45 Colt Brass With No Headstamp

[44caliberkid]

I had this baggy of antique 45 Colt rounds. I ran them through a pistol and none would fire. I pulled the bullets, the old conical with a little flat point. They also had a little hollow cavity in the base. Powder was black powder. The thing is, there is no headstamp, letters, numbers, or any kind of marking on the case head. Are these totally blank case heads the norm?

[Hair Trigger Jim]

Well, if you go far enough back in the 1800s, it was common not to have any headstamp.

Looking inside the cartridge cases, are they balloon head cases or solid head?

[44caliberkid]

They are balloon head cases. I had to look at a modern case to see the difference. The powder was a compressed solid mass, I had to dig it out with a dental scraper and a 3/32 punch. I was amazed the powder didn't come loose from the bullet puller. The bullet cavity was packed with powder too, dug that out with the dental tool. I'm going to reload them with BP and the pulled bullets.

[Cap'n Redneck]

I'm quite confident the blackpowder you dug out will still be serviceable.
The primers tend to "die" from old age, though...

[44caliberkid]

I saved the powder, might go toward stump removal.

[LonesomePigeon]

I don't know enough about the brass to know if it's safe to reload but I would definitely load that powder and those bullets with new brass and primers. I'd like to see a picture of the components, especially the bullets with the hollow base if possible.