In this book you will find over 6,000 drawings of shotgun cartridge head-stampings. The information on these stampings is as important to the cartridge collector as the markings on coins are to the numismatist (or coin collector). In the early days of breech loading, any information to be found on a cartridge was stamped onto the base of the brass head.

Many of today’s shooting folk do not realise the vast amount of history that has gone in to the making of the modern cartridge. One reason for producing this book is to record some of this history so that it will not be lost to future generations. Up until the first world war, most towns in the UK had at least one firm that bought in printed and often stamped cartridge cases. These old firms, gunsmiths, gun-makers and also ironmongers, would load the cases and sell their own celebrated brands of shotgun cartridges. The paper tubes were often printed, but for just a little extra cost they would have their name and that of the town stamped in to the brass heads. Not all firms that sold their own cartridges would go to this expense, but many did and this book provides a record of many of them for the enthusiast.