|
WINCHESTER GREEN LABEL BOX OF 25 .45-60 CALIBER,
300 GRAIN “GROOVED” BULLETS – ca. 1880s: A
scarce and very collectable box of 25, 300 grain,
“Grooved Bullets” for the caliber.45-60 bearing the
desirable early Winchester Repeating Arms Company green
label.
Winchester introduced the .45-60 caliber in 1879 as a
chambering for their Model 1876 “Centennial” Rifle. In
addition to offering packets of the fully loaded
cartridges, Winchester also packaged components such as
these bullets for sale to the shooters who did their own
reloading, such as was practiced on the buffalo hunting
range and the far reaches of the western frontier.
Certainly, these boxes of bullets would have been in the
inventory of the dealers, gunsmiths, general stores and
hide buyers supplying the last of the commercial buffalo
hunters on the Western Frontier.
The early Winchester packets of .45-60 ammunition have
never been common. As it is likely that fewer of these
bullet boxes would have been produced than the packets
of fully loaded cartridges, and further, as the survival
rate of these bullet boxes as the contents were expended
is almost unimaginable, it stands to reason that this
full box of Winchester Bullets for the .45-60 is a very
rare survivor.
This box is in excellent condition, retaining its full
form with all of the corners and edges intact, and it
features a full, legible cover label and side banner as
can be seen in the photographs below. The box retains
all twenty-five of the original .45 caliber Grooved
Bullets.
This is a very nice specimen of a rare box of Winchester
Bullets manufactured for the large caliber rifles on the
Western Frontier, and one that does not appear on the
collector market very often. This box will make a nice
addition to a Winchester Rifle and/or cartridge
collection. (0113) $450
|
