Blackboy Slugs

[jimmybee]

Can anyone shed any light to when they were produced and if they did any other bore apart from .22 ? as ive only seen them in the latter.
From what i gather they were made by Eley Kynoch who make Wasp, was that at the same time or before ?as the wasp tins with the paper label look very similar if not identical.
Thanks Jim

[Tantomurata]

Edbear2 will probably give you the best answer (with pictures) when he sees your post.

[Tantomurata]

There were No.1 bore as well as No.2 bore made, but I don't know if they made Blackboy slugs in No.3 bore.

Regarding dates,

Eley had become part of Nobel, and Nobel was one of the companies that merged to found ICI.

ICI was founded in December 1926, and established its HQ at Millbank London in 1928.

The inclusion of ICI and London on the Blackboy label would seem therefore to indicate 1928 at the earliest.

[jimmybee]

Thankyou

[edbear2]

Hi, The ones I have, or have seen, fall into two types. The boxes are addressed simply "Eley Bros.London" with no mention of the ICI merge, and so presumably are pre 1928.

However, every tin I own or have seen, has a reference to being made at the Eley factories of I.C.I., but still apparently made at London, although this could be ambiguous.

I personally believe, from comparisons to other tins I have handled, that the tins are very late 1920's - early to mid 1930's, At this time most manufacturers seemed to be switching from a gummed paper label on both the lid and the sealing strip, to a screen printed lid (normally identical graphic wise), The Black Boy Tins I have seen have all been screen printed, with paper sealing strips, and also the tins are formed by deep swaging which leaves tell tale shrinkage marks on the interior around the top edge.

A similar period Wasp tin for example, is almost identical in the process of manufacture at first glance, until you turn it over when the lack of a return on the base and slightly larger diameter is evident.

Calibres and Counts......I have seen boxes in 500 and 1000 size , and the tins parallel the Wasp pellets of the same period, ie. 100, 200, 500, 1000 (.177)...100, 200, 500 (.22).

As an aside, the 100 and 200 size Wasp tins (in .22) seem very hard to find, It took me years to find examples of these, compared the 500 size which is still fairly easy to pick up, often still in super condition.

I have seen Black Boys in Boxes only in all 3 calibres (1, 2, 3, bore.... no mention of decimals in those days),

In tins....only .177 (no1 bore), and .22 (no. 2 bore)....Maybe they dropped the .25 ones post I.C.I. as they were not selling very well?...there is a parallel in BSA gun production earlier pre WW1 where the .25 model D was quietly dropped as it was not as ballistically efficient as it's smaller bore .22 brother in the same cylinder size, and .25 air weapons were always a very small proportion of any gun sellers stock, so consequently pellets became very hard to find, even back in those days, as many manufacturers stopped producing them.

All this is pure conjecture of course, only an educated guess, apart from the Wasp brochure shown which is a Kynoch press item dated 1933

[jimmybee]

Thankyou so much for that, thats very informative i was offered a tin for a large sum but it didnt look right for the era , the lid had a bevelled lip unlike yours with a straight side also the tin did not have the shrinkage marks to the interior
Wish i had got a pic of it for comparison
Once again Thanks

[edbear2]

Hi again Jimmy, I can confirm categorically now that the boxed Black Boy pellets predate 1928, I have just been reading a brilliant Nobel Industries Sporting Ammunition book printed in 1925, and the exact box I have is shown (but No 1 bore), also shown are "Witton" pellets and Eley "Scout" and Kynoch "Mitre", with a mention of "Lion" and "Match", but no pictures unfortunately.

I am really pleased to have seen this, as It ties a few things together timeline wise, will scan and post in my Flikr advert section when I have a spare mo'.

[jimmybee]

Cheers for that i look forward to seeing it when you scan it

[edbear2]

Cheers for that i look forward to seeing it when you scan it

Here you go mate (the book is a bit tatty on the outside, but mint inside, with many colour plates).

Frontispiece / Introduction

Pellet Page

Notice the use of bore instead of decimal number on all packets of all types, I think Kynock started stating both the size desciptions in brackets, ie; "No One Bore (.177)", in the early 1930's

ATB, Ed

(Obviously, if anyone out there has a mint "Scout" box in 1000 size, I would be VERY interested!!!!)

[Tantomurata]

Excellent info, thanks for posting.

[jimmybee]

Yes agree great info
Thankyou