Vintage Hunting Shell Boxes

Vintage Hunting Shell Boxes for Sale

For collectors of vintage hunting shells, hunting is only half the fun if you do not bring a vintage shell box with you. Perhaps bringing a vintage shell box is fun because it gives you bragging rights to show that you're knowledgable about what you do. Find vintage hunting shell boxes on eBay.

Most hunting shell boxes are distinguished by the size and the number of rounds in a box. Most small boxes of three to five rounds were mainly used as promotional samples. In comparison, vintage shell boxes containing 10 or 20 rounds were used for turkey, specialty loads, or even game loads during the Great Depression years.

The larger of these were either 25, 50, or 100-round hunting shell boxes. The 25-round box contained 4 and 8-gauge newly primed empties for game and target shooting. Similarly, its larger version was often called a shoebox containing 4 and 8-gauge shells. The largest among these is perhaps the most common type of vintage shell box. The hunting shell box came with 100 rounds of 10 or 12-gauge, new primed or unprimed empties. You can easily find most types of rare shell boxes on eBay at reasonable prices.

Manufacturers of vintage shotgun shell boxes can be divided into three distinct categories:

• Ammunition manufacturer: These manufacturers sold vintage shotgun shells under their own brand name. Robin Hood, USC, and Union Metallic Cartridge are well-known ammunition producers that marketed vintage shotgun shell boxes for sale exclusively under their brand.
• House brands: A lot of local companies used their home-based factories to produce hunting shells by buying empties from the three major ammunition manufacturers. The market was dominated by gun shops, hardware stores, and lead shot companies.
• House brands loaded by manufacturer: A variety of chain and mail-order retailers continued to sell old shotgun shell boxes until they were restricted by legislation. Shotshell boxes for sale by Carton, Norwestern, and Gambles are examples of these brands.

The most common types of used vintage shells found on eBay are usually 12-gauge. The shell size of 10-gauge, 16-gauge, 20-gauge, and 28-gauge are also common. You may also find 0.410, which is measured in caliber instead of a gauge. It is enclosed in a plastic shell that makes it similar in looks and function to other shotgun shells. While looking for old shotgun shells and inexpensive shell boxes for sale, you may also find 18, 15, 11, 3, and 2-gauge shells that are no longer manufactured.