[stand watie]

Friends,

I've never "stumped" our folks, when looking for "harder to find stuff", in over 12 years.
This time I need a source to buy at least 50 pieces of .43 caliber Spanish brass to make 11.7x56R cases for my "new to me" Danish Rolling Block M-1867 military musket.

Note: Every person that has used the .43 Spanish cases for 11.7x56R says that ONLY the rim's diameter must be reduced & for SOME Danish rifles that the rim is FINE "as is".
(There was a vendor at the last big San Antonio gun-show that had bags of 100 new Boxer-primed .43 Spanish brass for 68.oo BUT sadly I didn't need them then. My crystal ball doesn't work well.= WORSE LUCK.)

IF any of "out crowd" knows of a REASONABLY PRICED place that actually has these cases, I would appreciate a PM.
(I'm NOT interested in paying 2-3.oo USD each for "more or less" correct cases that even the vendor says , "may NOT fit when they are reformed".)

THANKS for reading this note.

yours, sw

 

[bearcat6]

Not cheap but here it is.

Graf & Sons - BERTRAM BRASS 43 SPANISH FORMED 20/BOX - Graf & Sons

 

[stand watie]

bearcat6,

Did you miss that Graf & Son wants 3.25USD per each round or 65.oo per 20 cases??

yours, sw

 

[dfariswheel]

Almost no one is actually going to have any, and if they do the Graf price will be on the low end.

Really obsolete ammo is going to COST when and if you can even find it.
Asking for cheap .43 Spanish is like looking for cheap .600 Nitro Express.

Black Powder Cartridge Ammo|Shooting Supplies|Ammunition

Bertram Reloading Brass 43 Spanish Box of 20

43 SPANISH 370GR LEAD [379] - $74.95 : The Old Western Scrounger LLC.

https://www.trackofthewolf.com/List/Item.aspx/1171/1

https://www.natchezss.com/43-spanish-brass-100-ct.html

 

[bearcat6]

bearcat6,

Did you miss that Graf & Son wants 3.25USD per each round or 65.oo per 20 cases??

yours, sw

No I saw that, like I said it's not cheap.

 

[stand watie]

bearcat6,

Actually looking for .43 Spanish is FAR from looking for .600 Nitro cases, as .600 Nitro isn't routinely loaded anywhere on Earth in 2016 & hasn't been for a half century.

.43 Spanish is still loaded in at least 4 Latin American nations (Argentina, Costa Rica, Guatemala & Peru) & Serbia. The brass is evidently available IF one wants to self-import the empty cases.
(I suspect that that is where the vendor from Houston got his cases to sell at <70 cents each.)

Nonetheless, THANKS for your input.

yours, sw

 

[dfariswheel]

Bertram in Australia still make .600 Nitro express brass and ammo, and Kynoch of England still sell the .600 NE.

Midway is a Kynoch stocking dealer and I think they can order .600 NE for you.
Bring a loaded wallet, you'll need it.

The .600 aside, obsolete ammo like the .43 Spanish IS obsolete and when you can find it it costs.
It's one of those situations where you pay the price or do without.

 

[stand watie]

dsariswheel,

I don't have a need for .600 Nitro BUT .43 Spanish I do.
(Maybe at the next show, the Houston guy will still have the cheap Spanish brass.)

Fyi, I'm told that 8mm Lebel brass will also work in my Rolling Block if fire-formed & the rim slightly cut down. - SOME Danish rifles don't need the rim modified, according to a couple of my "email friends" that shoot 11.7x56R.

Everything that Bertram makes (imVho) is TOO EXPENSIVE for what it is.

yours, sw

 

[dfariswheel]

I have a buddy who collects (accumulates) old military rifles.
His "thing" is to get them shooting some way, even if he has to make brass on a lathe.
He has at last count over 200 rifles, some so obscure I've never heard of them from countries that no longer exist.

I seem to recall him saying something about fire forming Lebel brass to the .43.

 

[stand watie]

dfariswheel,

Understood. - I'd bet that "The Mad Russian" (a professor of Slavic languages at The University of WV & refugee from St Petersburg) & who lives about 10 minutes from "the mountain lair" probably has at least that many military rifles of obscure sorts.
One BP rifle that he showed me is EIGHTY CALIBER, uses 250+ grains of Fg BP with a BIG conical bullet (I'd guess that the bullet weighs about a 1/4 POUND!!) & I'd guess weighs 20-25 pounds.
(I'd bet that that one is painful at BOTH ends.)

He also showed me a 1880s rifle in 12.5x89mm caliber. = about .50 caliber x 3.5 inch case.

yours, sw

 

[dfariswheel]

Sir Stanley Baker, an 1800's African explorer and hunter had a double barrel 4-bore rifle.
He was a HUGE man, well over 6-6 and over 300 pounds.
He claimed the recoil of the 1/4 pound ball spun him around 1 1/2 times when he shot it.
He said it was very effective on elephants.

That's one they say "kills on one end and maims on the other".
They don't make men like that anymore.

 

[stand watie]

dfariswheel,

The story that got my attention was the British Army report from the 1st Boer War wherein LT Robert Baden Powell (Later Lord Baden-Powell, Brigadier & founder of Boy Scouts) body servant used the LT's 4-bore double barrel howdah pistol to kill a "night-prowling criminal" by firing both barrels at the thug from a distance of 40 feet.
According to the Provost's official incident report of the next morning, "----- the prowler was carried to his place of burial in 3 separate pieces."
(I'm told that Lord Baden-Powell's double pistol is on display at The Imperial War Museum, with its holster & gun-belt.)

YEP. Those were MEN in those long-ago days. = I cannot imagine what firing a PAIR of 4-bores at once (especially out of a pistol) would have been like. I do know that I wouldn't care to have that experience.

There was also a British LTC, who was seconded to The Indian Army, that had a 4-barrel .577/400 Martini-Henry howdah pistol made by Shikari Arms of New Delhi for STOPPING attacking tigers/leopards at close range. - The front trigger fired the top barrels at once & the rear trigger fired the 2 bottom barrels.
(With typical British understatement, W.D.M "Karamojo" Bell said of that hand-cannon, "The report and push-back was rather significant.")

Note: "Karamoja" Bell opined at the NY Explorers Club upon hearing a member bragging about killing a Cape Buffalo at 200 yards, "Well, I'm rather more impressed at how well that a fellow shoots wounded Cape Buffalo at 2 yards."

yours, sw

 

[bearcat6]

Bell killed a lot of elephants with a 7mm Mauser.

 

[csmkersh]

Bell's 275 Rigby

https://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2010/9/15/karamoja-bells-275-rigby/

 

[stand watie]

bearcat6,

YEP.

Fyi, I saw Bell's 7mm Mauser when it was "loaned out to" the NRA Museum long ago. (about 1970, if I remember right.) & it was really "Plain Jane" commercial Mauser rifle too.

yours, sw

 

[stand watie]

TO ALL,

Yesterday PM, 20MAY16, a "new friend" (who is a "BP rifle-nut" like me) GAVE me a whole box of .45x2.5 Basic cases that were designed for a .45x2.5 inch Sharps, which he has sold.

These seem to be CORRECT except for trimming .3 inch length for my Danish rifle & he said that if the are suitable (after being reformed) that he will give me a BUNCH more of them.

I'd guess that my "case availability problem" is SOLVED.
(My email correspondents say that they are getting more than 10 reloads per new case.)

THANKS to all, sw