correct me if i'm wrong, but was't the 45 colt cartridge, which came out in 1872, or 3, inside lubricated?
Howdy
Well, that's up for debate.
In his book The Colt Single Action Revolvers, A Shop Manual, Volumes 1 & 2, Jerry Kuhnhausen has an excellent illustration clearly showing the early Benet primed, copper cased, folded rim rounds were inside lubed.
Here is a box of 20 45 Colt cartridges made in 1874 in the Frankford Arsenal.
In this photo you can see the flat nature of the rear of the cartridge. Yes, they were centerfire cartridges, but the priming was internal. The white material on the bullets near the crimp appears to me to be lead oxide, but I could be wrong. It makes no sense to lube a bullet on the ogive, because that part of the bullet does not rub the bore. It makes much more sense to lube the cylindrical part of the bullet, because that is the part that rubs the bore. And the cylindrical part is down inside the case.
Sorry, I am not going to pull any of these bullets to make sure.
The two cartridges in the center of this photo are a copper cased, Benet primed 45 Colt and a 45 Schofield. They are flanked by their modern versions. The white material on the bullets of the Benet primed rounds appears to be lead oxide, not lube.
Here are three cartridges with heeled bullets. Left to right a 44 Henry Rimfire, and two 44 Colt cartridges, one from UMC and one from Winchester Repeating Arms. The lube has long since dried up and disappeared, but you can clearly see the lube grooves that once held the lube. An old balloon head 45 Colt is on the right.