.41 Swiss..Hard to find stuff

[Greasemonkey]

Sunday was the first time I had been to a gunshow in ages, looked at a few cheesed up bubba wannabe Ak SKSs, a $900 WASR ..licked on a 460 S&W, snubbed my nose at some way over priced reman .338 Win Mag ammo.... I actually came home with a couple....ok....it was only 10 50rd boxes of 10mm..BUT.... I struck gold and pay dirt....  I found .41 Swiss rimfire or 10.4X38R rounds...these 3 simple things moved my Cintas pants more than anything else.

I have had 69/71 Swiss Veterlli for a number of years and have been chasing the ammo ghost, just because, I like and collect ammo too. I've seen these rounds upwards of $25 per round, 18-22 per round is pretty much the average, but I managed to walk out with 3 boxes for 8.25 per round.   So..I think I made out pretty good.



Yup, you did the math I'm sure.......and yup.... thats more than a .50bmg per bang/box, more along the lines of a 460 Weatherby Mag per box, more than most rifles for 3 boxes of ammo.
But, it's highly collectible, the box of .41 Swiss shot shells in the bottom of the photo are very rare now, these were the icing on the cake of the deal. The shotshells typically carry a much higher collector premium than the lead ball rounds, especially for a complete full original box. The last production of Remington/UMC 41 Swiss was in '40-'41 range, so this ammo is possibly 70 to 90 years old. The boxes are original and overall in great shape for the age, and all the rounds are pretty decent, pretty much in the condition of the rounds shown, so no major discoloration or tarnish. I have considered doing a centerfire conversion.. but why screw up a nice hunk of history thats almost 150 years old.

[running-man]

Range trip?  You bring the Veterlli and ammo and I'll bring the earplugs and maybe some tannerite!   

Nice haul man!

[spongemonkey]

Very interesting ammo Greasey!   

[Greasemonkey]

Range trip?  You bring the Veterlli and ammo and I'll bring the earplugs and maybe some tannerite!   

Uh...say wha.. you mean actually try and fire it.     

I doubt it would even fire, many have tried, very few have succeeded in getting it to fire. I may.... and thats tentative, one day try to find another bolt and try it with centerfire... The ballistics seem to be, near as I can find.. the original loading was blackpowder, a 313 grain bullet @ 1350-1450 fps(depending on source). It kind of falls in line with loading that was used in a Springfield Trapdoor .45-70, that was developed in 1873, 5 years after the .41 Swiss came to be, the .45-70 was also blackpowder. Figuring most of the early Trapdoor loadings were a 405 grain bullet @ 1200 fps.  So for it's age, it's not a slouch of a rimfire. One interesting thing is the rear sight lowest setting is 200 meters, so like rifles of the era, it was more for volley fire. 

[Loose}{Cannon]

Fire it..  no guts,  no glory. 

[Phosphorus32]

Nice haul!  I can imagine this'd be even less likely to fire than antique centerfire ammo 

Full boxes look good in the collectible ammo box/corner/shelf 

[Greasemonkey]

Fire it..  no guts,  no glory. 

Bah.. I got the guts don't care about the glory.  And, nope..

Nice haul!  I can imagine this'd be even less likely to fire than antique centerfire ammo 

Full boxes look good in the collectible ammo box/corner/shelf 

I do have quite few old ammo boxes from the same era, like 38 spl, .45-70, 2 boxes of M15 .45acp shot shells from WW2, some 7mm dated from the 10's and 20's, oldest 7mm round is 1896, even a real old box of .30WCF and .30-40 Krag. These will kind of fit right in.

[Phosphorus32]

Nice! I like the old boxes. I have some old ammo but the only ones in original full boxes are some US GI .45 ball and Steyr pistol ammo (uh, but I don't have an M1912 Steyr pistol  )