30 Army paper bullets

ronl

New member
I ran across a box of 30 Army loaded with paper bullets still in the original Winchester box and was wondering how much the things were worth.
 

mapsjanhere

New member
I was so hoping someone would answer this, I've never heard of a 30-40 Krag still having used paper to seal the bullet.
 

James K

Member In Memoriam
I am pretty sure Ronl means paper bullets, not paper patched bullets.

The Cartridge, Blank, Caliber .30, Model of 1896, used a formed paper bullet so it would feed through the rifle action, but would not be a danger when used in exercises.

After the adoption of the Model 1903 rifle, paper bullet blanks were made for the .30-'03 (Model of 1903) and .30-'06 rifles (Model of 1906). The latter was produced by Frankford Arsenal until 1908, when the familiar cardboard wad blank was adopted.

During and after WWI, the Navy let contracts to both Remington and Winchester for .30 Army paper bullet blanks for training, the largest contract being for 1.5 million cartridges, in April 1917. Those cases had military style headstamps with the contractor and the date.

In addition, Winchester made .30 Army commercial blanks, with the standard commercial headstamp, for ceremonial use by veteran's organizations which had Krags, after the Army could no longer supply blanks. Commercial blanks were also used by the movie industry.

Value? Beats me. I would guess a couple of dollars each, but I am not a cartridge collector.

Jim
 
If all the headstamps are correct for the box that they're in, then I would say that the value is considerably more than a few dollars a piece.

I'd be curious, though, because to the best of my knowledge those kinds of blanks were never loaded by Winchester. All I have ever seen of Winchester loaded .30 Army blanks are the cardboard or phenolic resin (Bakelite) closure.

How about a picture?
 

James K

Member In Memoriam
Quote from History of Modern U.S. Military Small Arms Ammunition:

"During the World War I period, the U.S. Navy let at least two contracts for paper bullet blank cartridges to be used in training. One of these in April, 1917, was to Winchester for 1.5 million rounds. These were loaded with tinned cases and white paper bullet. Typical headstamp is W.R.A. CO. 5 17. The other is a Remington contract which was made with a tinned brass case, whitish or yellow paper bullet and R A 17 or 18 headstamp ... 200,000 were delivered."

FWIW, I have seen a few of those Winchester rounds, but don't have any at the moment. I have never seen a Remington paper bullet blank for .30-40.

Jim
 
Top