CARTRIDGE aluminium

minktrapper

I have in my posession a 12 Gauge cartrige made from aluminium I think with a brass top on it.It has the markings FN and MADE IN BELGIUM on it.Does anyone know any details about it ie. age,purpose etc.

landkeeper

fn and belgium would suggest browning i have a similar one in 20g but it's totally alloy no brass

Tackleberrywho

minktrapper wrote: »

I have in my posession a 12 Gauge cartrige made from aluminium I think with a brass top on it.It has the markings FN and MADE IN BELGIUM on it.Does anyone know any details about it ie. age,purpose etc.

I have an ICI one, I was told reliadable and never questioned it, have it 12 yeara and belinfed to an old man who had it years

minktrapper

Its two inchs long and is loaded with no. 4 shot I think(writing faded).

Tackleberrywho

minktrapper wrote: »

Its two inchs long and is loaded with no. 4 shot I think(writing faded).

2 or 2 & 1/2?

meathstevie

It used to quite common a good few years ago to use aluminium for heavy loads. If yours has an FN headstamp it's ( or was ) probably Legia branded.

I don't know why alloy was used for cartridges. Was it to assist containing the pressure in a gun's chamber or maybe plastics weren't good enough and if you go back long enough maybe it was to provide a cartridge that would have been more waterproof than the common paper/cardboard case.

Grizzly 45

There was a run of aluminium cartridge cases in the 1980s [for Blazer I think] in the US. It was supposed to be the new big thing for reloading and such.Never seems to have caught on.
Brass shotgun shells died out I reckon after WW2.I still have a couple of Winchester 00 buck GI loads.Only reason they were made for the US Army was so they wouldnt jam the mechanism on their pumps or semis,unlike the paper shells of the time.

minktrapper

2 inchs long in total.

Tackleberrywho

minktrapper wrote: »

2 inchs long in total.

A very weak shell.
A lot of Old Game Guns are only rated for similar pressure shells.

Tackleberrywho

minktrapper wrote: »

I have in my posession a 12 Gauge cartrige made from aluminium I think with a brass top on it.It has the markings FN and MADE IN BELGIUM on it.Does anyone know any details about it ie. age,purpose etc.

See on right of frame my shell
It's a No 5

minktrapper

Mine is much more like a normal cartridge with a crimp top.

Grizzly 45

Thought just crossed my mind.Could it be a 12GA flare cartridge???They are usually made of aluminium.
Belive FN might have made them somtime ??
OK scrap that idea if it is a crimp top.

minktrapper

It rattles like as if it contains lead shot.

meathstevie

Grizzly 45 wrote: »

Thought just crossed my mind.Could it be a 12GA flare cartridge???They are usually made of aluminium.
Belive FN might have made them somtime ??
OK scrap that idea if it is a crimp top.

Grizzly, FN made them alright. Remember having great craic as a young lad firing them into the air at night in my grandda's fields. They would have gone about 50 to 60 meter and leave a shotgun barrel as dirty as you can't possibly imagine. Coopal used to make them as well. The didn't throw out a lot of light anyway.

moby30

minktrapper wrote: »

I have in my posession a 12 Gauge cartrige made from aluminium I think with a brass top on it.It has the markings FN and MADE IN BELGIUM on it.Does anyone know any details about it ie. age,purpose etc.

heres a couple of pics of some old cartridges i have. theres two types of aluminium one. on i think is just an ordinary cartridge but i was also wondering about the one with the crimped end-sound like the same one you are talking about minktrapper.very tempted to fire it:) i have a couple of hundred paper cartridges-would they be safe to fire does anyone know-id imagine theres not much of a punch out of them anymore.

Grizzly 45

moby30 wrote: »

i have a couple of hundred paper cartridges-would they be safe to fire does anyone know-id imagine theres not much of a punch out of them anymore.

If they have kept dry and arent bulging in anyway.Fire away with them.
Biggest problem would be if they are anyway damp that they will play havoc with extraction or ejection when they are expanded after being fired.Next question is..Maybe they might be worth more to collectors in an unfired state if they are somthing original,and looking at your pics of the shells,they might be worth more unfired.:)

minktrapper

Thats mine moby . Do you know anything about it.

moby30

All the cartridges are dry so might try a few. There's a few strange lookin ones in there aswell. Minktrapper I don't know anything about it. I thought If I stick up the pic someone might be able to help- no one I showed it to has ever even seen one like it.