W.R.A.Co.

WRA's second cartridge case (Winchester primed) was a huge improvement over Winchester's first cartridge case design, the Milbank primed case (see details in spreadsheet below), however it is important to understand that all of Winchester's 44 cases were of the solid-head design. What confuses people is the continuous misuse of the "balloon-head" description. While the term solid head is an official term, while the tern balloon head is not. 

In the image to the right, the left case is an early 1870's to 1883 WRA unheadstamped Solid Head case with what is commonly confused with the balloon pocket that surrounds the primer chamber. These early cases used small primers while the 1920's Western case to the right used large primers. Notice the pocket size variation. This pocket was eventually phased out by the 1960's by all manufactures. The case to the right also shows a fracture to the primer chamber wall. Although this is a weak design, it should be noted that the 18,000 c.u.p. 44 W.H.V. was manufactured using this design through it's 40 year entirety, between 1903 and 1945. See Tests Here