The 1-inch Nordenfelt gun was an early rapid-firing light gun intended to defend larger warships against the new small fast-moving torpedo boats in the late 1870s to the 1890s. The gun was an enlarged version of the successful rifle-calibre Nordenfelt hand-cranked...

Also known as Gingall (China) or Janjal (Hindi) these guns were intended as fortress defensive weapons. Employed by the Chinese and Indian armies of the 19th Century, they initially appeared as muzzle loaders and later as bolt action arms firing fixed metallic...

This is a double scale of the .30 M1 Carbine round. During World War 2, double scale models were made of various small arms for demonstration purposes to troops. This is a plastic version, but some calibers were also constructed of wood. See Datig Vol.3 p.171....

The .58 cal. muzzle loading rifle was the standard weapon used by both sides fighting in the American Civil War. One of the biggest dangers of a muzzle loading rifle was that it was a dirty process and the rifles became increasingly difficult to load as the battle...

      This is CFR50 from Hoyem 2 p.42 with drawn brass case and external Berdan primer for the Roberts centrefire breech-loading conversion.

   This is CFR45 from Hoyem 2 p.40 with the copper drawn case and brass Berdan primer.

      The 58 Carbine utilised a drawn brass case and had a Berdan primer. This was a commercial load by UMC. See also CFR46, Hoyem 2 p.40

The Berdan musket was introduced in 1869 for use in breech loading conversions. This cartridge was not officially used in the US, but the Berdan breech loading conversion system was used by Spain as well as by other European powers, notably Russia.   ...

This is a relatively large project and I will be adding history and info in time.     SOUTH AFRICAN VARIATIONS     H Grönebaum, a local South African shooter. Paper cased cartridge and printed on the side is "JOHANNESBURG SOUTH AFRICA"

The Billinghurst-Requa battery gun predates the Gatling Gun and for this reason it is considered to be the first practical machine gun used in the American Civil War. Dr. Josephus Requa, a dentist from New York who from 1849 to 1853 served an apprenticeship in the...

The 55 Boys was named in honour of Captain H. C. Boys during the late-1930s as an infantry anti-tank rifle, which at that time was still relatively lightly armored. It was an upgrade from the earlier .5" Stanchion rifle. Designated “Rifle, Anti-Tank, .55in, Boys” for...

The .54 Burnside carbine was designed and patented by Ambrose E. Burnside in 1855 and was manufactured in Rhode Island by the Bristol Firearms Company which later became the Burnside Rifle Company. It was the third most widely used carbine by the Union cavalry,...

Christian Sharps produced his first single shot, .54 caliber breech loading rifle using paper cartridges in the late 1840's. Later the cartridges were made of linen. The falling block, dropped by lowering the trigger guard, cut off the end of the cartridge when the...

The .510 DTC EUROP is a French design developed by Eric Danis, owner of Dan Tec France in 2000 in order to comply with firearms legislation of .50 BMG rifles in Europe. In response to the .50 Caliber BMG Regulation Act of 2004, which banned future sales of .50 BMG...

The 502 Thunder Sabre was developed by Robyn Church from Cloud Mountain Armory during 2004 and was another big bore round competing with the 499 LWR and 50 Beowulf in modified AR-10 carbines. The 502 Thunder Sabre is basically a shortened and modified 50 AE case with...

This was another cartridge developed by Teppo Jutsu as a heavy caliber, hard-hitting law enforcement or special operations cartridge. It was designed by Marty ter Weeme from Teppo Jutsu in 2005 and is based on the 500 Jefferey case that was shortened and necked down...

    During the middle part of the Great War (1914 – 1918) the British required a weapon/cartridge system to combat two threat areas, namely aircraft machine guns and guns capable of taking on the Zeppelins and secondly – maybe more urgent – to combat the...

There are very little notes that survived regarding this cartridge, but the best available info can be found on p.290 of Labbets’s “BRITISH SMALL ARMS AMMUNITION 1964 – 1938.” It appears to have been developed around 1901 and is a semi-rimmed cartridge. There also...

This is a 10mm SLAP (Saboted Light Armor Penetrator) based on a .50cal Browning case from the late 1980’s. The bullet would consist of an amber coloured plastic sabot covering a tungsten penetrator.   

“DeathWind” is a prototype next generation self-contained rocket projectile designed for Military (primarily Naval) weapons usage. It is a blend of the MBAssociates 13mm “GYROJET” and the Russian “Shkval” torpedo designs combined with some “Coanda Effect” physics....

The following is from the excellent article on the development of the .5 Vickers by By Anthony G. Williams that  first appeared in Small Arms Review V15N4 (January 2012) Ammunition Development The origin of the .5 inch Vickers goes back to the First World War,...

   The British did not start developing an effective infantry anti-tank weapon until late in the War of 1914 – 1918, as they were basically the only country that fielded tanks during the War so there was no immediate urgency for such a rifle. The Germans...

The 50 BAT (Battalion Anti-Tank) was designed during the 1950’s in the United States for use as a spotter round with the M40 106mm recoilless rifle. It has subsequently been adopted by many military powers. The specimens below are South African with the first specimen...

After the end of the Civil War, the Army started to convert the remaining muzzle loading rifles to breech loaders based on the design by Erskine Allin, who was the Master Armorer at Springfield Arsenal. These conversions were the .58 cal Musket M1865 Trapdoor Allin...

   The Springfield Cadet, also known as the .50-45-400 Cadet cartridge was produced by Frankford Arsenal around 1867 in a bar-primed copper case and the case lengths varied between 1.25in. to 1.33in. It was used in the Model 1866 Remington Cadet Rifle that...

From an old IAA FORUM discussion: The Grand Technologies Group (GTG) was incorporated July 1981 with the principal activity being the development and potentially marketing small arms systems using folded ammunition. .50 Cal. Omega Cartridge. Development of folded...

      The Meigs rifle was designed by Josiah (Joe) V. Meigs. He was granted U.S. Patent 36,721 for a protected a sliding breechblock locked by a pivoting strut. It fired the .50 caliber Meigs cartridge, with a 25" round barrel, 50 round magazine...

   The 50 Fat Mac was developed in 1996 by Gale McMillan from a 20mm Vulcan cannon case. Their primary goal was to create a modern (short/fat) case like those now used in bench rest competitive events, but designed to launch .50-caliber match bullets for use...

The 50 Gallager Carbine was designed by Mahlon J. Gallager and granted a patented for his design 1860 and was produced by the Richardson and Overman Company of Philadelphia. The Gallager was a breech loaded rifle and used a lever action mechanism to open the breech,...

   The 50 Beowulf was designed by Alexander Arms as another alternative on the AR platform to provide a very hard-hitting cartridge that is suitable for short/medium range applications in a semi-auto rifle for urban environments that is able to stop both...

             This is actually a straight case .50 cal round that was developed by the Leitner-Wise company as a concept in 1994 in the same vein as other larger bored, AR platform type cartridges to overcome the...

The .460 Steyr was designed by Horst Grillmayer (Austria) in 2002 and the cartridge was co-developed by Steyr to provide superb ultra-long-range ballistics with less recoil than the .50 BMG. Like the .50 BMG, the .460 Steyr can launch bullets that stay supersonic well...

Inspired by the lack of power offered by the 5.56 NATO cartridge used in the M4 carbine and the M16 rifle, the .458 SOCOM came about from informal discussion of members of the special operations command, specifically Task Force Ranger's experience that multiple shots...

The story of the Turkish Peabody-Martini rifle is an interesting one, especially with the Provident Tool Company manufacturing the rifles on behalf of Winchester. The cartridges were manufactured by various companies in the US as well as Europe.     ...

This is the .45 Turkish Peabody-Martini Carbine discussed on p.219-220 of Hoyem 2. It uses the same rim and base as the standard Turkish round but there is however no record of the cartridge ever being used by Turkey at any stage. It is stated that the cartridge was...

   Source: icollector.com During the late 1870’s there were a number of Army marksmen who were interested in competing in long range shooting matches, especially the Creedmoor matches held at Long Island, NY. The U.S. Congress however could not see either...

At the end of the US Civil War in 1865, the military continued in their search to improve the weapons in their arsenal and that lead to the adoption of the Model 1865 Springfield based on the work done by Erskine S. Allin, who was the master armorer at the Springfield...

   The 45 Remington-Thompson was an attempt at an improved ‘intermediate’ cartridge up to 650 yards at a rate of 400 rounds per minute and manufactured in the 1923 Military Model Thompson. The picture above shows the Model 1923, but does not confirm whether...

During 1889 cordite was invented by Sir James Dewar and Sir Fredrick Able and in August 1893 the British Director of Naval Ordnance requested that a .45 inch cordite cartridge be developed for their Naval Maxim guns as well as the Gardner, Gatling machine guns....

According to Labbett, p. 79, some of the Mk. 2 ammunition was found to have weak heads causing jams in some of the Gardner machine guns. As a result the ‘CARTRIDGE MACHINE GUN BALL .45 inch MARK 3 (GARDNER, GATLING AND NORDENFELT EXCEPT MH (MARTINI HENRY) CHAMBERED...

Tests done during the middle to late 1880’s showed that the Gardner and Nordenfelt machine guns were better that the older Gatling guns by the Royal Navy and on the 16th of May 1881 they stated that the 5-barrel Gardener machine gun in .45 cal. would be introduced for...

This is the ‘CARTRIDGE SA BALL GATLING GUN 0.45 inch LIGHT MARK 1’ as described on p. 76 of Labbett for service to India. It used the same 59.5mm case as the standard Mark 1 round, but was loaded with the lighter 410 gr. bullet and 80gr. of powder with a total length...

The Whitworth rifle was designed by Joseph Whitworth, who was an English engineer in response to a request by the British Board of Ordnance for a universal troop rifle. The original design was a small-bore .45 caliber hexagonal-barreled rifle which fired a 530gr....

The Quiet Special Purpose Revolver, also known as the ‘tunnel revolver’ was developed by the AAI Corporation at the US Army Land Warfare Laboratory at Aberdeen Proving Ground from 1967 US Army requirements for a silenced, multi-projectile hand weapon for use by...

It can be said that the story of the .433 Egyptian Remington started in 1820 with Muhammad Ali Pasha, an Ottoman governor who was responsible for founding the first modem military-industrial complex in Egypt. Fast forward a few decades to the end of the American Civil...

The rolling block action was developed during the American Civil War by gunsmith Leonard M. Geiger in which the shooter “rolled” the breechblock backward with the thumb and inserted a cartridge in the breech, before the block “rolled” forward and the interlocking...

This is the .43 Remington Carbine that was used in Remington rolling block and Whitney carbines. See also Hoyem Vol. 4 p.108.   

The 416 TYR was developed by Horst Grillmayer for very long range precision shooting. It appears to be a unique case type and not derived from any existing cartridge. Early development cases    Development loading with large (8mm) primer pocket. Apparently...

The 416 Barrett was designed in 2005 by Chris Barrett and Pete Forras as an alternative to the .50 Browning as a long range anti-personnel rifle. It is based on a shortened and necked down .50 Browning case and offers superior ballistics to the .50 cal as the .416 cal...

The Indian Mutiny, also known in India as the as the first war of independence from 1857 – 1858 started at Meerut (a city in the western part of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh) as a mutiny among around 35,000 Indian troops (sepoy, - an Indian term meaning ‘infantry...