Can you remember your very first CARTRIDGE?

[anser2]

Back in the mid 1960s my first cartridges were Eley gran Prix paper case no6. I used to love the smell of them when you opened a new box.

Edited September 2, 2014 by anser2

[Floating Chamber]

Back in the mid 1960s my first cartridges were Eley gran Prix paper case no6. I used to love the smell of them when you opened a new box.

Yup! Agreed! It was the varnish!

[malkiserow]

After the 9mm period i remember finding some "old" 12 bore Rabbit Clearance cartridges that were issued for that very purpose..... FC you must know about these?

[Floating Chamber]

After the 9mm period i remember finding some "old" 12 bore Rabbit Clearance cartridges that were issued for that very purpose..... FC you must know about these?

I did encounter a box or two, circa 1962. Also cartridges marked 'Greenwood & Bateley' and 'Loaded with Greenbat Powder'.

 

 

I found this collector's photo on the net.

Edited September 3, 2014 by Floating Chamber

[malkiserow]

I did encounter a box or two, circa 1962. Also cartridges marked 'Greenwood & Bateley' and 'Loaded with Greenbat Powder'.

 

image.jpg

 

I found this collector's photo on the net.

 

the ones I was remembering were light brown paper construction and from a sketchy memory only said "Rabbit Clearance"

[JJsDad]

Eley Kynoch Grand Prix through a rather rickerty old under lever hammer gun that belonged to the estate where my dear old Dad worked.

 

Cant remember the year (late 1950s - early 60s) but the Eley factory had a major fire/explosion and within a month you couldnt get cartridges for love nor money.

Finally we got some "Yellow Wizard". Thanks Floating Chamber; havent seen them for years. Awfull cartridges, some went with a bang and others with a `poof` !

 

The Rabbit Clearance ones were not much better, albeit they were free because the Estate got them supplied as we had mega problems with Rabbits in the pre-myxy days

[fortune]

Perhaps I am mistaken. I thought that my first cartridge was a fourlong from a single shot bolt action Webley & Scot but now I’m not sure. It probably could have been a grand prix paper sixteen bore from my grandfathers back action single hammer under lever. The barrel was Damascus and probably had no choke at all and the end of the barrel was so thin that you could have used it as a wad cutter. I remember that my brother found a sweet / toffee tin and hooked it on a broom handle about 40 paces out. The effect on the tin was like a colander. Whether it was the grand prix 16 or the fourlong 410 they were about the same time and the smell of the paper cases was the same. I still have most of the box of 16 bore grand prix as I have never had another 16 to use them in.

[izzypop]

Yes red rival number 6 shot out of my dads 12bore s/s hammergun ! He told me it was safe !

Edited September 7, 2014 by izzypop

[Penelope]

I believe Hymax were 1 1/8oz, 2 1/2". Maximum 1 1/4oz 2 3/4" and Alphamax 1 1/2oz 3". Then it all changed, Hymax stayed the same, Alphamax went to 2 3/4" 1 1/4oz and the Eley Magnum introduced in 3" 1 5/8oz.

 

Those Hymax were my favourite wildfowling cartridges apart from Alfamax , only bought them when we could afford em which wernt very often . I didn't realise they were 36grams, being young grams didn't mean a thing to me , it was a good job then I had a Midland 3 inch that could take them with no trouble.

[pistolgrip]

First 12g for me was a greener gp but the first gun I owned was a Roddacchi (think thats how you spell it) folding single with baikal record cartridges still got the bruise

[theshootist]

I think the first shells I fired were just some Express 28g, but the cartridges I remember best were a few boxes of 1 and 1/8th Oz of no 6 called "Yellow Wizard". Used on rabbits through my step father's GP. Great shells!

[PJ_14]

I remember my first cartridge, it was an Eley Magnum .410 16 or 18 gram. Lovely cartridge for a 4 year old! I know I was hitting crows (with the help of my Grandad or Uncle Del) within a few shots and im still hooked 20 years on, and lucky enough to still have my Grandad to go out with on pigeon and our little syndicate that we are half guns on.

 

Fire one cartridge and you are interested, have the passion of 2 guys you look up to and fire that one cartridge you are hooked for life!

[Rimfireboy]

The first cartridge I fired was an eley magnum from my uncle's single barrel 12 bore bsa. I shot at a crow and nearly ended up on my back. That lightweight gun and magnum cartridge made for a nasty combination. I think it was a setup, because my uncle and his mates all fell about laughing. I missed the crow. I was a boy of nine stones back then.

[Alycidon]

Fiocchji 9mm garden gun, I would have been about 9 or 10, about half an ounce of 9 shot, great at rats at about 10 yards for house sparrows a shade further but anything bigger forget it although I did eventually kill a rabbit with it.

 

Spent a year trying to stalk and shoot rabbits with it then went straight onto a Harrington and Richardson single 12 hammer gun that is the worst recoiling gun I have ever fired but with a full choke 30 inch tube could it just roll rabbits and feeding pigeons over. Had 9 pigeons with one cartridge one day. Fed it Eley paper case Grand Prix 6s.

 

Pretty sure that gun was left over from WW2, even has a backsite, presumably for Home Guard use with lethal ball cartridges.

A

Edited October 19, 2014 by Alycidon

[Roy King]

Mine was an Eley impax paper case r t o with a single barrel webley and Scott .

It was a misty morning , I was 14 years old, way back in 1971

Been shooting ever since then. still love it

[triumph_Dave]

Mine was a paper cased Eley .410 through a single Webley bolt action.

+1 . Eley Fourlong with a Webley and Scott 410. Great days indeed.

[hifly]

eley hymax and eley alphamax to of the best duck shells you could get.

[fendrover90]

Eley fourlong ,, walking blackberry rows on a Sunday morning for rabbits in the early 80s with my pops r.i.p.

[brett1985]

winchester 16g slug. (old super x i believe!)

 

while on vacation in the states at the ripe age of 14.

 

bruise was there for a week!

[796]

My first was through an old aya single and they were hull three crowns 28gram 6 at a rabbit missed below it think i was 12 or 13 if i remember it used to eject the cartridge wether fired or not

[richness]

The sport will never die when people hold their shooting memories so fondly What a lovely thread

Myself i was introduced to the world of shotguns at a friend of my dad's house one day when i was about 10, when i got to fire a little 410 Eley at, strangely, a air rifle target placed only a few yards away. Also that same day i did the classic thing of holding the air rifle scope right up to my eye and getting a shiner....

[bornfree]

Mine was a paper cased eley that I nicked from my father's cartridge bag and put it through a hole that I drilled in a piece of wood and shot at it with my BSA airsporter. It took 9 shots before I hit the primer and a small bang and puff of smoke followed. what a disappointment.

[rws-89]

eley 410 thru a webley bolt action then got a zabala sbs hammer 410 which i still have .needed 4 pigeons for a box of 410 cartridges winchester aa aswell.