Odd Headstamps

[Ugly Dwarf]

A buddy gave me a bucket of range brass to sort through. Long story short, he works at a range and I don't. I reload and he doesn't. It's a good friendship.

Anyway, as I'm sorting through the brass the other day I come across an odd headstamp... SEARS brand ammo. I seem to recall them being in the gun business at one point, but didn't know they had their own line of ammo too. Things have changed, since I don't think they even SELL guns/ammo anymore.

I didn't think much of it and off to be polished it went. I came across the same headstamp tonight, as I was pulling the bass out of the tumbler, and it piqued my interest again.

I began looking through the 30-06 and .308 brass waiting to be bagged, and found some more odd (or old) headstamps and thought others might be intrigued by this too. Perhaps not and this is a waste of electrons. Either way, I'm posting some pix.

The Sears headstamp that got me thinking:






Some Lake City brass from 1943:







Utah Ordinance from 1943 (Operated by Remington Arms from March 1942 - Dec 1943)







An Austrian (or possibly German) manufacturer "Osterreichische Jagdpatronenfabrik" from 1961





Coming Up Next... the .308.

[Darklyte27]

nice, i recently got a 81 LC brass from some reloads i bought..

[Ugly Dwarf]

.308 Pix

The .308 is probably only interesting to me because I was already looking at the .30-06, but what the heck, I'll post those too.

First up is brass made by FNM, a manufacturer from Portugal. What caught my interest here was that the headstamp seems to show not only a year marking, but a "Lot" marking. I think I found 10-20 pieces of this FNM brass from 1969, but all had different lot numbers... they must have had a lot of time on their hands or been cranking out a lot of ammo.





and




Here is some brass made by St. Louis Ordinance Plant (I believe), though one reference I found online said they were only in operation between 11/41 and 6/45... another source would suggest this might have been made by Frankford Arsenal in Philly, using tooling taken out of the St. Louis plant.





This one stumped me... I have no idea how to duplicate those characters on my keyboard and I got nothing when searching the datestamp.





Well, anyway, now you all have a window into my life once the kids are in bed on a Friday night.

[hntnnut]

I'm thinking Isreali on that last one.

Richard

[jandmtv]

that last one looks greek to me.

[Ugly Dwarf]

The Greek stuff I've seen sold by CMP (and I've got a bunch of it from different years in that batch) had a headstamp of HXP. I'm sure there are many other Greek headstamps, but I don't think this is one (see below).

Richard,

I was thinking Israeli too when I was looking at it in my garage. Funny that it didn't come to mind when sitting at my computer. With that suggestion, I found a post by CG.net's very own M24Armorer confirming (your guess) that it was IMI.

That date code came from a time they were making (and using) a lot of ammo.

[VegasND]

The Sears headstamp reminded me I still have a couple of bricks of this:

There was a time when everybody sold guns and ammo. Maybe those days will return if people realize the government has now recognized their 2nd amendmnent right.

[MikeH1]

This one stumped me... I have no idea how to duplicate those characters on my keyboard and I got nothing when searching the datestamp.

It's Hebrew, from upper right to upper left (Hebrew is written right to left), first letter 'T', second letter 'TZ'

[ar15barrels]

It's Hebrew, from upper right to upper left (Hebrew is written right to left), first letter 'T', second letter 'TZ'

And any cartridges stamped "TZ" or "TZZ" are IMI as well.

The sears headstamp in the first post is a remington made case.
I recognize the style/depth of the stampings to be correct for that time period as a Reminigton produced case.

If you look at current hornady and black hills, compare it to winchester and you will note the extreme similarity as well.

[Moonclip]

I have a Sears .30-30 round as well as .22lr Sears/J.C.Higgins ammo. These is an ammo collecting forum on www.gunboards.com and a guy that posts there speaks/reads Hebrew.

[CSACANNONEER]

You never know what you'll find in them buckets! I work at an indoor range very PT but, I've found some interesting stuff including a box and 14/20 spent cases of 45 (long) Colt that were dated 1913! Yea, someone must have found grampa's old gun with his box of bullets and ruined some very collectable ammo! I've also come up with boxes of 30-06 brass from 1910 etc. Good luck hunting for headstamps.