My friend was out in the Cherry AZ area, near boulder canyon, a tributary to Cherry Creek.
He was in an area that where there was a lot of old timer mining claims. Not commercial sized mines, but the ones where someone bought a claim and hoped to get rich. These claims were active in the late 1800’s, early 1900’s.

He found the shell casing and I am hoping someone here can identify it.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Beancooker,

Looks like an internally primed .45-60 out of a Winchester 76. Kind of a shot in the dark though.

OZ

Not much help other to add that there was an Apache battle in that area.

Edit to add:

Short manufacturing date, around 1875 or so.
Unique, worth keeping.
Very spiffy find, I suspect it was military use.
Might want to email these people and see what they think.

https://www.oldammo.com/november04.htm

This message has been edited. Last edited by: rizzle,

What are its measurements?

This looks like an early 45 Colt internally primed cartridge or similar; measurements would help. Here’s what the cartridge looked like alongside a 45 Schofield cartridge. All the lines match up, more or less.

coles open late near me

Here’s the post on a forum I gleaned it from.

https://forums.sassnet.com/ind...ers-in-the-old-west/

Thank you all for the replies. I’ll have my friend take some pics next to a tape measure.

Measurements seem to align with the 50-70 government.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/.50-70_Government

That's a pretty cool find. That thing has been laying in the dirt for a long time. It'd be neat to know where the other end of it went.

Right down the road from me ( live in Dewey) cool find. I really like and appreciate the old west history living here!

Would that be some variation of a "pinfire" cartridge ?

+++++Old Thread++++

I'm going to be wandering around KH Butte Before it gets too hot here in Arizona.

There is mention of these casings that are found around here.

The link says "not secure" on Safari browser but I'm still alive after reading it.
http://www.azbackcountryadvent...Indian%20Reservation.

The cartridges with the external primers were ordered crushed if not returned so that Apaches could not reload them.
The internal primed casings were rarely intensionally deformed.

Sounds like the Indians got creative, from the Wikipedia link above:

“Around 1871, the Sioux captured a number of Springfield 1866 rifles that use these cartridges. Deemed single-use and not reloadable, soldiers would simply discard them which the Sioux collected and reloaded.[7] Despite a strict ban of fixed ammunition sales to Native Americans, they were not restricted from acquiring lead (for bullets), black powder and percussion caps for their "obsolete" muskets. Here's how they reloaded these cartridges:
Taking one of their ordinary percussion caps for their muzzle-loaders, they inserted in the open end of it a small piece of gravel. They then forced the cap into a hole punched in the center of the [base of the] cartridge shell with a round nail or other pointed instrument. The piece of gravel served as an anvil under the firing pin to explode the fulminate...[7]“