Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire How old are these shot shells?

Are these 60's vintage?

Winchester-Western, Dove & Quail, 1oz of #8s. Paper hulls.

My father-in-law got them from either his dad or granddad(can't remember); FIL does not hunt / shoot and said he had been storing them for decades.

He gave them to me with a few boxes of 70s/80s federals (which I was happy to shoot).

These will sit on the shelf as memorabilia.

Late 70s, early 80s

Kent

I would say the 60s is correct there's still some of it my mother's in those kind of boxes, and from the year that her dad graduated high school and got married I would say that is correct the boxes to be from the 60s

Gte901m: If I recall correctly that "KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN" warning started by law in 1962 - so those shells are 1962 vintage or newer.
Hope someone else can be more definitive on that and the year of your hand me down shells.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I remember those boxes from the 70's.

I’m guessing mid/late 60s.

The paper hulls push them back a long long ways. The price was probably really high for the time

Paper hulls were still a thing up to at least 1980.

There should be a lot# that can date code on the flap when you open it up.

Kent

Back when $1.97 could buy something useful.

Code on the flap is A63DH01W

Does anyone know the cypher?

NM

Best I remember,I think they are late sixties.

Paper hulls are still a thing.

Cutting and pasting from this website:
https://www.mdshooters.com/threads/dating-winchester-western-ammo-boxes.178198/

The lot number will have a letter-letter-number or letter-letter-number-number series that indicated the date.
The first letter indicates the year, the second letter the month.
If followed by a single digit, that equates to a single digit day; if followed by two digits, the numbers are reversed to equate with a two digit day or dingle digit day with a leading zero.

Additional numbers and/or letters equate to production lines, operator or inspector numbers.

Years: To repeat every 20 years using our 26-letter alphabet, six letters were skipped: A, I, J, O, Q, and Z.

B 1928 1948 1968 1988 2008
C 1929 1949 1969 1989 2009
D 1930 1950 1970 1990 2010
E 1931 1951 1971 1991 2011
F 1932 1952 1972 1992 2012
G 1933 1953 1973 1993 2013
H 1934 1954 1974 1994 2014
K 1935 1955 1975 1995 (2015)
L 1936 1956 1976 1996 (2016)
M 1937 1957 1977 1997 (2017)
N 1938 1958 1978 1998 (2018)
P 1939 1959 1979 1999 (2019)
R 1940 1960 1980 2000
S 1941 1961 1981 2001
T 1942 1962 1982 2002
U 1943 1963 1983 2003
V 1944 1964 1984 2004
W 1945 1965 1985 2005
X 1946 1966 1986 2006
Y 1947 1967 1987 2007

Months: I and J are skipped

A - January
B - February
C - March
D - April
E - May
F - June
G - July
H - August
K - September
L - October
M - November
N - December


DH01 on the flap would indicate August 10, 1970.

Not sure if this is accurate, but it seems to confirm the '70 on the price tag.

I load them still. But I remember picking up people's hulls in the late 70s to reload from the dove fields, they were mostly paper, which we preferred.

Kent

That box persisted up into the 1980s maybe longer. But, by mid 1970s W-W Dove & Quails had transitioned to plastic hulls. So those are no younger than early 70s and more likely 1960s vintage.

Not in Winchester dove & quail loads. I bought tons of them, along with rabbit & squirrel and duck & pheasant loads in the '70's and they were all plastic by then. In fact I still have a full box of Winchester duck & pheasant loads from the '70's {3.69 price tag still intact} and they are plastic. Winchester switched from paper to plastic in the '60's.

They're 70's. I sold cases of them and just used up my last ones two years ago. I still have a few show up when I clean out closets, the loafing shed, trucks-Jeeps-atvs, camp trailer, C/O campers..........

I also still have a few of the black Remington promo loads.

That particular box of shells is pre-1963 as evidenced by the lack of a Zip Code in the Winchester Corporate address.