Historical Questions Regarding Eley Shotgun Cartridges

[Eley Fan]

Hello,

I'm new to these forums. I'm actually conducting some research on Eley 12 bore shotgun cartridges. And I needed to know a couple of historical anecdotes regarding Eley.

My queries are:

1) Does anybody here know the exact year when Eley ceased making their own hulls & began to source hulls from Cheddite  ? Particularly the hulls which had stars on the head stamp, rather than "Eley" marked on them.

Attached below is a photo for reference.

2) Does anybody here know the exact year when Eley began to feature their plastic monowad on their Alphamax line ? I have a print of Eley's 1978 catalog which mentions that Eley was already using their plastic monowad by then. So Eley must have introduced the plastic monowad to the Alphamax line prior to 1978.

I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused, but any information would be greatly appreciated.

[rbrowning2]

Did eley ever make hulls? may be paper hulls?  were they not they using hulls made by Martignoni 

may be ask eley direct.

Edited October 15 by rbrowning2

[Stimo22]

This is a list of Eley head stamps up to 1978 , so that must be later

[enfieldspares]

Eley when at "the Kynoch" pretty much made everything in house. They even had their own printing presses for catalogue production. The Kynoch Press. The company was an example of "vertical integration".

The rot started when the idiot otherwise known as Sir John Harvey Jones came to ICI. The same later Thatcher economics that knew the price of everything and the value of nothing. So metallic cartridge loading disappeared in the 1960s. You see .455" Webley ammunition with small Berdan primer stamped K66 but none stamped K67 or later AFAIK.

Except .22LR and .50 BMG eventually all would cease.

The last Kynoch metallic cartridges in some calibres used Norma cases. The yellow and red boxes were honest enough to have printed "Made in England from Swedish components" on them. The colour and texture of the brass gave the origin away anyway. If it looked like Norma brass it was because it was Norma brass. Although headstamped KYNOCH.

Also remember there was a fire in the 1970s (?) that resulted in some shotgun ammunition being made in France. I think some of this is the zinc (?) plated steel case heads sometimes seen in auction?

I don't know if connected with that or it a different reason but I have in front of me two "by Eley/FOB International Game" that were loaded by FOB. Which I see often on the internet, inerted, at £1 each. Mine are live.

Eley now of course is yet another company trading on a supposed British identity but foreign owner. By a Spanish company. Nothing wrong with that....I own AYA guns...but not a lot of people know that fact.

Certainly brass heads were made in house and apparently we're much more complicated than steel heads to make I was told. So that does lead me to think that some steel headed cartridge cases must at one stage have been made in the UK?

Again when did the change take place from Eley Surefire primers to battery cup primers of today's type?

I would think the change may have come when shotgun cartridge manufacture left "the Kynoch" and moved out. Maybe the time of Eley-Hawk and the company became cartridge loaders rather than cartridge makers?

Hope this doesn't just create more questions than it tries, badly, to answer!

Edited October 16 by enfieldspares

[hawkfanz]

late 80,s  when i was atrucker i used to do return loads from imi witton,all dept i went in have delivered cartidges from there,,another small unit i dellivered lead shot to think it may have been in sutton coldfield boxes were marked hawkbest cartidges.

[matone]

19 hours ago, rbrowning2 said:

Did eley ever make hulls? may be paper hulls?  were they not they using hulls made by Martignoni 

may be ask eley direct.

They had their own extrusion machine at Witton making the first plastic tube for cases. Riefenhauser or something like that named.

Edited October 16 by matone
add

[Stimo22]

On 12/10/2024 at 01:31, Eley Fan said:

Hello,

I'm new to these forums. I'm actually conducting some research on Eley 12 bore shotgun cartridges. And I needed to know a couple of historical anecdotes regarding Eley.

My queries are:

1) Does anybody here know the exact year when Eley ceased making their own hulls & began to source hulls from Cheddite  ? Particularly the hulls which had stars on the head stamp, rather than "Eley" marked on them.

Attached below is a photo for reference.

2) Does anybody here know the exact year when Eley began to feature their plastic monowad on their Alphamax line ? I have a print of Eley's 1978 catalog which mentions that Eley was already using their plastic monowad by then. So Eley must have introduced the plastic monowad to the Alphamax line prior to 1978.

I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused, but any information would be greatly appreciated.

Do you have the box, because there is a code for date on the box. I have the info somewhere if needed

[Eley Fan]

Hello, Thank you so much. These are the codes from one of the boxes:

Edited October 16 by Eley Fan

[Eley Fan]

9 hours ago, enfieldspares said:

Eley when at "the Kynoch" pretty much made everything in house. They even had their own printing presses for catalogue production. The Kynoch Press. The company was an example of "vertical integration".

The rot started when the idiot otherwise known as Sir John Harvey Jones came to ICI. The same later Thatcher economics that knew the price of everything and the value of nothing. So metallic cartridge loading disappeared in the 1960s. You see .455" Webley ammunition with small Berdan primer stamped K66 but none stamped K67 or later AFAIK.

Except .22LR and .50 BMG eventually all would cease.

The last Kynoch metallic cartridges in some calibres used Norma cases. The yellow and red boxes were honest enough to have printed "Made in England from Swedish components" on them. The colour and texture of the brass gave the origin away anyway. If it looked like Norma brass it was because it was Norma brass. Although headstamped KYNOCH.

Also remember there was a fire in the 1970s (?) that resulted in some shotgun ammunition being made in France. I think some of this is the zinc (?) plated steel case heads sometimes seen in auction?

I don't know if connected with that or it a different reason but I have in front of me two "by Eley/FOB International Game" that were loaded by FOB. Which I see often on the internet, inerted, at £1 each. Mine are live.

Eley now of course is yet another company trading on a supposed British identity but foreign owner. By a Spanish company. Nothing wrong with that....I own AYA guns...but not a lot of people know that fact.

Certainly brass heads were made in house and apparently we're much more complicated than steel heads to make I was told. So that does lead me to think that some steel headed cartridge cases must at one stage have been made in the UK?

Again when did the change take place from Eley Surefire primers to battery cup primers of today's type?

I would think the change may have come when shotgun cartridge manufacture left "the Kynoch" and moved out. Maybe the time of Eley-Hawk and the company became cartridge loaders rather than cartridge makers?

Hope this doesn't just create more questions than it tries, badly, to answer!

Thank you so much. The explosion at the Eley factory occurred on 15th November, 1973 as per my research.

3 hours ago, Stimo22 said:

Do you have the box, because there is a code for date on the box. I have the info somewhere if needed

Hello, Thank you so much. These are the codes from one of the boxes:

[rbrowning2]

all interesting information, the Maxam, spanish sold the likes of Eley to sofisport Sa France the other year, who now own Eley Hawk.

any help

https://www.eleyhawkltd.com/about

 

[Stimo22]

13 hours ago, Eley Fan said:

Thank you so much. The explosion at the Eley factory occurred on 15th November, 1973 as per my research.

Hello, Thank you so much. These are the codes from one of the boxes:

The information I have says that there should be a code on the bottom flap that should look like photo and 97 is the inspector, Q14 is October 14 and N is 1965 in this case . 

[Eley Fan]

7 hours ago, rbrowning2 said:

all interesting information, the Maxam, spanish sold the likes of Eley to sofisport Sa France the other year, who now own Eley Hawk.

any help

https://www.eleyhawkltd.com/about

 

Sir, would you happen to know the year Eley began to use hulls from Martignoni ?

[Lever357]

There's a Facebook group - cartridge collectors - some extremely knowledgeable people on there