I agree w/ Rick as does my cartridge-expert friend Chuck.  JRW
bject:
        Re: [Fwd: mystery cartridge or trick of the eye?]
   Date:
        Mon, 12 Aug 2002 14:48:38 EDT
   From:
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     To:
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John> photo appears to display two cartridge cases. with one forced or pounded into the other at
some time in the past. could have
been a makeshift firecracker. chuck
Rick Affleck wrote:

> I think you have two shell casings jammed together...you can see a faint
> line near the left side of the photo.
>
> Rick
>
> Richard M. Affleck, RPA
> Senior Archaeologist
> URS Corporation
> 561 Cedar Lane
> Florence, NJ  08518-2511
> 609-499-3447 (phone)
> 609-499-3516 (fax)
>
>                       Matthew Sterner
>                       <msterner@SRICRM         To:      [log in to unmask]
>                       .COM>                    cc:
>                       Sent by:                 Subject: mystery cartridge or trick of the eye?
>                       HISTORICAL
>                       ARCHAEOLOGY
>                       <[log in to unmask]
>                       u>
>
>                       08/12/02 02:27
>                       PM
>                       Please respond
>                       to HISTORICAL
>                       ARCHAEOLOGY
>
> Folks,
>
> I have a tough time analyzing historical-period artifacts from drawings and
> photographs, but with the increasing number of non-collection surveys in
> the West, we have to do our best right? Anyway, I have a drawing and a
> fuzzy photograph of a 45-70 cartridge identified from a nineteenth-century
> site in south-central Arizona. The headstamp (don't know which end the
> headstamp is on -- see photo) clearly identifies the cartridge as a 45-70
> carbine cartridge produced at the Frankford Arsenal in February 1878.
>
> Now for the tough part. Had that been all the information provided, no
> problem. Identify the round, determine from notes whether it was fired or
> unfired, move on. But there is this blurred digital photo that came along
> with the artifact. I swear that the photo makes the cartridge appear to
> have 2 bases of equal diameter. I am presuming that the crimped portion of
> the cartridge (the left end in the photograph) is the projectile, but I'll
> be darned if it doesn't look as though the projectile "rim" extends beyond
> the plane created by the length of the cartridge!  Can someone please
> reassure me that it's just me eyes playing tricks on me and that the
> cartridge will actually chamber.
>
> Photograph can be seen at  http://www.sricrm.com/histarch/ , then click on
> file name "4570_cartridge"  . . . or something like that.
>
> Any help/advice/reassurance would be appreciated.
>
> Matthew A. Sterner, M.A., RPA
> Senior Project Director
>
> Statistical Research, Inc.
> 6099 E. Speedway Blvd.
> Tucson, AZ  85712
> (520) 721-4309