Blue Rock Targets

[Stan Hoover]

These were brought in to our sportsman club, I liked the box and was allowed to take it home.

Can anyone tell me what the age may be on these, I’m too young to remember seeing these before?

Thanks,
Stan Hoover

[Researcher]

After 1963, as the address has a Zip Code.

Blue Rocks were a product of the Chamberlin Cartridge & Target Co. from the 1890s, first in Cleveland and then later at their factory in Findley, Ohio. In August 1933, Remington Arms Co., Inc. acquired Chamberlin and the Findley factory.

https://www.remingtonsociety.org/produc ... d-ware-ii/

[ROMAC]

That's a cool box. I picked up a Winchester branded box of clays a few weeks ago. I thought it was 1971 from the serial number printed on the box but the newspaper paper wrap inside is dated 1973.

I guess 135 targets was the standard back then. I see mostly boxes of 90 these days.

I paid a shoot em up price but wonder if anybody would find these collectible.

[Stan Hoover]

That is some nice Winchester targets, these old items are just cool.

Thanks for the info Dave, always appreciated.

[Researcher]

They are Western targets. Western Cartridge Co. was producing White Flyer targets decades before they bought the defunct Winchester Repeating Arms Co. at the end of 1931. From the 1922 Western Cartridge Co. catalog that introduced the Super-X load --

[Sporrns]

There is an excellent video on YouTube, a "How Its Made" segment showing the production of clay targets by the Laporte factory in France from start to finish. Way more complicated than you would imagine; many steps to produce an item solely designed to be destroyed. Seems incredible that they are not more expensive than they are until you consider the low cost of the raw materials and the production numbers per day relative to numbers consumed. Kevin

[Fin2Feather]

Around our neck of the woods clay targets were always blue rock. "Wanna shoot some blue rock tonight?"