Laserfiche WebLink
civilian market as a sporting round for big game, and <br />competition shooting. It has since become one of the <br />most popular sporting/military rounds in the world. <br />Any arms company that manufactures big game rifles <br />has at least one model chambered in this caliber. The <br />Super -X headstamp was the trade name used by the <br />Western Cartridge Company. Western was on the <br />market by June 1 of 1927 (White and Munhall <br />1977:142). The Super -X name was discontinued <br />sometime in the 1950's. Therefore, FS#1 could have <br />been manufactured any time between 1927 and the <br />late 1950's. <br />FS#2 is a 40-60 Winchester Center Fire <br />cartridge introduced in 1876 by the Winchester <br />Repeating Arms Company to the civilian market for <br />its model 1876 lever action rifle/carbine (Plate 2). <br />That rifle originally chambered a 45-75 caliber, then <br />at some point the cartridge represented by FS#2 was <br />added. The sources consulted give conflicting dates <br />for the advent of the 40-60. Shuey (2003 v.1:20) and <br />Watrous (1943:29) give 1884 as the first year of <br />loading the 40-60. Hoyem (1999 v.4:77) and Barnes <br />(2000:127) list 1876 as the beginning date. Datag <br />Plate 2. Cartridges collected from <br />5MF7692: FS#1 30-06, FS#2 40-60, FS#3 <br />38-55. <br />(1963, v.1:153) simply lists beginning production as "late 1870's." <br />This specimen has a small copper primer but no headstamp, which suggests that <br />perhaps the production of FS#2 was quite early, probably pre -1884. In addition to the 1876 <br />Winchester, the 40-60 was also chambered in the Highwall Winchester single shot rifle. The <br />caliber was designed as a big game round. It was certainly more powerful than any <br />Winchester round prior to 1876, but fell short on power for any big game shooting at much <br />over 100 yards. <br />FS#3 is a cartridge case that is clearly headstamped "W.R.A. CO. 38-55," which is <br />the first of many headstamp variations used by Winchester for this caliber and dates to the <br />first year of its production in 1886 (Plate 2). This earlier loading was advertised "For Ballard <br />No. 4 Rifle" (Shuey 1999, v.I:296-298), which means that FS#3 may have had a paper <br />patched bullet and would not have fed through the mechanism of the later 1894 Winchester <br />lever action rifles/carbines. Other loadings at this same time had plain lead bullets that <br />would have fed through the repeating rifle mechanism. <br />The case also lacks a chanular around the case body. The chanular was later with the <br />advent of smokeless powder loads. The conclusion held here is that this cartridge was a <br />26 <br />