by Mike Nesbitt | Contributing Editor
The .303 Savage performed very well with the Jamison brass.
Some good news for shooters and reloaders using obsolete cartridges comes from Jamison Brass and Ammunition. This company is increasing the list of brass or ammo that they offer and that makes this good news even better. The best news is that their brass is certainly very high quality and it is the choice of several smokeless and black powder shooters.
What is of the most interest to me are the obsolete cartridges that Jamison is now making available again for both the brass cases and for loaded ammunition too. I have some experience with their loaded ammo for the .44/40 and .45 Colt. Those fall into the Cowboy Action arena. Good shooting. Those cartridges and some others are a bit odd for Jamison because they don’t make the brass for those rounds. Instead those are using brass made by Star Line.
For most other cases, Jamison does make the brass. That includes my old favorite, the .303 Savage. Those old Savage 99s in .303 caliber just seem to beg for more attention and with the new Jamison brass that attention is easy to give. Rather recently I got a batch of 20 new .303 cases from Jamison and those were taken to the loading bench right away. After being primed with CCI Large Rifle primers, the cases were charged with 29.0 grains of IMR #3031 powder and then “corked” with some .308” diameter Hornady 180-grain round nose bullets. Those bullets were seated with the cannula well down into the .303’s neck so the loaded rounds had an overall length not exceeding 2 ½ inches.
Jamison offers loaded ammunition for the .44/40 in addition to other calibers.
That load almost duplicates the old Remington/Peters loading with their 180-grain bullet and my handloads crossed the chronograph with an average velocity of about 2,050 feet per second (fps) out of the rifle’s 22-inch barrel. While that is a bit slower than what the Hornady bullet is actually designed for, it is still good—and well within the working range for the .303. What’s more, my old 99R in .303 Savage showed it can put those loads to good use by putting the bullets in a 2½-inch group on a 100 yard target.
Those new brass cases really put the .303 Savage back in business and Jamison also is making new brass and ammunition for the .250/3000 and .300 Savage as well. Other shooters with obsolete calibers should take a look at Jamison’s list for new brass to load. Just to name a few more cartridges, Jamison offers new brass for old smokeless powder rounds such as the .33 Winchester for the good old Winchester Model 1886 and for the .35 Winchester to load in the box magazine Model of 1895. They are even making new brass for the nice big .348 Winchester plus for the “little” Winchester .351 SLR, Winchester’s “self-loading rifles.”
Loaded ammo and brass is now available from Jamison for the .300 Savage.
The old Newton rifles get a new lease on life with Jamison brass too; they are making new cartridge cases for the .256 Newton, the .30 Newton, and the .35 Newton.
One big area where the new Jamison brass will be so highly appreciated is with the shooting of the old black powder cartridges. A couple of rather new announcements can be made there because Jamison has recently introduced cases for the .40/70 Sharps Straight and for the old .40/82 Winchester. The .40/70 SS is a famous cartridge and its rather unique rim makes it hard to duplicate from other cartridges. It does use a similar rim size to the .30/40 Krag but the .30/40 is too short, so stretching of the brass was needed. Not anymore, now you can just buy new brass for the .40/70 SS.
New brass for the .40/70 Sharps Straight, shown with paper patched loads.
Here at home the new .40/70 brass was tried at first with a 370-grain cast bullet loaded over 65 grains of GOEX’s Olde Eynsford 1½F black powder. That amount of powder will practically fill the case and no drop tube was used. Those loads shot very well, targeted on paper at just 50 yards. Then the fire-formed cases were reloaded with the same powder charge, 65 grains, but under a 330-grain paper patched bullet. That duplicates the old factory load and some serious thoughts are forming about using that load with the Sharps rifle for deer hunting.
And, to say the least, the new brass from Jamison is certainly properly headstamped. It is also of the proper length, 2½ inches long. These new cases have a rim thickness of .070-inch which might be on the thick side for some rifles and if they are too thick for your rifle’s chamber, it is a simple task for a gunsmith to allow for these thicker rims.
Even though this cartridge is named the “.40/70 SS” it was most commonly loaded with a 65-grain powder charge. It was introduced by Sharps in 1876 as a replacement to the .40/70 Sharps Bottleneck and became the standard mid-range cartridge in 1878. It’s a fine sporting cartridge and blackpowder cartridge shooters are very pleased that new, correctly marked brass is available for it again.
Jamison’s brass using that similar rim size also includes the .405 Winchester plus the old .38-72 and the .40-72. Another Sharps rim size is found on the .44-77 and the .44-90, two bottleneck cartridge cases that are hard to duplicate or form from other brass. Jamison’s list actually goes on and if you have a special buffalo gun you want to reload for, just look at their complete list; they probably make what you need.
Likewise, new brass for the .40/82 WCF, one of the famous cartridges for the Model 1886 Winchester, is now available from Jamison. That’s a powerful blackpowder lever action round and it was also popular in the Winchester single-shot, now called the Model 1885—the Highwall. I know of at least one shooter today who is using a .40/82 in the blackpowder silhouette matches.
And Jamison now makes all of the brass cartridge cases used in the old 1876 lever action Winchester, including the .40-60, .45-60, .45-75, and the big .50-95. I don’t know of another source for those cartridges.
Jamison Brass and Ammunition is a division of Captech International. Their “digs” fill 31,000 square feet in Rapid City, SD.
“Many unique cases are currently available in stock and more are in production each week,” said a company spokesperson.
For more information, contact Captech International, Jamison International Division, 2441 Dakota Craft Dr., Dept. TGM, Rapid City, SD 57701. To see if they make the brass you want just check their website at captechintl.com or phone: 605) 791-1974.www.cap
