CENTERFIRE CARTRIDGES

Centerfire & Rimfire Cartridge Headstamp Guide. Thousands of Real photo's and B&W drawings of actual headstamps, with descriptions of their manufacturers, country of origin and dates of manufacture when known etc. The Guide is fully searchable and contain more than 4500+ headstamps and more than 3500 cartridges along with cartridge photo's and full measurements.  Contains many new headstamps not found in other books, as well as some headstamps that were previously unknown. (Note: This Guide will not include large Military cartridges such as those over 25mm or their headstamps.) Link to order. Free updates via server download.

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Savage Arms Co Markings.
 

Winchester was started as the New Haven Arms from 1860 to 1866. From 1866 to 1932 operated as The Winchester Repeating Arms Company until it was purchased by Western in 1932. In  1932 the new Company became Winchester Western which lasted until 1944. In 1944 Olin Industries reorganized the company in to Winchester Western, a Division of the Olin Industries.
Western operated on their own from 1898 to 1932 until as stated above, they purchased Winchester Repeating Arms in 1932. In recent years it should be noted that the whole company has changed names many times due to financial difficulties, but the company has survived and the names have only been minor legal changes.

Other Canadian Military Headstamps listed with the Commonwealth headstamps below.

.303's, .455's and other traditional Commonwealth Cartridges usually have headstamps that designated:  A) where or who made the cartridge, B) the year, C) the mark of the cartridge (model), D) the type of powder and E) sometimes even the purpose of the ammo.

B) the year may be 2 or 4 digits.
EX....43 or 1943.

C) Most marks (model) of the cartridge ranged from 1 to 8 in roman numerals.
(I, II. III, IV, V, VI,VII,VIII)

D) Powder may be identified by the following:
"C" on the headstamp (usually found after the Mark) denotes CORDITE Powder.
"Z" on the headstamp (usually found after the Mark) denotes Nitro Cellulose powder.
Later cartridges dropped the Z since most cartridges were now made with nitro powder.

E) The purpose of the ammo is denoted by a letter usually placed before the mark. The letters primarily used were:
 

B = Incendiary	H = Rifle Grenade	Q = Proof
D = Drill	J = Illuminating	R = Explosive
E = Smoke Discharger	L = Blank	SPG = Tracer (before 1927)
F = Semi Armour Piercing	O = Observing	U = Inspection
FG= Semi Armour Piercing Tracer	P = Practice	W = Armour Piercing
G = Tracer	PG = Practice Tracer	WG = Armour Piercing Tracer

Therefore a typical headstamp (for this example: in a triangular pattern, with writing at 12, 4 and 7 o'clock) is interpreted as follows:

top (12 o'clock): "DAC" = Dominion Arsenal Canada
right (4 o'clock): "1943" = year
left (7 o'clock): "BVIIZ" = the B denotes this is an Incendiary round,
the VII denotes it is a Mark 7 model ,and the Z tells us that this cartridge has Nitro Cullulose Powder.

* The upwards arrows sometimes found on these headstamps (as in the C on the
   example) denotes the cartridge was made as "Government property". This is a
   British Royal Mark that is not to be duplicated by other Manufacturers.

Most commonwealth Modern Military Cartridges will now be marked as all other NATO countries, with a date, manufacturer, sometimes a purpose code and possibly a NATO symbol.
 
 

Curtis Steinhauer 

cartridgecorner13@gmail.com