1901-1956 RIMLESS CARTRIDGES FOR U. S. RIFLES, MACHINE GUNS, AND CARBINES

1903 - A NEW RIFLE

A new rifle and a rimless .30 caliber cartridge were officially adopted by the U. S. Government in July 1903. The rifle, a new bolt action repeater type, was named the Model 1903 Springfield. This model rifle saw service in two world wars. The original rimless cartridge for it carried the old heavy blunt nosed Krag bullet of 1898. Thus, the cartridge performance was lacking, and the cartridge was modified to employ a lighter Spitzer (pointed) bullet. The 1903 case neck was shortened .07 inch and the Cartridge Caliber .30 Model of 1906 was born. The Caliber .30 Model 1906 Cartridge was officially adopted in October 1906 and remained standard from 1906 to 1925. In 1926 it was first renamed Caliber .30 M1 Ball Cartridge and renamed again in 1940 Caliber .30 M2 Ball Cartridge. All three of these cartridges have identical case dimensions to fit in the Model 1903 rifle and machine guns of that time.

The M2 cartridge was favored for use in the semi-automatic M1 Garand rifle adopted as the standard service shoulder arm in 1936. The M1 Garand replaced the 1903 Springfield rifle. The 1906 size cartridge introduced special purpose loadings that were mostly created in government arsenals following WWI. Examples are: armor piercing; tracer; incendiary; and grenade launcher loads. Experiments also led to better cartridge case strength and bullet materials. Experiments with Teflon coatings were also tried.

1918 MACHINE GUNS AND AUTOMATIC RIFLES

Around 1918, machine guns and automatic rifles were being tested by the U. S. Government. They used the Model 1906 cartridge. John Browning submitted his heavy machine gun and his Browning Automatic Rifle (B.A.R.) for military trials. Both of these were adopted by the U. S. Military and saw extensive service. They fired the M1 cartridge. Two other rimless cartridges appeared around this time. The .30 Pedersen Device, when attached, converted the 1903 Springfield rifle into a semi-automatic weapon. Its cartridge was a puny .30 caliber rimless that was developed by Remington around 1918, and it was primarily experimental. The .45 Thompson machine gun cartridge of 1923 was a rimless experimental round which has a .1" longer case than the .45 Automatic round that remained standard for the Thompson. The Thompson using the .45 Automatic cartridge was adopted by the U.S. Government as a secondary offensive weapon and saw extensive service.

1940 SEMI-AUTOMATIC RIFLE

Before 1940 there was government interest in adopting a military semi-automatic rifle to replace the 1903 Springfield bolt action rifle. The government invited inventors such as: Johnson, Pedersen, Garand, and others to submit weapons for testing. The gas operated M1 Garand won out. It fires the rimless .30 M2 Ball Cartridge, and went to WWII as the standard U.S. shoulder arm.

1940 CARBINE LIGHT RIFLE

In September 1940 the U.S. Ordnance Committee approved a project for the development of a light-weight shoulder arm. (It was not to replace the standard service weapon but was intended for secondary use). The Winchester Repeating Arms Co. was asked to develop a rimless cartridge for this weapon. The committee suggested that it be named the Cartridge Caliber .30 SR M1 (SR = Short Rifle). However, the first and second lot of this ammunition was head stamped W. R. A. .30 S.L. (displayed in this exhibit) complementing Winchester's line of civilian Self-Loading Rifles (SLR) calibers .32; .35; .351; and .401. The .30 SR M1 (called the .30 SL by Winchester) was standardized as the Caliber .30 M1 Carbine in October 1941. In 1942 the Winchester Repeating Arms Co. also made the Caliber .30 Carbine High Pressure Test Cartridge M18. In 1942 the Frankford Arsenal made a grenade launching cartridge for the M1 Carbine. In May 1943 the Evansville Ordinance Plant introduced the .30 Carbine steel cartridge case. In 1943 a gilding-metal-clad steel bullet jacket was introduced for it. Other variations of the M1 Carbine cartridge followed.

CARTRIDGE IDENTIFICATION

To better identify military cartridges one should understand that their head stamping denotes information about the round. For instance "DE N 42" identifies the rounds made at the Denver Ordnance Plant in Denver, CO in 1942. The "D M 4" identifies the rounds made at the Des Moines Ordnance Plant in Des Moines, IA in 1944. The "EC 43" identifies a 1943 round made at the Evansville Chrysler Ordnance Plant located in Evansville, IN. The letters "FA" identify rounds made at Frankford Arsenal, Philadelphia, PA. This arsenal was a main government arsenal producing military ammunition from the mid-nineteenth century onward. An "F. A. 5 08" was a Frankford Arsenal cartridge made in May 1908. An "F A/ 8 05/" is an arsenal re-make on a 1905 cartridge case. The slashes were added to the original head stamp creating what is called by collectors a surcharged head stamp. The month designation in head stamping was dropped in 1917, for example "F A 17" (without month) was made after June 1917. The "F A 21-R" denotes special 1921 Frankford Arsenal annealing of the cartridge cases to be used in rifles, not machine guns. "F A 30 EX" means made at Frankford Arsenal in 1930 using an altered experimental extrusion process when drawing out the cartridge case. "F A P 34" means made at Frankford Arsenal for Palma Match in 1934. "FAI & P" means a Frankford Arsenal International and Palma Match load. "F A 38 NM" is Frankford Arsenal 1938 National Match. "FA HP 50" means Frankford Arsenal High Pressure Test made in 1950.

"8 US F A8 1906-56" is a special Frankford Arsenal cartridge commemorating fifty years of manufacturing of the U.S. Caliber .30 Ball Cartridge Model 1906 and its same size successors the M1 Ball Cartridge and M2 Ball Cartridge. It is the final round in this section of the exhibit.