Howdy
A correction:
The year was 1873 and Colt's latest handgun, the Model P (aka as the Single Action Army Revolver of 1873) was just awarded the contract as the official sidearm for the US Army. The chambering selected was a .45 caliber black powder cartridge manufactured by the Union Metallic Cartridge Company of Bridgeport, CT.
Based on the slightly older 44 Colt round, this new cartridge used the same rebated heel type bullet. It was named the 45 Colt and all was right with the world.
Two years later Army units began adopting the Smith & Wesson Schofield Revolver for use as an alternate sidearm.
The 45 Colt cartridge was not developed by UMC, and it never used a heeled bullet. When the first Army contract was awarded to Colt in 1873 for 8,000 'strap pistols', as they were called at the time, the Army directed the Frankford Arsenal to supply ammunition to Colt. A letter was sent to Frankford Arsenal on September 13, 1873 directing the Arsenal to supply 50,000 rounds of ammunition to Colt for testing so the revolvers could be proof tested and tested for function before inspection and shipping to the Springfield Armory in Springfield MA. Unfortunately the Frankford Arsenal, which was run by the Army, was not able to fulfill the order for some time, and shipped ammunition to Colt in dribs and drabs. It was not until October 25 that Frankford Arsenal was able to ship all of the 50,000 rounds of ammunition to Colt. Part of the problem was the Arsenal was not able to obtain enough copper to make the cartridges. The first version of the 45 Colt cartridge used copper, not brass, for the cartridge case. More on that in a minute. Because of the delays in obtaining ammunition, delays were experienced in proof testing, which also delayed inspection, so it took a while before Colt could supply the 8,000 revolvers of the first order to the Army. (By the way, the Army eventually contracted with Colt a total of 13 times for shipments of the SIngle Actoin Army to the government, the last contract was signed on September 19, 1890.) This information all came from
A Study of the Colt Single Action Army Revolver by John Kopec, probably the most authoritative book that exists about the Colt SAA.
Yes, the 44 Colt cartridge used a heeled bullet. The 44 Colt cartridge was developed by Frankford Arsenal in 1868. It was developed for Colt's Richard's Conversion revolver, the first of which were made by converting 1860 Army Cap & Ball revolvers to shoot metallic cartridges. This is an actual Colt Richard's Conversion. Pictured with it are 4 original 44 Colt cartridges. As has been stated before, the old convention for calling out caliber was to use the diameter of the lands of the rifling, not the grooves. Yes, these revolvers actually had groove diameters of around .451, but since the convention was to call out caliber by bore dimension, the actual diameter the bore had been bored before rifling was cut, they were called 44 caliber revolvers.
A closer view of the Richards Conversion and the 4 original 44 Colt rounds.
The 44 Colt cartridge was simply developed to fill up the chambers of a 44 Cap & Ball revolver. A .451 diameter bullet fits perfectly into the chamber throats the rest of the cartridge was designed to be fill up the rest of the chamber. The powder charge was about 21 grains of powder. (Slight correction. There were no chamber throats in the Richards Conversion. The chambers were bored through with one diameter the whole length, because they had been converted from Cap & Ball cylinders. It was only after cartridges started being manufactured with bullets the same diameter as the
inside of the cartridge case that cylinder chambers began having chamber throats.)
A close up of a 44 Colt cartridge and an early 45 Colt cartridge. Notice the 44 Colt bullet is the same diameter as the
outside of the case. This is true of all cartridges using heeled bullets, including modern 22 Short, Long, and Long Rifle ammunition.
A stalled project of mine is making up cartridges for my Richards Conversion revolver. If you look carefully you will see the heel of the bullets (the last part behind the rear lube groove, is slightly smaller in diameter than the rest of the bullets. The heels on these bullets are running around .426 in diameter, the main bodies are running around .447, which is actually a little bit small to fill up the .451 rifling of the revolver. I need to open up the mold slightly to get .451 diameter bullets, but unfortunately because of the lead level in my blood my doctor has forbidden me to do any more bullet casting for a while. I did take the liberty of shoving one of my bullets into modern Starline 44 Colt brass, and the fit of the heel into the case is very good.
Interestingly enough, the first 44 Colt cartridges produced by the Frankford Arsenal used copper cases and Benét priming. This is what I was referring to earlier when I mentioned the copper cases used for the first 45 Colt cartridges. The two cartridges on the left in this photo are 45 Colt cartridges. The one on the far left is one of my reloads, the one next to it is a Benét primed, copper cased, 45 Colt cartridge of the type being produced by the Frankford Armory at the time the 50,000 rounds of ammunition were requested. By the way, the two cartridges on the right are 45 Schofield cartridges, a Benét primed round and one of my reloads.
Stephen Vincent Benét was a career Army officer. Not the poet, the poet was his grandson. Anyway, at the time Benét was the commander of the Frankford Arsenal. Benét priming is named after him. Benét priming was developed at the time that metallic cartridges were still being developed, and there were several different competing designs.
This is a view of several Benét primed cartridges. On the left is a 45 Colt, next to it is a 45 Schofield. Most interesting is the sectioned case on the right showing the construction. Notice the folded construction of the case head. There was no visible primer on the outside of a Benét primed cartridge, the priming was internal. The priming compound was deposited onto the bottom surface of the case. An Anvil Plate was then placed on top of the priming compound and held in place by two crimps on either side of the case. When the firing pin struck the back of the case, the soft copper deformed and compressed the priming compound against the Anvil Plate. This ignited the priming compound and the resulting flame passed through the two holes in the Anvil Plate, igniting the main powder charge. Because there was no visible primer at the rear of the case, they resembled RImfire cases, but they were not. They were Center Fire.
This is a box of Benét primed cartridges that left the Frankford Arsenal in 1874. Notice the lack of visible primers. Notice too these rounds only had 30 grains of powder in them because the original 40 grain load was deemed to produce too much recoil.
I will say it once more. The early Benét primed 45 Colt cartridges, and all the 45 Colt cartridges manufactured ever since, did not use heeled bullets. They used a conventional bullet with the outer diameter of the bullet the same diameter as the inner diameter of the case, just like almost all modern cartridges. The exception being 22 Rimfire ammuntion.
Why not a heeled bullet? The problem with heeled bullets was the bullet lubrication was applied to grooves on the outside of the bullet where it would engage the rifling of the barrel. Black Powder bullet lube tended to be soft and gooey, and would attract dirt and lint. Modern 'inside lubed' bullets, such as developed for the 44 Russian cartridge kept the bullet lube inside the cartridge, where it would not be contaminated by dirt or lint, but would still engage the barrel rifling.
Regarding the S&W Schofield revolver, I have often heard of mixups with 45 Colt ammo going to outfits that were issued 45 Schofield revolvers, but I have never seen any documentation of this actually happening.
The reason the Schofield round was shorter than the 45 Colt round is simple. S&W started making Top Break revolvers in 1869 as soon as the Rollin White patent for revolvers with chambers bored through to accept cartridges expired. The first such revolver was the 44 Caliber American model. A cartridge was developed for this revolver with approximately the same outside dimensions of the 44 Henry Rimfire round. This cartridge eventually became known as the 44 American cartridge, and yes it did use a heeled bullet, just like the Henry round before it. The cylinder of this model was 1 7/16" long, just the right length for the new cartridge. The Army bought 1000 of these new S&W Top Break revolvers, the first cartridge revolvers they ever bought. When Colt started working on what eventually became the Single Action Army, the stipulation from the Army was the cartridge had to be 45 caliber. Consequently the 45 Colt cartridge was developed, with its legendary 40 grain capacity. The cylinder length of the Colt was about 1.600, close to 1 5/8" long. Meanwhile S&W had extensive contracts with the Russian government to produce the Russian Model Top Break Revolver. Eventually S&W sold over 150,000 revolvers to the Russian government. Around 1875 S&W, not wanting to be left out of lucrative American government contrasts, approached the Army. The Army still wanted a 45 caliber cartridge, but agreed a shorter cartridge that would fit the 1 7/16" long cylinder would be acceptable. Why did S&W not build a revolver with a longer cylinder? Because they would have had to come up with new tooling for a longer cylinder and frame, and they did not want to disrupt the lucrative contracts they had with the Russian government. So the 45 Schofield cartridge was developed. Eventually only about 9000 Schofield revolvers were produced, with about 8,000 of them going to the Army.
Here is a photo showing some of the cartridges I have mentioned. Left to right, they are 44-40, 44 Henry Rimfire, 44 S&W American, 44 Russian, 44 Colt, 44 Special, and 45 Colt. These are all old cartridges except the 44 Special which I threw in just to show the length. Because Black Powder cartridges of this era were completely filled with powder, the comparative lengths of the cases is a good indicator of the relative power of each of these cartridges. Notice the 44 Henry, 44 American, and 44 Colt rounds all have visible lube grooves. You can see that each of these bullets is the same outside diameter as the cases, unlike the inside lubricated 44-40, 44 Russian, 44 Special and 45 Colt. They all use bullets the same diameter as the
inside of he case.
Interestingly enough, after S&W finished the Russian contracts, they made the New Model Number Three and 44 Double Action revolvers with two different lengths of cylinder; 1 7/16" and 1 9/16". The 1 9/16" cylinders were long enough for the longer 38-40 and 44-40 cartridges. S&W Top Break revolvers were never chambered for 45 Colt. The New Model Number Three was chambered for a total of 13 different cartridges, but never chambered for 45 Colt.
