OLD 30/30 case?

[1894cfan]

Went out for an evening walk and spied what looked like and old 30/30 case. When I got home and had a better look at it imagine my surprise to see the head stamp 'W.R.A. CO. 30 ARMY' on the rim. It doesn't appear to corroded, just very tarnished. Anybody here happen to know when this case might have been made? TIA

[TedH]

Also known as the 30-40 Krag. Developed in the late 1890's. Used by the US military in the early 1900's.

[1894cfan]

Nope, what I found is definatly a 30/30 case! It's marked 30 ARMY, not 30 U.S. ARMY (or something like that) as the 30/40 Krag was marked. Possibly to go along with the Win 94 Muskets that the Govt. ordered sometime around WW1?

[1894cfan]

OOPS! Just checked the case I found with a Win 150gr SilverTip 30/30 round and they are NOT the same! Looks like what I DID find was in fact a 30/40 Krag case.

[Nath]

I would love to hear the story it would tell if it spoke!

[1894cfan]

Me, too, Nath! Found it in desert area to the northeast of Los Angeles on the edge of the Mojave desert where's there's been no construction for decades, just dirt roads here and there.

Pt. 2...some 14 years ago I was out with my half-brother hiking to a spot to do a bit of gold mining when we stopped on an old logging road to rest and I happened to look down and found an old 303 Savage case just lying in the middle of the logging road, right where a hunter had ejected it who knows how many decades ago. I hope he was able to connect with a white tail WAY back then. I bet THAT case could tell a tale!

[vancelw]

I once found a .38-55 case in the mesa grasslands of SE Montana. Semi-arid grassland, not quite desert.
No telling how long it had lain there. Amazing to me was that a cow hadn't stepped on it in all those years.

So of course, I had to go shoot a pronghorn in the same area with a Chief Crazy Horse

My 1895 in. 30 US is on this year's program. Might even use vintage ammo!

[Malamute]

Ths info suggests that the "Co" in the "WRA Co" was dropped at about 1930, but older dies continued in use after that until they were worn out.

https://winchestercollector.org/forum/w ... headstamp/


A neighbor found a loaded inside primed 50-70 cartridge in their yard, someone else found a pile of 30 or so 50-70 empties near an area that a cavalry and indian engagement took place on the 1870s. Someone else near that spot showed me a 405 Winchester empty that had been fired in what appeared to be a trapdoor 45-70, the case swelled out to fill the chamber, the front bit of the shell was impressed with 3 groove rifling, it looked like a weird bottleneck shell that was ballooned out and necked back down.

I found a 40-82 empty on the edge of a butte in Az.

Once when i stopped out in the hills to shoot my Colt National Match 45 I picked up empties from the 100 rds id shot and discovered id somehow lost a couple, but had found a 45 Colt empty that a historian type guy said they stopped using the headstamp in 1918. Odd that I stopped at the same exact spot and shot.

A lady visiting from Canada and waiting for me to get home found a fired inside primed 45-70 case pretty close to my cabin, I recall within 40 yards or so (was about 30 years ago).

I came across a very corroded 32-40 shell on a nearby ranch that had some interesting history, made me wonder of it was possible from the posse that was gahtered to catch a well known outlaw and killer.

Out dog walking near the mountain I found a 303 Savage empty. The local lore says there was a single mom lady with several kids living out that way in a small shack/cabin that would come meet the school bus to get her kids, and if shed shot a deer or antelope for meat the driver would haul it in closer to her place if he was going that way. I believe she used a savage rifle.

Finding old shells in fun.