Like Paul and others, I agree that the creation of such a "cut" while removing a casing with a knife is highly unlikely; I suspect it is impossible.  I, too, have removed stuck casings with a pocket or hunting knife (whichever was handy), and I have never seen a pierced casing because of it.  In any even, the knife scars were at the base of the shell, just above the rim.

These .22 bullets were made from relatively soft lead, and pulling the bullet from the cartridge case was a very simple operation with a pair of pliers, holding the shell end between the thumb and index finger.  There was no danger of an accidental discharge because the fingers were simply not hard enough to cause one.  The bullet popped out quite easily.  As an 11-18 year-old boy, I popped at least dozens of .22 bullets out of casings that way.  Not a single on split, and I never would have tried a knife.

Could the "knife cut" have been just a split in the cartridge head?  A single defective chamber in a single-action revolver, for example, would split the cartridge at the head, yet the ejection mechanism (forcing a steel rod in a housing beside the barrel down into the cylinder to push the fired shell out the back) would leave no external mark on the expended case.

Bill





 
 
Bill Lockhart
Associate Professor of Sociology
New Mexico State University
Alamogordo, NM
(575) 439-3732


>>> "Avery, Paul" <[log in to unmask]> 2/11/2009 5:07 am >>>
Hello all,

We did some work recently at an 1830s plantation house in North
Carolina.  We recovered a fairly large number of cartridge cases from
what appears to be an early 20th century deposit.  It was located just
off of the front porch, so it looks like they were sitting on the porch
and plinking.  There were some unusual calibers, including several .32
Winchester Self-Loading Rifle and .22 Winchester Automatic.  The most
unusual thing though, was that there were more than a dozen .22 short
and .22 long cases that appear to have been jabbed with a knife.  The
cut goes through one wall of the case and runs lengthwise just above the
rim.  

Is this just random behavior indicative of boredom or is there more to
it than that?  

Someone suggested that the cases were sticking in the person's gun and
they used the knife to remove the case.  That makes some sense, but
there isn't enough space between the edge of the cut and the mouth of
the case on the .22 shorts for it to be stuck.  I can't imagine how they
managed to get the things to stay still while they punched the hole in
them.  Risky indeed to hold something that small and stab it with enough
force to puncture the case!

I plan to try it myself as soon as I have a chance to create some empty
.22 cases, but in the meantime, I'd like to hear from the group.

Thanks!

Paul G. Avery, RPA 
Senior Archaeologist 
MACTEC Engineering and Consulting 
9725 Cogdill Road 
Knoxville, TN  37932 
Phone: (865) 588-8544x1169 
Fax: (865) 588-8026