doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Jamison Brass closing.

Business disagreements aside, it still looks like a tough way to make a living. I am old enough to remember both iterations of BELL, and wasn't there someplace similar in Colorado once? The problem with drawing cases is that you have to guess at the demand, tool up, futz around to get it right, make some sort of economic run size and then inventory the stuff like whiskey. Not a set of problems I would want! The small lathe based operations like Rocky Mountain Cartridge can probably operate much closer to build to order. As a user I prefer the drawn cases, but I wouldn't want to try and make and sell them.

FYI, I was able to pick up 100 25-20 singleshot last night from Buffalo Arms

Wasn't the Colorado outfit called "El Dorado"?

There was supposed to be a later incarnation of BELL called "El Dorado" that was going to start up in Boulder City, Nevada back about 1989. I don't know if they ever produced anything. I read at one time that Jamison was using some of the BELL equipment.

Rocky Mountain Cartridge in Cody, Wyoming is an entirely different operation.

The name El Dorado does does sound right and there was a second iteration of Bell (maybe a relative?) in Nevada. They did make cases and lasted long enough into modern times to have a web site before deciding that they wanted to do some other defense work. I think they manufactured the drawn .43 Spanish HDS (Huntington) marked cases I have.

Rocky Mountain and the long gone CCC (Connecticut Cartridge Co.) both use an entirely different process: they turn cases from solid brass stock. I would assume that Rocky Mountain is using some sort of CNC equipment. Turned cases seem to be both heavier and more brittle than drawn ones, but we will have to take what we can get. I hate having the wrong head stamp on cases.

For my own reformed cases I usually use my lathe tool to turn a very tiny ring or 2 through the head markings, to identify the cases as being reformed to another chambering. Takes only a few seconds per case on the lathe and provides a small measure of further identification for each rifle's ammo.

Not as good as having the proper markings but it's better than nothing.
Regards, Joe

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm under the impression that gun writer Jamison and brass maker Jamison are two different guys. In other words, writer Rick has/had nothing to do with the brass making enterprise bearing his last name.