What to do with masses of cartridges?

JimGGC

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Greetings all.

I have a ton of empty .30-06 Springfield, 7.92 Mauser and 7.62 Tokarev cartridges in my possession. Literally hundreds. I pass the time in summer cleaning, waxing and buffing them. I think they'd look good in my workplace.

How does everyone display theirs? Fish bowl? Jar? Something creative?

Cheers,

Jim.
 
Greetings all.

I have a ton of empty .30-06 Springfield, 7.92 Mauser and 7.62 Tokarev cartridges in my possession. Literally hundreds. I pass the time in summer cleaning, waxing and buffing them. I think they'd look good in my workplace.

How does everyone display theirs? Fish bowl? Jar? Something creative?

Cheers,

Jim.

Like you clean and polish spent shells for display? I'm just curious.
 
I use some of my more modern cartridges on my displays. This is one of my western displays with .45 cal shells in front.
 

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Greetings all.

I have a ton of empty .30-06 Springfield, 7.92 Mauser and 7.62 Tokarev cartridges in my possession. Literally hundreds. I pass the time in summer cleaning, waxing and buffing them. I think they'd look good in my workplace.

How does everyone display theirs? Fish bowl? Jar? Something creative?

Cheers,

Jim.

Because I’m not a cartridge aficionado, I guess I would just sell them for scrap brass and buy a couple of nice Morgan dollars in great condition. Scrap brass is around $1.70 a pound right now, so if you have “a ton”, then wow… that’s a lot of silver dollars ! :cool3:
 
I just throw them into a jar as-is, they're usually pretty messed up (the ones I find anyway). The ones I collect after target practice go into gallon jugs, and the ones I pickup that others leave laying there, I sort/clean/bag up and eventually will sell/trade.

Headstamps now, those I want to make a display for and hope to some day.
 
Like you clean and polish spent shells for display? I'm just curious.

Yes. I accumulate bits and pieces of little to no value in a shoebox over the course of the year. Then in summer, when I'm bored and digging is mostly out of season, I give them a dip and a quick scrub with a brass wire brush, dry them, put a little renwax on and buff them with an old shoe brush. They come up nicely and the original patina is mostly retained. Some might think its OTT but it's quite satisfying and a good way to kill an hour or two. Don't think I'd reccommend it on any rare pieces though, we're talking about 1940s stuff mostly, but I have done it with a few big Mauser cartridges from the 1860s.

Because I’m not a cartridge aficionado, I guess I would just sell them for scrap brass and buy a couple of nice Morgan dollars in great condition. Scrap brass is around $1.70 a pound right now, so if you have “a ton”, then wow… that’s a lot of silver dollars ! :cool3:

I would keep a few for display purposes, and then scrap or trade the rest...

It might actually be coming to this. Times are getting tougher and I need kit for other hobbies!
 
It might actually be coming to this. Times are getting tougher and I need kit for other hobbies!

While I think that's a very valid reason, I also look at it from another perspective....if an item is relatively common, and not particularly old, just how interesting are they to collect and display?

I have a box full of brass harness buckles which probably all date from 1900 to about around the 1950's...The are a very common find here in the UK..They are all quite plain and all very much of a muchness....I really don't see the point of displaying any more than a few representative ones in a couple of different sizes...

It's the same with musket and pistol balls, and other lead bullets....Half a dozen musket balls are "interesting" but a couple of hundred on display? No thanks...

Getting back to cartridges, I very much like the idea of cartridge boards or other similar displays which show a good variety of different types, or even themed displays say showing cartridges of US Army ect, but just loads and loads of the same of type personally holds no real interest to me...
 
While I think that's a very valid reason, I also look at it from another perspective....if an item is relatively common, and not particularly old, just how interesting are they to collect and display?

Getting back to cartridges, I very much like the idea of cartridge boards or other similar displays which show a good variety of different types, or even themed displays say showing cartridges of US Army ect, but just loads and loads of the same of type personally holds no real interest to me...

I'm 50/50 over it really. I agree with you, but on the other hand it's all history and I like things en masse. I recall there was a guy in the UK who was active on forums some years back who kept absolutely everything from old army dumps? Mountains of cartridges and 2" mortar bits, etc. At some point he was even saying to people not to scrap things from WWII and to send them to him. When I moved abroad, I had to scrap a lot of stuff or give it away. Wish I'd sent it to him now.

Yes boards are a great idea! Riker cases with something like "small arms cartridges of the Eastern Front" would be cool.
 
I recall there was a guy in the UK who was active on forums some years back who kept absolutely everything from old army dumps? Mountains of cartridges and 2" mortar bits, etc. At some point he was even saying to people not to scrap things from WWII and to send them to him.

I've not come across that guy, but hoarding does seem to go hand in hand with detecting for a great many people, myself included if I am not careful! lol

I am putting together a display cabinet for the front room, and I have to keep reminding myself to be picky and that less is more lol. With regards cartridge cases, only two are going in there: a 20mm Hispano case, presumably from a Spitfire, and a 30mm RADEN shell which was an eye only find from years ago...

Yes boards are a great idea! Riker cases with something like "small arms cartridges of the Eastern Front" would be cool.

There used to to be a guy who did the gamefairs here in the UK who sold cartridge boards of various sizes.

He did some of WW2, and they looked really good.

There was only five or six cartridges per display, and he used those extra deep picture frames/shadow boxes....what really set his boards apart was that for the background of the display, he would use a b&w war photo relevant to the topic of the board, also, sometimes he would also incorporate a cap badge into the display as well...
 
Do you have a tumbler for polishing the brass cartridge cases? If you have gone to the trouble of polishing the cartridge cases, particularly a popular hunting round such as a 30.06, you could probably take them to a gun show or peddle them to reloaders and their orgs. Here's a company doing that sort of thing apparently: https://capitalcartridge.com/rifle-brass/30-06-brass/

Once fired brass is valuable. Lots of times I find empty boxes and partitions, as well as the brass, at impromptu or local shooting ranges in the West. Things are likely to be a bit more official back East, but as a reloader, it helps knock down shooting costs. Every step you take to process the empty hulls, short of reloading, such as de-priming the spent primers, increases their value to a reloader and saves time, as well. They will reload to suit their own tastes. Re-priming the empties boosts their value but enters the federal regulatory window in shipment. Demand for once fired cartridges varies by caliber, manufacturer, cartridge type, etc.
 
Do you have a tumbler for polishing the brass cartridge cases? If you have gone to the trouble of polishing the cartridge cases, particularly a popular hunting round such as a 30.06, you could probably take them to a gun show or peddle them to reloaders and their orgs. Here's a company doing that sort of thing apparently: https://capitalcartridge.com/rifle-brass/30-06-brass/

Once fired brass is valuable. Lots of times I find empty boxes and partitions, as well as the brass, at impromptu or local shooting ranges in the West. Things are likely to be a bit more official back East, but as a reloader, it helps knock down shooting costs. Every step you take to process the empty hulls, short of reloading, such as de-priming the spent primers, increases their value to a reloader and saves time, as well. They will reload to suit their own tastes. Re-priming the empties boosts their value but enters the federal regulatory window in shipment. Demand for once fired cartridges varies by caliber, manufacturer, cartridge type, etc.

I don't think it's possible due to conditions. It's sandy soil here so I would think acidic. Drop dug cartridges on the floor and sometimes they crack or bits break off at the neck.

Interestingly, I've found quite a few late 30s Mauser cartridges that have markings which denote reloading.
 
While I think that's a very valid reason, I also look at it from another perspective....if an item is relatively common, and not particularly old, just how interesting are they to collect and display?

I have a box full of brass harness buckles which probably all date from 1900 to about around the 1950's...The are a very common find here in the UK..They are all quite plain and all very much of a muchness....I really don't see the point of displaying any more than a few representative ones in a couple of different sizes...

It's the same with musket and pistol balls, and other lead bullets....Half a dozen musket balls are "interesting" but a couple of hundred on display? No thanks...

Getting back to cartridges, I very much like the idea of cartridge boards or other similar displays which show a good variety of different types, or even themed displays say showing cartridges of US Army ect, but just loads and loads of the same of type personally holds no real interest to me...

You, ought to live next to the largest National Guard base in the U.S. , I hate the empty brass, they sure do ring up great, especially the 50. cal. Yes, it is worth money, I used to save them, but not anymore. Have no idea what Brass is worth now ?
too_
 
You, ought to live next to the largest National Guard base in the U.S. , I hate the empty brass, they sure do ring up great, especially the 50. cal. Yes, it is worth money, I used to save them, but not anymore. Have no idea what Brass is worth now ?
too_

Depending on the location,1.50 to 2.00 plus a pound.
 
You, ought to live next to the largest National Guard base in the U.S. , I hate the empty brass, they sure do ring up great, especially the 50. cal. Yes, it is worth money, I used to save them, but not anymore. Have no idea what Brass is worth now ?
too_

We have a beach not far from me like that...it was used for training in WW2 and the amount of brass and bullets that come up is phenomenal.

I was out on Sunday detecting, and there were quite a few shotgun shell bases and primers coming up...Oldest I found was a pinfire...it always amazes me how good a shotgun cartridge primer can sound when it's only an inch or so deep...
 
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