The Honor of a Headstamp

[erich]

What a wonderful thread - thanks, gents.

[Lee Martin]

Ken....here are a couple of photos of the Winchester 375 brass. As you can see, the headstamp is "IHMSA - 375 SM":





Years ago, I bought a 375 SuperMag Seville and the guy offered to throw in some brass he never used. When the gun arrived at my dealer I was pleasantly surprised to find 14 boxes of this stuff. I've kept them unloaded all these years.....apparently these cases are sought after by cartridge collectors.

-Lee
www.singleactions.com

[ihmsa80x80]

They looked something like this.

[Charger Fan]

Mine's bigger. ;D



Now I just need to get a gun to go with my brass. LOL!

[ihmsa80x80]

Buying brass for a gun you don't have just gives you more incentive to get one.

[ihmsa80x80]

Federal was a big supporter of handgun silhouette from the start. They did special runs of brass for Elgin Gates and the silhouette shooters. Here's their runs of .357 Supermag brass.


The case on the left is the original brass made for Elgin when he got the .357 Supermag project going. The "SUPER MAGNUM" headstamp is very scarce. The middle two are from factory made ammo and unprimed brass cases. The final case is a special run for IHMSA with the ram silhouette at 3 o'clock. They came as unprimed brass only, in this box.

[ihmsa80x80]

Here's some more special headstamps for IHMSA. Federal made factory nickel cases, correctly formed for the 7mm TCU. All you had to do was load and shoot, no forming needed. They came in these boxes

with the original designation for the round, the 7mm/.223


A half-million pieces of brass were formed by Federal for the 7mm IHMSA round, also known as the 7mm International.

These also had the ram silhouette on them and were properly formed for the 7mm version. They were also used as the basis for all 8 of Elgin's International series of cases, from .25-.338, with this headstamp

[Charger Fan]

Very impressive, IHMSA!

[Lee Martin]

I have a bunch of nickel Federal 357 Maximum.....quality stuff and even for being nickel plated it's held-up great over the years.

-Lee
www.singleactions.com

[2 Dogs]

Some neat stuff here boys!

[nobearsyet]

Yeah, I didn't know the big brass makers ever did custom headstamps, I thought Winchester's Teddy Roosevelt ammo was something new there

[madbadger]

Yep, the proper headstamp pushed my .414 SuperMag & .41 Special projects to the top. Can't say why, just seemed "right".

What's it take to get a special headstamp?

Somebody went through the process for both of the cases above & doesn't seem right not knowing what a fellow sixgunner did for the love of his sport.....

MadBadger

[ihmsa80x80]

That nickel Federal Maximum brass is some of my favorite stuff. It has lasted a long time.

The big manufacturers have run special headstamps many times in the past. The Teddy Roosevelt series was actually preceded by the John Wayne series in 2007. Even that wasn't the earliest. Winchester has done the Duke before on nickel .32-40 brass, and several different .30-30 and .38-55 runs commemorating national events, special groups, anniversaries, etc.

Smaller manufacturers, such as Starline, Quality Cartridge and Jamison do many unique headstamps for wildcat rounds, and make the brass for the smaller companies. Georgia Arms is an example.

I have heard something like 300,000 pieces as a minimum order for your very own special headstamp from these brass-makers. Most of that cost goes to having the bunters made up.

My collection has a ton of examples of interesting headstamps. If there is any interest, I may start a thread on that with some pics.

[Aggie01]

I asked about custom length/headstamp brass at Starline, and they said they could do it for a minimum run of 50K pieces.

I kinda think thats the same number as given out by the fellow with the .41 special brass.

[nobearsyet]

We ought ot go together and od a group buy on some "SIngleactions 44 Special" brass