Thread: Vintage projectile/bullet box

I reckon it was an old guy who told his wife he was going to the shed to do some reloading
Just to roll a huge joint ( from the tin ) and hung out there in his happy place

Went in smelly of reloading !
Or that's what he told her indoors

Originally Posted by Cigar

I'm still loading ammo with bullets from the metal cornered boxes, bought in the 1990's. I've never seen the metal internal box though.
The price tags on some of my older components would make some people cry, projectiles and powder early to mid $30's per box/tin, primers $5.50/100. I could load 308 ammo for about 63c per round.

Greetings All,
The first box of projectiles I bought were .303 180 grain Norma boat tails. They cost $10.00 from memory. A friend thought I was nuts paying that much. My second box were .303 Speer 150 grain spitzer flat base which cost $5.50. Primers were $1.00 a tray. AR2201 powder was $10.50 a pound and NL4831 $5.00 a pound. It was all relative though, this was the mid 70's, I was in my mid twenties and my gross pay was around $50.00 per week.
GPM.

Originally Posted by Cigar

I'm still loading ammo with bullets from the metal cornered boxes, bought in the 1990's. I've never seen the metal internal box though.
The price tags on some of my older components would make some people cry, projectiles and powder early to mid $30's per box/tin, primers $5.50/100. I could load 308 ammo for about 63c per round.

I took a few photos, prices are visible but might have to zoom in. The Sierra box has metal corners too.

Here's my collection. The Riverbrand and the SAKO would date from maybe late 60s (post decimal currency 1967) into the 70s. The SAKO was $4.30/50 and hard to get.

The Hornady (a relatively obscure manufacturer back then, Speer and Sierra were the players). Given the price was probably the 70s.

With both the Sierra boxes, I'm not sure of their exact age. The bottom box has a price tag inside of $7.45. Both boxes are addressed Sante Fe Springs California. I think Sierra is now in Missouri.

The Hornady and Sierra boxes have the metal corner reinforcing.

Couple of years ago I threw a lot of empty boxes out (why do we keep this sort of stuff?). Some of those were priced pre decimal currency. I started hand loading around 1966.

my first lot of powder ever was a 2 Kg sack of H 4831 from GC for $16 iirc
($8 a Kg)
That Mulwex is expensive stuff aye.... used to pay $27 for W231 and those white boxes of Win primers you got ripped off too, at the same time I was paying $27 a 1000 for win large pistol primers.
edit I just looked for my old packet of Nosler 70 grn .243 in a black box I think it was $7.50 but I cant find it now ( naturally)

My original go to powder was Nobels #2. I used that until maybe early 90s. Was able to get it for myself and my rifle club from Belmont who seemed to have a stash for somtime aftet after Nobels closed shop. Eventually they wouldn't sell me any more, stated reason was cans were starting to rust. I had some with minor rust on the rolled seams but inside the cans were perfect.

First Mulwex was 2201 bought off Dinny Collings along with some 4740. Mmmm, maybe circa 1971.

Also used milsurp 4895 from stripped WWII 30-06 rounds. Also used them to make 308 brass. IIRC the 30-06 was selling for 2 cents a round. There was a lot of it around at the time - latest 60s early 70s.

There was also lots of powder of unknown breading around in large canisters that reloaders experimented with. Maybe ex Bofors?

The Norma box. I see that the price has been increased from $8.50 to $10.50. Rip off.

GPM

Two boxes of my favourite .30 cal projectile. The bottom one is full and the top one half full. Bought three boxes in the early eighties. I should try to get out more.
less than $25.00 each.
GPM

Wow, you guys are ooolldddd....

I have a few boxes of bullets with cardboard bodies and reinforced metal corners, have a couple of Lynman dies in similar boxes too.

Ironic how we used to be more environmentally friendly without realising!