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Home of the Old Ammo Guy's Virtual Cartridge Trading Table


Picture Page

May 2008


The first .38 Smith & Wesson cartridge............

The .38 Smith & Wesson is one of the most commonly encountered cartridges today, having been in continuous production since 1875 in the United States, as well as having been produced in a number of other countries. Most American handgun makers sold revolvers chambered for this cartridge, including large numbers of the cheap 'Saturday night specials'. When I have a table at our local gun show, it seems like two out of three people who come by looking for information on Grandpa's old gun have one of these clunkers, and more often than not, its chambered for the .38 S&W. Being a very common cartridge, it is seldom that one is encountered that has much value or warrants a second look. An exception is what is considered to be the first of the commercially produced .38 S & W cartridges, as made by the United States cartridge company in 1876 specifically for Smith & Wesson. A picture of the rare box for these cartridges is shown here. The pistol illustrated on the label is the .38 Smith & Wesson Model 2 single action revolver, affectionately referred to by collectors as the Baby Russian because, aside from its spur trigger, it is essentially a scaled down version of the S&W .44 New Model Russian revolver. This was the first revolver to use the .38 S&W center fire cartridge. The evolution of the revolver is somewhat unusual; the cartridge was developed first, and then the firearm was designed to shoot it. The revolver shown in this picture, is serial number 2023 and was made during the first year of production. Of the approximately 25,500 of these revolvers made during its two years of production (1876 and 1877), only 6,500 had a blued finish and walnut grips, the balance being nickeled with hard rubber grips.

The caliber (36/.38) that is marked on the box label is odd by today's standards, but can be readily understood when it is pointed out that all of the standard .38 caliber Smith & Wesson cartridges (.38 S&W, .38-44, and .38 Special) used bullets that were closer to .36 caliber than .38, and at the time this box was made, the conventions to be used for center fire caliber designations were still being established. The cartridges that were packaged in these early United States Cartridge Company boxes are pretty unique and as a result are fairly easy to recognize. Unlike the round nose, un-grooved bullets found on most .38 S&W cartridges, the bullets on these have a flat nose, like those on .38 Colt New Police bullets, and a single groove. The groove is unusual, having a sharp front edge, and a long beveled rear edge. The brass case has the characteristics of other early United States Cartridge Company cases, these being a reddish color to the brass, a result of the high copper content, rounded heads, and flat, copper Farrington primers.      

 

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A box from South of the Border..........

This box of cartridges, made by Productos Regiomontano of Monterrey, Mexico, is labeled .44 S&W Corto (short), a name I had not heard of before, perhaps used to distinguish it from the longer .44 S&W Special cartridge. The red and green box has a definite Remington Kleanbore 1950s to early 60s look; the end flaps are even formatted like the Remington boxes. The similarity suggests the possibility that Remington was in some way associated with the Mexican company. In addition to the characteristics of the  box, the headstamp on the cartridges mimics the R-P headstamp that Remington started using in the 1960s, but with the letters reversed. If anyone has any material that would substantiate a connection between Remington and Productos Regiomontano, I'd appreciate hearing about it. Apparently, Remington had at least one subsidiary in Mexico, that being Cartuchos Deportivos de Mexico, S. A., the company that produced the Auto-Mag cartridges with the headstamp CDM. .44 AUTO MAG.   

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 A little something for the beer drinkers........

Here's an addition to my growing collection of cartridge-related bar  paraphernalia. This cartridge shaped corkscrew advertises Lemp's beer on the small engraved plaque soldered to the side of what would serve as the case for the cartridge. The worn engraving says 'DRINK   LEMP   ST. LOUIS'. On the bottom, it is marked 'WILLIAMSON  CO.  PATENTED JUNE 9, 97  NEWARK, N.J.'. The bullet end unscrews from the case and the corkscrew is pulled out and swung to the side to fit in a groove, and the bullet is screwed back in place to serve as part of the handle. I had never considered that beer might have been  put up in corked bottles - I just took it as a given that the bottles have always had caps. Obviously, this was not the case, as attested to by this little corkscrew that was designed to fit comfortably in one's pocket, ready to be swung into action at a moments notice, while reminding him to drink the beer that St. Louis was known for at the turn of the 20th century. I, for one, had never heard of Lemp's beer, so I was in for a good education when I Googled 'Lemp beer'. To make a long story involving German immigrants, Falstaff beer, limestone caverns, untimely deaths, and fortunes miss-spent short, Lemp became the largest brewer in that city, and their beer was the first to be distributed coast-to-coast, becoming the most popular brand in the nation in the 1890s. Who knew??

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