a good source for weapon identifcation and related material's is the "ask the Experts" at Antiqueguns.com..imo if they were 2  ea 45/70 casings the external one would have had the diameter expanded upon insertion of the internal one...the metal of the casing's is weak ..if using one of the same diameter to insert into the other without crimping first would have cause the external one to suffer damage...i have excavated alot of 45/70's  span/am 1898 era..i have not seen this type of artifact assembled .the neck of the 45/70 are straight and do not have a crimped down neck..the only thing it does have is at the very top of the cartridge is a very slight rounding to secure the bullet in the casing..being a black powder cartridge..if fired,will show the impact of the firing pin on the base...you may want to post on the above website....good luck...Kris Oswald
----- Original Message -----
From: [log in to unmask]>Matthew Sterner
To: [log in to unmask]>[log in to unmask]
Sent: Monday, August 12, 2002 1:27 PM
Subject: mystery cartridge or trick of the eye?

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