American Cartridge Inventions After 1876

This exhibit is dedicated to the memory of James K. Sones who personally searched the records in the U.S. Patent office for cartridge inventions. His published notebook of patents numbers, their inventor, and date granted gave impetus to this endeavor.

The desire to improve firearms performance results in a myriad of ideas forthcoming, many of which were patented and many others just dropped. Manufacturers avoid extra steps in making cartridge cases and bullets, to contain costs. Thus some good ideas were not widely marketed, in spite of being good: for instance the S&W Self Lube Bullet with its grease chamber and squirt holes which lubricated the gun bore each shot.

Numerous patents cover style, shape, construction and metallurgy of bullets and cartridge cases. Over the year Copper, Brass, Aluminum, and Iron has been used, however Brass cases, and Copper covered lead bullets dominate. The advent of copper coating of steel has been used, particularly in military bullets. Cadmium, Tin, Copper, Nickel, and Teflon have been used to coat bullets and/or cartridge cases too. Many Polymer cases have come forth, but the most successful is many plastic Shot Shell cases which significantly displaced brass and paper. Plastic cartridge cases have been less successful in pistol and rifle rounds due to their high combustion pressure leaking gas.

The most modern developments seem to center around materials used in bullet & case construction, special purpose loads, and whole new cartridge ideas, such as caseless cartridges like the military .223, and 30 calibers which are frail to transport, but economically sensible. The Dardick plastic case cartridges made a "splash" experimentally, as did the Gyro-Jet steel caseless "Rocket Ball" for which a few guns were made. Experimental Folded Cartridges are unique is shape and work with shorter gun actions, thus increasing rate of fire. The future will decide the fate of them.

Concentration in modern bullet performance has hunted for a balance between penetration and stopping power. At one end of the spectrum is Armor Piercing with less stopping power, and the other end is fragmentation or expansion. Game animals should be humanely taken with fast-kills. An expanding bullet making "wide wounds" is appropriate, yet it shouldn't tear so wide as to unnecessarily destroy the meat. The balance between penetration and expansion goes on! A myriad of bullet inventions past and

future will struggle with this issue.

The nation's first hundred years of cartridge making coincided with mainly the development of gun breech-loading systems. Before that invention a single charge of loose components was put down the muzzle of the gun, and then a primer was attached to a breech-nipple before firing it. This slow process was alleviated by breech loading which followed, that is to say the gun's-breech is opened and a cartridge inserted before closing the breech, thus quickly making the gun loaded and ready to fire again. A cartridge is a single unit complete with bullet, primer, and powder charge contained in a case.

Refinement of cartridges continues today following numerous improvements along the way. For example, from the 1960's caseless "cartridges" invention from Daisy, and the caseless M.B.A. Gyro Jet were briefly marketed. Smokeless Powder arrived in the late 1880's, with higher combustion pressure which required stronger cartridge cases design, and better bullets. Many improvements remain hidden from view inside the cartridge case.

Recognizable cartridge patents include different construction of bullets and the profile of cartridge cases. Also, different metals came into use such as electroplating tin over copper or brass cases and bullet jackets; brass or copper plated onto lead bullets; nickel plated over brass cases; Cupro Nickel bullet jackets. Most noteworthy is the self lubricating bullet. It has a grease filled copper tube inserted into the body of the lead bullet and four "squirt holes" leading to the outside. Upon firing, grease is forced from the bullet cavity onto the gun's bore to lubricate and reduce fowling. Another idea was the Gas-Check attached to the base of lead bullets. This attached "scraper" scraped fowling from the bore. Better metal-jacketed bullets did not shed as much metal, and therefore do not have the scraper feature. Bullet properties mentioned above reduced objectionable bore- fowling.

Non metallic inventions came during the last half of the 20th century through the use of Polymers, Teflon, etc., in/on bullets. Cartridges with triangular; elongated; and folded shapes arrived. Some cases were multi- piece made of plastic (Polymer) plus metal. One such case is an aluminum head on a plastic case. The all-plastic (Polymer) folded-type .223 round appeared in 1976 with its U.S. Frankford Arsenal mark. An aluminum case folded .50 caliber has the same profile as the smaller Polymer .223 round. It is head marked "PO 8 82 029" which presumably indicates a 1982 manufacture. Folded cartridges allow for a shorter gun-action-travel to eject the fired case.

United States military experiments produced cartridges with multi-projectiles from a single case. Examples include the U.S. Salvo project, Duplex loads, and Fleshette cartridges. Civilian examples of multi-projectiles include Jerry Gebby's 357 Magnum 5 piece bullet; M. F. R. E. Corp. 38 quads (patent # 3,862,600 of 1-25- 1975); and others. In 1955 the U.S. government Frankford Arsenal experimented with Teflon coating of bullets and also steel cases in small arms ammunition.

One caseless cartridge is a block of propellant attached to the bullet. It is fired electrically, or by compressed air as is the Daisy-Heddon caseless marketed in 1968. A different style caseless, the Gyro Jet (a rocket-ball) has integral primer and propellant and is ignited by the firing pin blow as is the common center fire round.

Numerous bullet patents cover little details in shapes or in features intended to control penetration and expansion of the bullet. Game hunters need a bullet to penetrate enough, but also to expand just right for a clean kill. Military ammunition is mostly designed for penetration, thus the Armor Piercing bullet was invented. It hardly expands at all. Non A.P. military bullets have Full Metal Jackets, as accepted by rules of war as outlined from The Hague Convention of 1899.