Everytine I go in this building I find something I missed. Today was no different.

Found this and other than reading the caliber I have no idea what the writing in the lid means.






I’m pretty sure I know what this is even with the label worn off. Anybody 50 years or older has probably seen a bottle growing up.

35.5 grains of 4320 powder
55gr ballistic tip bullets

Load info

No idea what the snake oil bottle is.

Looks like some old Merthiolate antiseptic maybe. Smell it. It looks to have that sort of applicator attached to the lid. Good stuff to have in and around where you work and get cuts and such.

Wouldn't the 4320 and the 35.5 be the powder and grains used for a 55 grain ballistic tip bullet in a 22-250?

Sure, I bet that's what it is. I used it all the time back in the day. I still have a bottle in my medicine chest. That stuff burned like a son of a gun when you applied it to a cut or abrasion.

I'm surprised a trapper, hunter, and reader of this forum didn't recognize the label inside the ammo box. You've lived a protected life, Hobbie.
Do you own the building?

Yes.

Thats not a light load. To be safe I would pull the bullets and reload them myself. Probably wont damage your gun but I would not shoot handloads I knew nothing about. If you reuse the bullets it would be prudent to weigh and check diameter.

35.5gr of 4320 is 0.5gr under max book for a 55gr bullet

if you trust that is right and that the person who made them measured well

safest to pull and dump the powder and reuse components

also definitely not once fired brass those lines that should be also on the primers in red , that was how guys marked their brass so that they could pick them up and each guy had a different color sharpie he marked with

that way they got the same brass back to the same gun and could neck size only.

Is there reloading equipment in there too? Maybe you have the means for a new"hobby"!

No reloading eq.

Mercurochrome was my first thought on the bottle. IIRC, it was a lighter color than merthiolate. They were used interchangeably when I was a kid. I reckon that mercury poisoning will eventually be my demise because I sure had a lot of it used on me.

Iodine

Exactly what I was ready to post.

Mom kept both on hand.
All I remember was that one burned like Hades on an open wound and the other .... not near as much.
Why she kept both ? ? I don't know. May have been for disciplinary purposes ....

This is your bottle

This

That’s some good stuff.



I have no gun for all the calibers I have found so far so ain’t like I have a choice. Sounds like nobody else would take a chance so I guess I’ll make fishing sinkers with the lead and fireworks with the powder.

If you have a 22-250 looks like you got a few bullets, but honestly I wouldn't use them if I was you. Chances are they are fit to the gun, meaning they have only been neck sized, not full length sized. And the bullet may be sticking out too far for your gun, so a near max load with a bullet jambed into the lands could be harmful to your gun. They're on the fourth firing so the brass is more than halfway through it's life.

Looks like you have the answers already



How did you come up with this?
What indicates they have been fired 3 times already?
Never knew there was a way to tell just from a few pictures and always wanting to learn

Looks like some of them already have three red stripes on them. I assume he means once for each time fired.