M&M 418/419

[aggiereb]

Only recently did I discover an article in American Digger magazine about the M&M 418/419 (and gun cotton) being cast in a mold manufactured by Eli Whitney.  That sent me scurrying into my stash of these bullets for comparison.  Interestingly, I have 4 with the known plug-style cavity, but 7 with really crude conical cavity.  I had never realized these bullets had conical cavities.

So what do I have??

Wes

[aggiereb]

No replies, huh??

So I guess the world will never know which cavity is correct for the M&M 418/419 bullet.

Wes

[Wilmington Mike]

I only have one with a plug cavity, so I cannot weigh in.  The few I have seen were all plug cavities.

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Thanks Mike!!

Thats my issue - I've only ever seen the plug cavities.

I'm still hoping some of the experts on this Forum can shed some light on these with conical cavities

Thanks,

Wes

[Wilmington Mike]

Tom Stelma's book "Bullets 2" has some discussion about Selmas on page 186.

[aggiereb]

Thanks for the reply.

But like all other references, even Tom Stelma is mentioning "plug" cavities.  That's all I've ever encountered.

My bullets have obvious conical cavities, although sloppy and crude.  I'll see if I can get around to posting pictures.

Wes

[aggiereb]

Believe it or not - I found a reference to conical cavities!!!!!!!!!

T&T bullet 132E notes that they have both plug and conical cavities.  That's the only reference I've ever found to conical cavities on these bullets.  I guess I had overlooked that over the years.

Darn Jim!!  Why didn't you just tell me!!

Wes

 

[Wilmington Mike]

With Stelma's reference, there are 4 pictures- one is a conical base Selma.

[aggiereb]

Thanks Mike.

Can you be more specific?  I can't seem to find where you're pointing me.

Stelma #1 or #2?  All the ones I see are deep plug cavity.

Thanks.

Wes

[aggiereb]

I guess I'm getting old.  For all the decades I've been collecting bullets, I never realized that the M&M 418/419 had anything but a plug cavity.  Only recently did I discover that they also came with conical cavities, so I went on a quest to find references to that.  I was surprised to find that Jim Thomas noted such in his Handbook.  I had never noticed that, so I went back to the M&M to see more specifically what they noted.  I was surprised to realize that M&M 419 was listed with a round tip conical cavity.  Again, after all these years, I had never seen that.

Sometimes old dogs need to be taught new tricks!!!

Wes   

[Wilmington Mike]

Stelma 2, page 186, bullet B is a conical base.

[aggiereb]

Thanks Mike.  After you previously mentioned it in Stelma's book, I looked it up.  Unfortunately, the pictures are not definitive (at least not to me).  Of the three pictured, the far left one MAY be a conical cavity, but I can't really tell.  It's obvious the others are plug cavities, including the one with the air bubble.  And Tom never made note of the cavities in these pictures.

The only reference I've found is in the T&T Handbook, where it states they have both plug and conical cavities.

Thanks for the help!!

Wes