AMERICAN MANUFACTURERS HANDGUN CARTRIDGES

This exhibit of American Handgun Cartridges has been assembled with the cartridge placed above the name of the handgun that first chambered it, or above the name of the inventor of the gun when known. No attempt has been made to include every cartridge that each manufacturer's handgun was chambered in, but rather to match the cartridge only with the handgun that first chambered it. This information reflects personal observations as listed in Sandefur's Cartridge Index, a variety of cartridge publications including Williamson's WINCHESTER 1952; two of Suydam's books, U.S. Cartridges And Their Handguns, 1977 and his The American Cartridge, 1960; Ezell's Handguns Of The World, 1981, and others.

The cartridges exhibited here include patented types dating from the mid to late 1850's, and onward through 1960. Examples are Volcanics, Thuers', Lip Fires, Internal Primed, the rare 45 Teat Fire, rare rounds having a patented self lube bullet. Modern Dardick Tround, and Gyro Jet also are on the exhibit.

Some interesting bullet inventions are in the Smith & Wesson set. They include the patented self lube having squirt holes in their nose, and the patented metal point which appear to be full metal jackets, but actually are just metal caps attached to their nose. Cut-away specimens of both are included.

Knowledgeable people who can add documented corrections and additions to this exhibit are encouraged to share such information with the exhibitor. Through such sharing of documented information we all become better informed about our hobby.

Some cartridges for which handguns were chambered are omitted because they originated as rifle rounds. Examples include are 38 Short Rim Fire; 44 Henry; 30 Carbine; 32 W.C.F. (32-20); 38 W.C.F. (38-40); 44 W.C.F. (44-40); 22 W.R.F. (22 Special); 22 Magnum and more. Also home-made "wildcat" calibers are omitted.