Howdy Again
Mike has written four books about Guns of the Old West, Shooting Colt Single Actions, Shooting Sixguns of the Old West, Shooting Lever Guns of the Old West, and Shooting Buffalo Rifles of the Old West. They are all top notch, have a lot if information about shooting the guns and loading the cartridges, both with Smokeless and Black Powder. There is a bit of overlap in the first three books, but they are all good. I do not believe they are all in print at this time.
Now a little bit of history. About 1854 Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson entered into a partnership to develop a repeating firearm based on the Hunt and Jennings patents. The middle of the 19th Century was a revolutionary time in firearm development because metallic cartridges were being developed. Up until this time, for centuries, almost all firearms had been muzzle loaders. In order to reload, loose powder had to be dumped down the barrel, followed by a projectile and wadding. Then the firearm had to be primed, either with loose powder in the lock, or a cap in the case of percussion arms. The only way to have a quick repeat shot was with multiple barrels, or multiple chambers.
But self contained cartridges were being developed by the middle of the 19th Century. One such cartridge design was the Hunt Rocketball. It was basically just a hollow bullet, stuffed with Black Powder, and covered with foil at the rear. There was also a primer held in place in the rear.
Here is a patent drawing of a Rocketball.
Self contained metallic cartridges such as the Rocketball made it possible to design repeating firearms; firearms that had mechanisms that loaded a fresh cartridge into the chamber by working the action of the gun. This made repeating firearms practical. Picking up where Hunt and Jennings left off, Smith and Wesson developed a lever action firearm with a tubular magazine under the barrel. Working the lever brought a fresh Rocketball up from the magazine and stuffed it into the chamber. Working the lever also cocked the hammer, so the gun was ready to fire the next shot. An article in Scientific American compared the volume of fire available from such a firearm as 'Volcanic' and the name stuck.
The Volcanic was produced in both carbine and handgun form. Starting to look familiar?
Unfortunately, the Rocketball ammunition could not carry enough powder to generate much energy, and the Volcanic design was a financial failure. But an enterprising shirtmaker from New Haven named Oliver Winchester was looking to get into the firearms business. He invested heavily in the Volcanic company, moved its factory from Norwich Connecticut to New Haven and renamed the company the New Haven Arms Company. He also brought on board an accomplished firearms designer named Benjamin Tyler Henry to work as plant superintendent. About 1857 Winchester directed Henry to come up with a better cartridge than the Rocketball. By this time Smith and Wesson had severed their connection with lever action firearms and started a new company in Springfield Massachusetts to manufacture revolvers.
By this time, cartridge technology had moved forward enough to make rimfire cartridges possible. A rimfire cartridge could contain more gunpowder than a simple hollow bullet. So Winchester directed Henry to come up with a rimfire cartridge that would hold more powder and surpass the Volcanic's anemic ammunition. Henry's first effort was a 38 caliber cartridge, the same caliber as most of the Rocketball guns. But Winchester had the foresight to direct him to come up with a 44 caliber cartridge. The result was the 44 Henry Rimfire cartridge.
That brings us back to this photo, with the 44 Henry Cartridge on the left. The case was made of copper, as were many metallic cartridges at this time. It had a 216 grain heeled bullet and contained 26 grains of Black Powder.
Once the cartridge had been settled on, a new gun had to be designed to fire it. The Volcanic design was too small, and it had no provision to eject an empty cartridge case, because the Rocketball ammunition was caseless. The result was the 1860 Henry rifle. Winchester honored Henry by allowing his name on the patents, even though the New Haven Arms Company actually owned the patents.
The Henry rifle was much more massive than the Volcanic. I have held a Volcanic, and it was more like a boy's rifle, it did not feel like a 'real' rifle. The 1860 Henry was big. It had a 24" barrel and weighed 9 1/4 pounds. It held 15 rounds of ammunition in the magazine. This was "that damned Yankee rifle that they load on Sunday and shoot all week!"
The 1860 Henry was only produced from 1862 until 1866. In 1866 Oliver Winchester had a falling out with B.T. Henry. The name of the company was changed to the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, and a new model was introduced, the first true Winchester. It had the same bronze frame as the Henry, but it featured a side loading gate and a wooden forearm. It was still chambered for the 44 Henry Rimfire Cartridge. This is the rifle that was nicknamed 'Yellowboy' by the Indians. Officially, the Yellowboy was known as the Improved Henry, but eventually it became known as the Model 1866.
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Meanwhile, Smith and Wesson had not been idle. They introduced their first revolver, a tiny 7 shot 22 rimfire gun, in 1857. They had gained the rights to the Rollin White patent that allowed them to bore a revolver cylinder through for cartridges. Colt, Remington, and all the rest were restricted to making percussion revolvers all through the Civil War because S&W defended the White patent so vigorously. S&W made 'Tip Up' revolvers up until about 1869, when the White patent was due to expire. Up until then, all the revolvers S&W had made had been 22 Rimfire or 32 Rimfire guns. They experimented with 44 calibers, but the Tip Up design was not up to it.
This photo shows, top to bottom, a S&W Model Number Two, Model Number One-and-a-Half, and a Model Number One. The top two are 32 Rimfire, the bottom only chambers 22 shorts.
They were called Tip Ups because to reload you undid a latch at the bottom of the barrel and rotated the barrel up, like this. Then you pulled out the cylinder and popped the empties out with the rod that sticks out in front. You reloaded, popped the cylinder back in place, rotated the barrel down and you were ready to shoot again.
But by 1869 the White patent was about to expire. S&W was sure that Colt and Remington and everybody else who had been forced to sit on their hands while the White patent was in force would flood the market with cartridge revolvers. So they decided to come up with something revolutionary.
This is what they came up with, a massive six shot, 44 caliber revolver. At first it was called the Model No. 3 Single Action, but for reasons that will soon become obvious, it eventually became known as the American Model. It was introduced in 1870.
Unlike the Tip Ups, the big 44 was reloaded by undoing a latch at the top of the barrel and rotating the barrel
down, not up. Because it 'broke' at the top of the frame, this new style of gun became known as a Top Break. But the really advanced feature was that upon opening the gun, the extractor automatically rose up and extracted the empty shells. Do it vigorously and they were ejected. This photo is of a similar revolver, a S&W New Model Number Three. The gun is half open and the extractor is starting to extract the empties.
All of which finally brings us to this photo. Left to right, the cartridges are 44 S&W American, 44 Russian, 44 Special, and 44 Magnum. The 44 American cartridge employs a heeled bullet. Heeled bullets were still very common at this time. As a matter of fact, the type of bullet we are familiar with, that is inserted inside the case, had not yet been developed. The 44 S&W American bullet weighed 225 grains and the case held 25 grains of Black Powder. As with all heeled bullet cartridges, the bullet is the same diameter as the case.
To complete the story, we jump forward a few years. Some visiting Russian dignitaries had been on a hunting expedition with Buffalo Bill, and had seen the big S&W 44 Top Break revolvers. They were very impressed with the design and approached S&W about a contract to provide the Russian government with revolvers. But they did not like the 44 S&W American cartridge. All heeled bullets carried the bullet lube on the outside of the bullet, where it would contact the bore of the barrel. That is why modern 22s have a waxy coating on them. But in Black Powder days bullet lube was soft and gooey. It attracted all kinds of contamination, like dirt and grit. The Russians specified to S&W that they wanted a slightly different cartridge, with a bullet that inserted
inside the case. The lubrication would be carried in grooves around the bullet, but the grooves would be completely inside the case.
That is how the 44 Russian cartridge was developed. Even though the outside of the case was 44 caliber, in order to insert the bullet inside the case, bullet diameter was reduced to .429. Later, when the 44 Special and 44 Magnum cartridges were developed, they shared that same .429 diameter. And just about all modern cartridges today still use bullets that insert inside the case. The 44 Russian was the first.
By the way, the first revolvers that S&W made for the Russians looked exactly like the American Model, except that the rifling groove diameter was reduced to .429 and the cylinders incorporated a step in the chambers, for the smaller diameter of the bullet compared to shell diameter. Just like all chambers do today.
The 2nd and 3rd model Russians incorporated a different grip design, and the distinctive spur on the trigger guard. These were features the Russians specified.
