they might end up with something that looked like the pictured cartridge.