Hollow punches of this genre are often called wad punches - used to cut the wads for muzzle loading pistols & muskets etc... If accuracy is not an issue, and speed is, I could see this being used for the same purpose.... Cutting holes accurately would be a problem, but if the hole is the by-product, and the circular wad or patch is the product, then you'd probably get about 95% good ones....
Wads are also used when hand loading shot gun cartridges - are the two ends different sizes, and do the holes approximate to shot gun bore sizes, say 16 and 12 gauge?????
I don't know if it's the same maker, but C S Osborne & Co are still making wad punches...
http://www.csosborne.com/