Collectible shotshells?

[enfield]

Does anyone collect or know about collectible shotshells?  I have around thirty, Remington and Winchester, 16 and 20 gauge unfired paper shells that I'd like to pass on to someone, but I don't know anything about their value.

[Jonnin]

all I can add here is I think they moved to plastic in the 30s or 40s?   There are a fair number of paper shells in decent contidion out there so I doubt they are super pricy per but like anythign else condition and specifics matter which means you need an expert or a book on it.  Conditon is obvious but specifics would be which brands / gauges/etc are the most rare or most common etc.  Orig boxes probably add a ton of value even if opened.

[enfield]

No boxes, and condition is well-carried in a pocket or vest.  No museum specimens - just interesting old shells.  Some of them are the old, 2-1/2 inch length, the rest are 2-3/4.

 

I don't care to buy a book and research their value - I'd probably lose money.  :D

[221 Fireball]

all I can add here is I think they moved to plastic in the 30s or 40s?   There are a fair number of paper shells in decent contidion out there so I doubt they are super pricy per but like anythign else condition and specifics matter which means you need an expert or a book on it.  Conditon is obvious but specifics would be which brands / gauges/etc are the most rare or most common etc.  Orig boxes probably add a ton of value even if opened.

Gosh, you make me feel old...heh,heh.

 

I started squirrel hunting at age 10, that be 1965, and we were still buying paper shells. Seems plastic came on in the late sixties, by the time I was a teenager and started duck hunting. The hoopla over plastic hulls by then was that they wouldn't swell if they got wet, like paper. Funny thing is, I can't ever remember having a paper shell wet enough that it wouldn't feed my shotgun. They had a waxy coating so they were pretty durable really.

 

Enfield, I still have probably 30 or 40 paper shells left. I can't find any market worth to them, I even tried on TGO once with no takers, though free would probably work. :pleased: But once in awhile, especially if I'm squirrel hunting, I'll slip a few in my pocket if I'm using my single shot or double barrel... just to add some nostalgia to the hunt. I have had a couple not go off, but then they are close to 50 years old I imagine. If I were you, I'd shoot them...they're kind of fun to watch the old paper wads come blowing out too...like confetti!

Edited October 9, 2013 by 221 Fireball

[HvBikeWlTravel]

Wonder when they went from all Brass to Paper?  I've got one Winchester stamped No. 12.

 

Update; have picture in Gear Classified.

Edited October 10, 2013 by HvBikeWlTravel

[Oh Shoot]

Yeah, know for sure there were paper shells through the 60's, can't remember the first plastic one I ever saw.

 

Matter of fact, I shot some of them a few years ago, with umm, mixed success:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DU-RLFUFRc0

 

They probably are worth something or other to collectors, but since you can't sell them on eBay, tough to find who/how much, though I suppose you could try GunBroker. Plus the fact you have to use FedEx or UPS to ship even a single shell.

 

- OS

Edited October 9, 2013 by Oh Shoot

[Garufa]

Wonder when they went from all Brass to Paper?  I've got one Winchester stamped No. 12.

 

In the 1800's but brass has always had a following.

[Jonnin]

I did not realize paper was used so late as that. 

[JAB]

I did not realize paper was used so late as that. 

 

You and I are somewhere in the same age range, I think (I'm not always good at judging ages - I was born in 1971) and I remember shooting paper shotgun shells through my dad's shotgun as a kid.  Not as in a few strays found here and there but as in he had a box or two of them.  I am thinking I might have even put a few paper shells through my first 12 gauge, a single shot I got for Christmas when I was about 16 or so (I had a .410 before that but don't remember putting any paper shells through it.)  Now, I don't know how new those were or if they had been in someone's drawer for a few years but no one thought of them as anything special at the time.

 

I do remember, for certain, that one of the first boxes of new 12 gauge shells I got were the all-plastic hull type - as in the only brass on them was the primer and, maybe a primer pocket insert (haven't seen any of those in a while so I can't remember, for sure.)  I don't think that type of shell was made for very long.

 

Isn't there still a company or two that makes paper-hulled shotgun shells for cowboy action shooting and for people who want to shoot their old shotguns with twisted or damascus barrels?

Edited October 10, 2013 by JAB

[Jonnin]

The first I recall were plastic 410s and 12s (I was not allowed the 12 until older, shot the 410 fairly young, but that was still 1985 or so).   Most of my dad's stuff was 60s era, but he did not have the first paper shell.  I found a partial box at my great grandmas house.   So you can see where my guesstimate was coming from.  Guess dad shot all his paper up before I was of age.

[HvBikeWlTravel]

There is an old Ammunition Selling site. Don't have link but should be pretty easy to Google.