I AM frequently told by enthusiastic cartridge collectors that they have not come across any worthwhile vintage examples for a long time and surely nowadays everything that has survived has been found. How wrong they are. Rare items are still coming to light, albeit not as frequently as they did a few years ago.

I was recently contacted by a reader who informed me that he had a few unusual specimens in his possession dating back to the first half of the last century and he wondered if I could furnish him with some information about them.

This transpired to be very difficult and following enquiries to knowledgeable hobbyists, combined with a little detective work of my own, mostly based on supposition, I am wondering if any other readers of this column might be able to shed some light on these.

COOKE'S EXPLOSIVES LTD

This is a 12-bore cartridge in a red case with an 8mm brass head which is stamped 'Made in Belgium.' It has a red overshot wad printed 'Cooppal Smokeless 6' and the tube is printed 'Cooke's Explosives Ltd. Loaded with Cooppal No 2 (Leaflet Type).'

First I attempted to find out who Cooke's Explosives were. There is no record of such a firm and surely if they had been a small cartridge loading concern then there would have been a reference to them somewhere.

There is no mention of them in my copious records so I must conclude that they were not in the ammunition business but more likely a demolition or blasting company for quarries or coal mining.

They are most unlikely to have Belgian connections other than the tube and components of the cartridge bearing their name. It was undoubtedly loaded in Britain, but by whom?

The two major cartridge loaders who used Cooppal powder and foreign cases were Frank Dyke Ltd and Watson Bros, 29 Old Bond Street, London, whose cartridge business was a subsidiary to their gunmaking.

In this instance I will go for Dyke who loaded for numerous retailers and small firms and supplied cases printed with their names.

BAILEY'S SPECIAL

This cartridge has a green case and bears the address 25 Gaolgate Street, Stafford. It is headstamped Eley-Kynoch with the ICI logo so was made after 1926. Undoubtedly supplied by a retailer, all that remains is to find out what type of business they were in.

THE WINDSOR CARTRIDGE CASE

I am going to bracket 'The Windsor Cartridge Case' 28-bore with a very similar 20-bore shell which is nameless and just printed 'For Smokeless Powder' along with a logo of two crowns.

Both tubes are deep red in colour and the brass is headstamped 'Made in England.' I think the clue here is the twin crowns. Watson Bros had a crown on their 'Lilliput' cartridge, I am informed by a collector friend, and this firm specialised in loading small bore cartridges such as the 28 and .410 gauges.

During my enquiries I was told that virtually identical cartridges bear either a single or double crown emblem. So we will settle for Watson Bros as having loaded both the 28-bore 'Windsor Cartridge Case' and the anonymous 20-bore.

MARCHANT & MASON

A plain red case which has no other identification other than its top wad which is printed 'Marchant & Mason, Downham' with the No 8 shot-size. The headstamp is 'Kynoch, Birmingham' so it was produced in the 1895-1919 period.

Obviously its origins lie in this small Norfolk market town but there is no gunmaker listed for here.

'NOTED BROWN CARTRIDGE'

This cartridge's origins I have definitely been able to unearth for my correspondent. A strange name, indeed, is the 'Noted Brown Cartridge' with a headstamp of 'S. Jackson, Kynoch, Nottingham.' My contact also has a 20-bore shotgun stamped with this name, the latter somewhat unusual in that it has 26-inch barrels.

Samuel Jackson was a gunmaker at 7 & 9, Church Gate, Nottingham, from 1886-1912 so undoubtedly loaded his cartridges in Kynoch cases. The brand name intrigues me, though, and I would be interested to find out if it has any special significance.

FUSILADE

Several bits of information are still filtering through to me concerning the 'Fusilade' cartridge which I wrote about some time ago. This one has a red paper case printed 'Fusilade 5' and bears the well-known ICI logo.

As I reported, following information received from a reader, 'Fusilade' was a cartridge launched to promote a new ICI herbicide. I presumed at the time that this must have an Eley connection but it has since transpired that this was not so, for the latter's cartridge division was then under the control of Imperial Metal Industries (IMI).

Eley had no connection with this cartridge. It was loaded for ICI by the Hull Cartridge Company in a Fiocchi case.

Now a former ICI salesman has contacted me with some further history of this cartridge.

It was never sold, merely given to farmers, landowners, etc, around 1982-83 to advertise this weed control product. One hundred thousand were loaded in 12-bore and 20,000 in 20-bore. The only shot-size available was No 7.

I guess we can now put this one to bed.

INFORMATION NEEDED

Once again a big thank you to those enthusiastic readers who are helping to unravel the history of cartridges loaded many years ago of which there is little or no information available. Often gunmakers did not compile records of their hand-loading operations and all that remains is a scarce example or two.

So, if you have any knowledge of the above cartridges or have one in your collection about which you know little or nothing, please contact me via The Countryman's Weekly. Only by pooling our limited resources are we likely to find out about these rarities.