Unfired Dixie 50-70 cartridge

[Ed in SoDak]

I found this yesterday just off a gravel road. It's for a Civil War era Spencer, near as I can figure. It gave a pulltab signal but with a more stable ID, so I dug it. Looks to have been buried at least a few years. Sure is a honkin' big bullet!

I'm guessing it's probably fairly recent, since it has the Dixie name on the base. Does anyone know about when Dixie started producing 50-70 brass? Or did they also produce a loaded "replica" cartridge?

Thanks!
-Ed

 

[Cajuncoinhunter]

Try this link for some good info regarding your question:

http://www.civilwarguns.com/9204b.html

CCH.

 

[Ed in SoDak]

Thanks! I did a search on bing and found a couple sites where I learned a bit about it, including the page you link to, but I still had some questions. Mostly I'm curious about its age.

-Ed

 

[Ed in SoDak]

That 50-70 was an exciting find, so I went back to the spot for another look. About a foot away from the first cartridge my Time Ranger hit another solid pulltab signal. An inch or three deep I recovered a second unfired round, this one is a Winchester 30-30 WIN. It has a very light firing pin indentation and seems aged about the same as the Dixie 50-70 found yesterday, so I'm guessing that helps date both as relatively recent drops that happened at the same time. Let's say they were lost in the last 10 years or so as a rough guess.

The 30-30 slug has a lead flatnose and the rest of the slug looks to be jacketed. I'm a shooter, but it's pretty much limited to pulling the trigger on my .22s. I've owned a couple black powder .45 pistols, but I'm not a reloader. That said, this 30-30 round looks to me to be reloaded.

Here it is, next to the 50-70 round for size comparison. Pardon the lousy pics, my wife has the good camera at a friend's wedding across the state, that's pretty much happening as I write this!

-Ed

 

[Steve1825]

The older gun powders are unstable? Could moderate heat set these off? Any knowledgeable gun smiths out there who can enlighten us. I have many misfired bullets/ejects that I have been told to turn over to the police for destruction due to the possibility of problems. I'm sure Ed would like to know also.

 

[Ed in SoDak]

I'm going to guess the powder has been water-logged, but I won't be testing its limits. I found a live 22 recently, pried out the slug and ignited the powder poured off into a metal ashtray. I only got a few sputters. The case split, so I didn't try to fire the empty case's primer. Another live 22 find was pretty clean yet, so I chambered it in a single-shot rifle and it didn't fire after multiple attempts, including rotating the cartridge several times.

So I suppose there's a risk, and I'll treat it gently, but I'm not that worried about it.

-Ed

 

[senda]

Hello. Regarding the stability and functionality of the black powder will say that in Spain charged weapons found over 100 years ago and has worked blackpowder causing more than an accident. This does not mean that a cartridge loaded long is dangerous, no more than a modern one. Black powder is stable, it will not implode by itself but do not save it in the kitchen oven.
Pretty findings, that you are happy digging.

 

[Ed in SoDak]

I pried the slug out of the 30-30 round found nearby, and we couldn't get that to ignite at all. The portion of the slug that was within the casing was nice and bright and the smokeless power looked fine.

I don't want to deface the 50-70 though, so I'll just be cautious with it.

-Ed

 

[C&RHunter]

Dixie Gun Works, in Tennessee, sells brass for antique calibers, along with many other frontier things. Their brass, 50-70 case, is presently marked DGW, but in the past may have been stamped DIXIE.