S&W Brand 357 and 9mm ammo

Q

Quentin2

New member
While going through an old box I found a few 50rd blue and white boxes of 357 and 9mm ammo made by the S&W Ammunition Company of Alton, Illinois. It's definitely S&W, even down to the logo. I must have bought this ammo about 1976-77 then forgotten about it. The 357 is 110gr JHP and the 9mm is 115gr JHP.

Guess S&W got out of the ammo business years ago so I'm not going to shoot it down the range. Nice prop for pictures if nothing else, along side my Model 19. Don't have an S&W semi but won't fire the 9mm either.

Don't know if S&W actually manufactured it or just rebadged something else. The 9mm looks a little like Federal 115g JHP but the bullet is seated a little deeper and the hollowed out cavity is larger.

Anyway, nice find I think!
 
I've seen plenty of it even though I've not actually had any of it myself. There's some brass in my supply with the S&W headstamp.

I'm not completely sure, but I think you are correct in that it was someone else's manufacture with S&W's brand on the box. IIRC, it was pretty typical mainstream, decent but not mindblowing regular old ammo.

Given that I roll all my own, I would not shoot that stuff either. Certainly not because it's no good or unsafe (I'm sure it's fine), but simply because it's a cool little time capsule from a bygone era. It's worth more to me sitting on a shelf and looking good than it is for a few hundred BANGS. But I also don't think it's any crime against humanity if the next guy shoots 'em all up when he finds 'em.
Nice prop for pictures if nothing else, along side my Model 19.
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C'mon man--
Where's the picture?! :confused: :)
 
Thanks for the info Sevens! Yeah I will have to take a picture for the thread. First I'll have to get the Hogue grips off the M19 and put the original wood ones on. This is gonna be a project I can see. :D

Like you said the cartridges are headstamped S&W which looks especially cool when 357 MAG is below it.
 
Back in the late 1970's a gun shop in Pittsburgh pa.had cases of ammo from the Johnston flood .Sold it for the price of fired brass it was never fired.It was S&W 357 .some duds but most fired :D
 
I doubt you will live another 50+ years to see it become valuable collectable ammo. Might sell for a premium right now, but not enough to buy your new toys. I would maybe keep one full box of each(the best ones) and pop off the rest of it. Especially if you handload. If someone was willing to trade you two for one or something on some really nice current ammo, just because they wanted Smith ammo, it might be worth it.
 
East Alton, IL is the mfg. location of Olin Corp's Winchester ammunition division. I would suspect they actually made the ammunition
 
Alton and East Alton are two different places.

And, I was wrong, S&W DID make the ammo...

From Standard Catalog...

"S&W acquired Alcan in Alton, Ill., in 1972. Initially the company made handgun ammunition with both the S&W and the Alcan name. Early boxes were marked "Smith & Wesson - Fiocchi, Inc., Alton, Ill."

The S&W line of reloading components included bullets and Alcan-made primers."

I remember the ammo, but I don't remember the bullets or the primers.

As far as I know, and this is verified by the Standard Catalog, the only S&W ammo that is really of interest to collectors are the .410 shotshells and .32 S&W. Those are apparently VERY scarce.
 
Quite a bit of the Olin facilities are located within Alton city limits. The office and therefore address is in E Alton but a lot of the plant and other buildings are in Alton. You'd need a city map of both towns to tell where the dividing line is. It runs thru their facilities. A lot of the locals can't even tell you where the city lines run. Except for the political subdivisions it's all one big city that runs into each other.
There is also Nilo Farms (Olin spelled backwards) which is near Brighton. Olin owns land and plants all over the Alton area. They acquired quite a bit of Alcan if not all the land. There's long been a cooperative venture between S&W and Winchester.
 
Here's a very interesting, and very complex, rundown of the history of S&W ammo. As I thought I remembered, ammo was loaded by various companies, including CBC in Brazil and at least one Canadian company.

http://www.cartridgecollectors.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=171&sid=627850de4868325affbdf261ebe73e5c

I'm not 100% certain of this, but I don't think that Alcan ever had any relationship to Winchester-Olin other than competitor. That they were located in the same town seems to be a coincidence more than anything.

S&W has worked with Winchester, that is true, just as they have worked with Remington and Federal, but I don't believe that Winchester had any sort of ownership stake in S&W's ammo business at all.

The one thing I do find to be interesting is Alcan's name... Alcan is Aluminum Can... I can't find anything that tells me if that was just happenstance, or whether Aluminum Can was involved in the ammunition business or not.

The oldest ammo catalog I can find for Alcan is for just after WW II. I'm wondering if the company was a war production plant that was spun off after the war.
 
but I don't think that Alcan ever had any relationship to Winchester-Olin other than competitor. That they were located in the same town seems to be a coincidence more than anything.
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Never said it did.

I don't believe that Winchester had any sort of ownership stake in S&W's ammo business at all.
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Never said that either.
 
"Never said it did."

Did I say you did?

Funny, I don't recall saying that at all.

If you look at my entire message, instead of selectively reading it to try to find what I allegedly accused you of saying, you'll see that I'm speculating on Alcan's heritage, its operations, and the reason why it was literally next door to a major competitor.
 
Back in the mid-80's an Army buddy of mine was shooting his new S&W Mod. 66 loaded with S&W .38 Special ammo. After a round or two it went "pop" and we figured he'd had a squib. Nope! That Mod. 66 .357 Magnum was absolutely destroyed by the S&W .38 Special ammo - cylinder blown open, top strap blown open, barrel bent down at an angle - it was absolutely amazing. We stood there gaping at it, stunned silent, and finally started checking ourselves for bleeds and shrapnel wounds. Nothing! We were both without a scratch. :p

He sent the gun back to S&W and they sent him back a brand new replacement piece with a curt note attached that they were admitting no liability by replacing the gun. Golly, how kind of them. :barf:

At any rate, that's my S&W ammo story.

Cheers,
Oly
 
Did I say you did?
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Just wanted it clarified it in case you were trying to imply it. I wasn't "selective reading". I read your post. Just wanted to make sure you weren't "selective reading" either.
 
Hey thanks again guys for all the info! I thought it was interesting to see S&W ammo since I haven't seen it in decades.

Y'know maybe the gun makers are missing out, if S&W, Colt and Ruger et al offered ammo under their name, no doubt a lot of people would have to have it! And pay for it.
 
I am an antique ammunition collector. Smith & Wesson ammo is starting to be more desireable, however it is the more uncommon loadings. 22 rimfire is now going for $5-$7 a box. Some of the shotgun is also going fairly high. However there is alot of the common handgun ammo out there. The only handgun ammo I know of that is bringing higher than normal prices is their 38 Special Chiefs Special loading. That being said I would suggest putting it on a shelf and just admire it.
 
On a related note CDNN had some S&W scopes on their website a few years ago at a good price. I took a chance on one and it was a decent scope. But it was really heavy. I sold the rifle it was on and did not bother to remove it first. Only one of those I have ever seen.

I do remember the S&W ammo though. Fired a few boxes back in the day.
 
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