Jim Supica is well known for his expertise of firearms as the editor of the Standard Catalogue of Firearms and having served as the Director of Museums for the NRA until he retired in 2020. Jim has graciously provided the ORA access to his archives. The following is part of a series about the history of firearms. You can learn more of Jim and read more of his work at www.gunheritage.com
The Self Contained Cartridge
The cap and ball revolver offered an effective repeating firearm, with five or six shots available as fast as the hammer could be cocked and the trigger pulled. After the gun was shot dry, however, re-loading was a slow & cumbersome process, involving loading each chamber with loose gun powder and a lead bullet, ramming the loads home, and placing a percussion cap on the nipple of each chamber. What was needed was a self-contained cartridge with the primer, powder & bullet all in one neat and weatherproof unit.
An early attempt at this was the pinfire system, first introduced around 1846, in which a firing pin was mounted on each copper cased cartridge, igniting an internal primer when struck by the gun’s hammer. Although it gained a good deal of popularity in Europe, it never caught on much in the U.S., with the external pin on each round being a bit cumbersome and hazardous.
Among the firms eagerly waiting for the expiration of the Colt revolver patent was a partnership of an inventor named Daniel Wesson and an older businessman, Horace Smith. A few years earlier, in a previous partnership, they had entered the race for an effective repeating firearm shooting self-contained cartridges with a lever action pistol. This pistol had a tubular magazine mounted under and parallel to the barrel, and shot “rocket balls” – hollow based lead bullets, with the powder and primer mounted in the base of the projectile itself.
They pursued production of their lever action pistols only a few years, and the design was acquired by a shirt manufacturer, who carried it further. His name was Oliver Winchester, and his famous lever action rifles, based in large part on the design of the first Smith & Wesson partnership eventually became the most popular repeating rifles of the post-Civil War 19th Century, called by many “the gun that won the West.”
The cartridge was essentially identical to the modern .22 Short rimfire, and was the grand-daddy of all our traditional ammunition today.
As Colt had patented his revolver, so Smith & Wesson acquired the patent to their innovation, and held a fairly complete monopoly on the production of effective cartridge revolvers through its expiration in 1869, although there were a number of infringements and evasions of the patent as the market rapidly recognized the superiority of metallic cartridge ammunition.
The American West
The military has sometimes been slow to embrace firearms innovation, preferring tried & true technology over the new and untested, and this was certainly true during the Civil War and Indian Wars era. Winchester had abandoned the rocket ball system in favor of a .44 Rimfire cartridge in it’s famous brass framed Henry rifle in 1860, but only a few were purchased and used during the Civil War. The Spencer Repeating Rifle Company had also patented an effective lever action repeater firing metallic cartridges by the beginning of the Civil War, but its adoption by the Army was resisted until it was demonstrated to President Lincoln, who promptly personally championed it’s purchase.
Although the Spencer was the most widely used repeating long gun of the Civil War, and breechloading single-shot Sharps rifles in the hands of expert “Sharps-shooter” marksmen took a toll, the vast majority of the soldiers on both sides were armed with muzzle-loading percussion muskets.
With the post-war Westward expansion, the civilian demand was for the new repeating metallic cartridge firearms. Winchester responded, first with an improved brass frame rimfire Model 1866 lever action, followed by a centerfire Model 1873, and then by Models 1876 and 1886, made strong enough to handle true big-game cartridges in the .45-70 class.
Marlin was Winchester’s strongest competitor in the field, with Whitney Kennedy and Evans also producing lever action repeaters.
Despite the development of repeaters, single shot rifles remained a popular option, and in the early years of metallic cartridges, they could handle stronger rounds than the more complicated repeaters.
The tradition of powerful, big bore rifles for the large game of the American west such as bison, wapiti, and grizzly bear certainly pre-dates the Civil War. As first trappers and mountain men, and then settlers and farmers pushed into the great plains and Rocky Mountain west, a new type of American rifle was developed to meet the need.
The percussion Plains Rifle tended to be shorter than its long slender Kentucky rifle predecessor, to handle easier on horseback and in brush. It took a heavier, larger diameter ball appropriate to the larger game, which necessitated a heavier barrel, the weight of which was another factor dictating a shorter length. The Plains Rifle tended to have a half-stock, with the wood only cradling the rear half of the barrel, contrasted to the full stock Kentuckies. As befits a working gun, decoration tended to be minimal or non-existent.
In the years preceding the Civil War, Plains Rifles by prominent makers such as Hawken and Gemmer, both of St. Louis, were eagerly sought after by long hunters and pilgrims heeding Horace Greeley’s advice of “Go West, young man.”
After the war, Sharps began producing its well respected breechloading single shots for centerfire metallic cartridges, and with a half-inch diameter projectile, the “Sharps big 50” was perhaps the quintessential “buffalo rifle.” Other popular single shots included the Winchester Model 1885 High Wall and Low Wall rifles; Stevens Ideal rifles, and the sturdy Remington Rolling Block rifles. Most were offered in a variety of frame sizes, barrel lengths and weights, and calibers ranging from .22 rimfire to the .40 to .50 caliber rounds favored by commercial hunters. Various types of sights were available, from simple through elaborate, and various stocking options could be had, from fairly straight forward through the ornate buttplates and triggerguard configuration favored for Scheutzen style target competitions. The single shot was generally considered to be more accurate than early repeaters, and so was favored for target competition and other precision work.
The American West of 1865 to 1900 is perhaps one of the most popular and romanticized eras of American history, with the lore of cowboy and Indian, lawman and outlaw, figuring large in our collective imagination. The handguns of this era also have a special fascination.
The most famous is undoubtedly the Colt Single Action Army, introduced in 1873, and also known as the Peacemaker. Its sturdy reliable design and effective cartridges made it a favorite with Westerners on both sides of the law.
Learn more about Jim and his work at www.gunheritage.com
