Antique Balloon cartridges, 440-40

[Smith& W]

Antique Balloon cartridges, 44-40

I bought these old cartridges yesterday and thought they might be worth sharing. There were a little over two hundred loose in a bucket in a basement. I believe they were called Balloon head 44-40 because of the early head design. Loaded with black powder back in around 1890. Most are corroded and definitely not shootable but still kind of interesting.

 

[Leadeye]

Probably the most popular rifle caliber on the frontier, the Winchester 1873 in 44-40 was an every man's rifle. Colt followed through chambering the SAA in it making a great combination.

 

[BGDave]

If you pull the bullet and look inside it's pretty obvious. NOTE; I would not use a kenetic puller on suspected black powder loads.

I'm enough of an old lady to be respectful of that stuff. Ask me some time about my Davy Crockett moment with about a pound of scrap black powder. WEEEEEEEEEEE

 

[OHOIAN]

FYI

top - kind of like 22 rimfire
mid - ballon head
bot - solid head

click for larger pic

 

[Slow Hand]

I picked up a full box of new balloon head .45 colt brass from Winchester. The guy was selling it because it wouldn’t fit in his shell holder. It is the old balloon headed brass. The factory box is printed with ‘Empty Primed Shells’ but the Primed has bee colored over with a black crayon. Headstamps are WRA and the plain brown slip top box says they are Olin, so I’m not sure exactly how old they are. Pretty cool to have them around though.

 

[natdscott]

If you pull the bullet and look inside it's pretty obvious. NOTE; I would not use a kenetic puller on suspected black powder loads.

Repped.

I'm enough of an old lady to be respectful of that stuff.

hahahaha!

 

[natdscott]

top - kind of like 22 rimfire
mid - ballon head
bot - solid head
View attachment 75260
click for larger pic

Interesting graphic, in that .38 Special is reloaded by many, many people, many, many times. By those definitions, it is a balloon head case.

-Nate

 

[AmmoManAaron]

I have a handful of balloon head 38 Special and 45 Colt brass. I keep them separate, but still load and shoot them regularly just for the curiosity of it - mixed brands and no idea where exactly I accumulated them over the years. I use only standard pressure loads in these cases (which is pretty darn low in these two calibers), but it is still amazing how long this motley crew of brass has lasted - several firings and no problems. My 45 Colt balloon head brass requires a different shell holder because it doesn't have an extractor groove above the rim like the modern cases do. Most people probably would have pitched them for that reason alone, but I like experimenting and learning and any risks seem pretty minimal. These get fired in revolvers, which of course means the case is fully supported all the way to the rim.

 

[Bryan Austin]

I am only three years late to this topic. The WRACo cartridge on the right has the earliest "Serif's" font on W's. Should place this between 1884-1890's

You most certain can, but should we now days, reload the semi-balloonhead cases. The balloonhead cases for the 44-40 are actually Solid Head with Semi-Balloon pockets that surround the primer.

Since there are no new cases, great care must be taken to make sure what you are using has not deteriorated. I actually use some for pressure testing black powder and one of them finally gave way at the primer/balloon pocket