Trophy Bullets - Need Help with I.D.

B

BamaFaninMilton

Inactive
Hello, and thanks for the addition to The Firing Line. I have 3 boxes of these 6mm bullets and the only labeling on them referencing the manufacturer is Trophy. The only reference that I can find on them is from an old post on another forum, and it doesn't really answer the question of who made them and when they were made. Someone suggested that they were made by the same company that made Trophy Bonded Bear Claw bullets, but I can't find anything to prove that. Any one here have any knowledge of these bullets? Thanks for any advice that you might have!
 

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A picture of the actual bullet might tell someone something, or not.
Depends on if there are any unique identifiable features..

All I can tell you is that looks like the same kind of box Sierra bullets used to come in, other than the color, and the printing....
 
I second the idea it is a Sierra bullet, especially with the green paint on the corner reinforcement and the style of the labelling . I think the cardboard's color has faded in daylight and the paper label has fallen off the box. I suggest you email Sierra and send the photos. I expect it will turn out to be an early design and they will know what years it was produced.
 
Green on the box could very well point to Sierra's gameking or pro hunter, or maybe it's an older partition. Either way, it is highly likely it is a bonded/partition type bullet. You could cut one in half and find out.
 
How about a picture of the whole box?

I'm not so sure that those are Sierras.

And as far as I know, Sierra never use a combination of box printing AND a paper label -- it was always either a paper label printed with the product information OR the box was printed with the product information.

Plus, on printed boxes, Sierra put a LOT more information on the end flaps.
 
I've got many editions of Handloaders Digest books going way back ... like mid-1960's .
I'll look through them and see if anything on Trophy Bullets is in there .
Be back soon ... is there anything else printed on or inside the box ?
Gary
 
Okay ... I'm Back , looked through every Handloaders Digest I have and can find no reference to Trophy Bullets .
The only one that shows up is Trophy Bonded Bullets . I wonder if these were made by Trophy Bonded before they perfected their Bonding Process and were thus simply called Trophy and not Trophy Bonded .
Might be worth checking the history of the company or asking Trophy Bonded about these ...someone there might know the history of Trophy / Trophy Bonded !
I did learn the Trophy Bonded Bear Claw bullet was developed by Jack Carter in or around 1985 . Carter developed the plain Trophy Bonded Bullet prior to that date but I'm having trouble finding the history of the company on the innerweb . All they want to talk about is the T B Bear Claw bullet ...not the bullets that preceeded it !
Gary
 
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I wish I had stocked up on more partitions while they were more plentiful and cheaper. Seems to me the prevailing trend in hunting bullets is either solids or cheaper mechanical locking the jackets to the core.
 
The 3 boxes only have the printing on the one end, with nothing on the other end and no sign of ever having a paper label glued to them, and they are completely blank on the inside. The only other marking is an indented #321 on the bottom of two of the boxes.
 

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I had to check a couple of old boxes, and Mike is right there would not have been paper on this if it is Sierra. Their later cardboard boxes that have paper labels have all the information on the paper label and none is printed directly on the box. My brain crossed the memory up. There is also printed branding on the tops of the old Sierra boxes I dug out, but if yours was early enough, it may have preceded that design. The thing in addition to the green metal corner that made me think of Sierra is the typeface used to write "Trophy." It may be another crossed-up memory, but I associate it with Sierra for some reason. Anyway, email them and see what they say. If it's not them, they may know who's it is.
 
I think John De Fresno has given you the most likely information on the manufacturer in that thread over on the lever guns forum.


The 321 is probably a box production code, lot code, or something similar and is likely unrelated to the contents themselves.
 
"I had to check a couple of old boxes, and Mike is right there would not have been paper on this if it is Sierra. Their later cardboard boxes that have paper labels have all the information on the paper label and none is printed directly on the box. My brain crossed the memory up. There is also printed branding on the tops of the old Sierra boxes I dug out, but if yours was early enough, it may have preceded that design. The thing in addition to the green metal corner that made me think of Sierra is the typeface used to write "Trophy." It may be another crossed-up memory, but I associate it with Sierra for some reason. Anyway, email them and see what they say. If it's not them, they may know who's it is. "

This is, I believe, the oldest form of Sierra bullet box, when they were still partially owned by Clint Harris and the Harris Machine Company in Whittier, California. It's a two piece box with an applied label that is printed with the product information.

s-l400.jpg


I'm pretty sure that type of box was the standard right into the 1960s when the one-piece corner clamp box was introduced.

This picture shows the earlier corner clamp boxes with the printed wrap label and the later printed corner clamp box, which became standard in, IIRC, the early 1970s.

The later style printed corner clamp box remained the standard box until the introduction of plastic boxes sometime in the 1990s.

36528872_2.jpg



When I first saw it yesterday, the printing and fonts on Bama's box just screamed 1980s to me, and given the information he found on the lever guns forum I'm thinking that that is correct.
 
Nice pictures. Thanks. I think JohndeFresno's post at leverguns is pretty comprehensive work and has solved the problem and knocked Sierra out of the picture. What a convoluted but interesting history.
 
Thanks everybody for responding! I was hoping that someone would know the who/what/when/where of these bullets, but as Unclenick said, what a convoluted but interesting history! Everyone stay safe and happy shooting and hunting!
 
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