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This Month's Picture Page

Prior Picture Pages:
 * September 2003
 
* October 2003
 
* November 2003
 
* December 2003                               * January 2004
 
* February 2004
 
* March 2004
 
* April 2004
 
* May 2004
 
* June 2004
 
* July 2004
 
* August 2004
 
* September 2004
 
* October 2004
 
* November 2004
 
* December 2004
 
* January 2005
 

 

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Picture Page

February 2005


A couple of .455  'Manstoppers'........

 

In 1898, the .455 Webley Mark III cartridge was adopted for British service revolver use, having a deep nose cavity that provided increased stopping power over the Mk I and Mk II versions of the cartridge. The 220 grain bullet was referred to as the 'manstopper'. Within two years, the Mark III cartridge was removed from service, a result of the 1899 Hague Convention outlawing hollow point bullets of any type for military use. The first cartridge in the picture is one of the Mark III cartridges made by Eley Brothers for the British government. The 'C' in the headstamp indicates that the cartridge is loaded with cordite, an early form of smokeless powder. The case on this cartridge is approximately .760" long. The second cartridge also sports a manstopper bullet, but was intended for the commercial market or perhaps constabulary use. It is headstamped  'ELEY . LONDON .', and  has the longer (~.870") case that was used for the black powder .455 Mark I cartridge. The last cartridge, headstamped KYNOCH  .455, is also a commercial load and is loaded with a slightly rounded blunt bullet intended for target shooting.
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Two variations of the .50 Meigs cartridge.......

 

The .50 Meigs is a mystery cartridge that no-one seems to know a great deal about. They are purported to have been produced on a limited basis at the United States Cartridge Company by J. V. Meigs. While a goodly number of the cartridges seem to be floating around, no one seems to have positively identified the firearm that these were used in. The cartridges shown here are a couple of the variations of the .50 Meigs, the differences being the types of primers used, with the one on the left having a Farrington primer, used exclusively by the US Cartridge company, and the other having what appears to be a conventional Boxer-style primer. Another variation that I'm aware of has a longer, more cone-shaped bullet.

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An assortment of Marlin .40-60 cartridges.....
 

This is a fairly complete grouping of the Marlin .40-60 cartridge, which was developed in 1883 by Marlin for use in their Model 1881 repeating rifle.  Marlin did not have its own ammunition making facility, and initially contracted with Winchester, its main competitor in the repeating rifle market, and the Union Metallic Cartridge Company to produce its ammunition. Cartridges in the first picture include three unheadstamped examples, made by (from the left) Winchester, UMC and Remington, followed by a Winchester raised headstamp and two variations of Winchester impressed headstamps. The second picture includes two raised headstamps by UMC loaded with a lead bullet and a full metal cased bullet, two variations of the UMC impressed headstamps, and finally a Dominion Cartridge Company example. One thing that Marlin insisted on was that its cartridges be fitted with small primers, which all of those pictured have. The purpose of the small primers was to reduce the possibility of cartridges in a tubular magazine from being detonated as a result of a jolt, or from the recoil resulting from firing. In January of 1887, following receiving complaints of missfires with its rifles, Marlin launched an advertising campaign accusing Winchester of producing sub-standard ammunition which tended to mis-fire in the Marlin rifles. The problem apparently involved primer pockets which were deeper than Marlin specifications called for, resulting in the primers being seated too far into the heads of the cases to allow dependable ignition. As a result of the bad feelings that developed between the two companies over this controversy, Marlin terminated its business relationship with Winchester. It is interesting to note that the .40-65 WCF cartridge which Winchester introduced  in 1887 for use in their Model 1886 rifle uses the same cartridge case as the Marlin .40-60. One has to wonder if the company had originally intended to produce  this cartridge, or if they did so for the purpose of increasing competition with Marlin, as well as allowing them to make use of the .40-60 Marlin cartridge case forming tools that they would otherwise have little use for.  

Thanks to Howard Hoovestal for identifying the 'bevel head' cartridge in the first picture for me as a Remington product. This should have been a little more apparent to me, given the other cartridges with this characteristic head that are known to have been made by Remington, the fairly common .38-40 Remington 1 3/4" straight being an example that readily comes to mind.

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Development of the 30-06 cartridge.....

The three cartridges on the left side of this picture represent different stages in the development of the .30-06 Springfield. The first cartridge is possibly one of a small number of experimental rimless cartridges made at Frankford Arsenal in February of 1901. It is unheadstamped, has a grooved bullet, and the case has a thick extractor flange (or rim). This cartridge soon was referred to as the Caliber .30 Ball Cartridge, Model 1901, and went through a number of changes, including the adoption of a smooth jacketed bullet in place of the grooved one used earlier. The second cartridge is one of these Model 1901 cartridges, this one made in February of 1903. This cartridge is referred to by collectors as the 'thick rim', for the obvious reason that its rim is much thicker than those of the Model 1903 and Model 1906 cartridges that succeeded it, represented in the picture by cartridges three and four, respectively. The Model 1901 cartridge was made from June of 1901 through May of 1903. Production of the Model 1903 cartridge, with its thinner rim, began in September of 1903 and ended in October of 1906. In addition to its pointed spitzer style bullet, the Model 1906 cartridge differed from the1903 in the length of its case, the 1906 case being about 1/10" shorter. Production of the new cartridge began in September of 1906; the fourth cartridge is one of that first month's production. Any earlier headstamped cartridges that conform to Model 1906 case dimensions are made from shortened Model 1903 cases.