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14cm Hontoria Projectile? Span-Am War

 
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Hawkinson's second edition has the 140x1246R case with a rim dia of 175mm. It's listed as a 14cm Hontoria 2 pc brass case, British made with a 1895 dated case. He lists it as T/N but a 1mm difference in rim dia and a 11 mm difference in length isn't all that much. As of the list of items in his collection dated 1998 he didn't have it. He traveled the world measuring stuff in museums so don't be too hard on him for a little mistake like that if it is the same cartridge. I've found mistakes in his book too but as many items he has listed I don't think that's too bad. Fired, not fired, all kinds of things can cause differences like that.
 
Oh, I don't think anyone meant to be hard on him, or anything. At least, I certainly wasn't. The difference of a few millimeters is well within the margin of error, IMO. I actually contacted him directly about this case and a few others. Nice guy. I emailed back and forth quite a bit with him and his daughter, whom is now helping him with some of his database work. They're actually trying to convert it all to an online database, but the amount of info and photos and everything is maaaasive. Hopefully they'll get it up and running in the near future. He got rid of his collection quite a while ago, he said. I guess once the US cracked down on importing inert ordnance type of stuff (i assume after 9/11?), he decided that if he couldn't get ALL of it, he didn't want ANY of it.
 
Correcting a mistake is vital for shell case identification. In my opinion, 11 mm in length is the difference between positive ID or clueless forever.
That being said, of course I appreciate the ground breaking work of him. I publish myself and I make the same mistakes all the time.
This forum is about learning together and correcting is not critiscism! It is learning and going forward.
 
HoldThePickle24 said:
Oh, I don't think anyone meant to be hard on him, or anything. At least, I certainly wasn't. The difference of a few millimeters is well within the margin of error, IMO. I actually contacted him directly about this case and a few others. Nice guy. I emailed back and forth quite a bit with him and his daughter, whom is now helping him with some of his database work. They're actually trying to convert it all to an online database, but the amount of info and photos and everything is maaaasive. Hopefully they'll get it up and running in the near future. He got rid of his collection quite a while ago, he said. I guess once the US cracked down on importing inert ordnance type of stuff (i assume after 9/11?), he decided that if he couldn't get ALL of it, he didn't want ANY of it.
Click to expand...
He was always ready to answer questions! I contacted him a number of times also. I'd have liked to see that collection sold !
 
UPDATE: with the help of everyone, especially @no3nh4, I have a working model of what may very well be what a common shell projectile looked like for this gun. I need to paint it and make it look realistic and aged, but it will hopefully display well in my case. I’ll keep everyone posted.
 

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