When did ammunition makers start loading munitions with JACKETED bullets? And if you know that, what was the first commercial or military round loaded exclusively with jacketed bullets?

I think it was Major Rubin in 1883 that began using copper jacketed bullets. Don't remember which was his first creation though.

I seem to remember a reference to the 8mm Lebel being the 1st jacketed military service round loaded with smokeless powder. Seems it made everything else obsolete overnight!

Here is the best I was able to come up with. Does anyone know if the original 30/30 rounds were loaded with lead bullets or jacketed?

Quote:

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Around 1890, lead bullets began to be made with a copper or copper alloy covering called a jacket. The increased heat of the then new smokeless powder caused the surface of the soft lead bullets to melt in the gun. The molten bullets left lead adhering to the inside of the gun barrel, making the gun less accurate. The solution was to clad the easy to melt lead in a harder jacket.

Soon, all military bullets, fast and slow, were copper jacketed for humanitarian reasons

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Considering the second 30 represents the amount of the then new smokeless powder inside the case, it follows that the origional bullets were jacketed.

TG - I thought the second "30" represented the charge of BLACK powder...and as the smokeless came along, they started loading it with smokeless?

Don't know what is meant by "metal patched though"

http://www.leverguns.com/articles/3030history.htm


Today what is known as the .30-30 began life as the .30 WINCHESTER SMOKELESS. In 1891, the Winchester Repeating Arms Company first began experimenting with smokeless powder to develop a higher velocity smokeless cartridge that would bear the Winchester name. They decided on .30 caliber after working with the military on the development of the .30 U.S.Army (.30-40) cartridge.

When the 1894 Winchester rifle was on the drawing boards, they ultimately decided to use the .38-50 Ballard cartridge case of 1876, and neck it down to hold a 160 gr. .30 Caliber "metal patched" bullet.

The resultant .30 WINCHESTER SMOKELESS cartridge which carried the .30 W.C.F. (Winchester Center Fire) designation on the head stamp, first appeared in Winchester's catalog No. 55, dated August, 1895. Several months prior to this, the first ads announcing the arrival of this cartridge began appearing in the sporting press.

Three months after WINCHESTER?s first advertisement of their new .30 WINCHESTER SMOKELESS cartridge, their biggest competitor, the Marlin Firearms Company, announced their version of this cartridge chambered in their model 1893 rifle. Since Marlin did not manufacture ammunition, it worked closely with the Union Metallic Cartridge Company (U.M.C.) located in Bridgeport, Connecticut. U.M.C. replicated the .30 WINCHESTER SMOKELESS cartridge but gave it a different name. Since 30 grains of smokeless powder was initially used in this cartridge, they named it the .30-30. Cartridges were head stamped U.M.C. / .30-30 S. The S was dropped from the headstamp within a few years.

The name .30-30 followed the prevailing practice of that period where the first number designated the caliber in inches and the second number the powder charge in grains, however, in this case, the second number denoted the charge in grains of smokeless powder used rather than black powder as with such cartridges as the .32-40, .38-55, .45-70, .45-90, etc.

When it was introduced in 1895, the first Winchester ammunition contained a 160gr. ?metal patched? bullet at a published 1,970 f.p.s. The 170gr. loading appeared a year later from U.M.C. but it wasn?t until 1903 when Winchester also offered the same 170 gr. loading. I guess they felt the 160 gr. bullet worked well enough!

In December of 1896, the first .30 W.C.F. ?Short Range? cartridge appeared. The cartridge illustration was shown as the .30-6-100 since the cartridge contained a 100 gr. lead bullet and 6 grains of powder. It was described as ?for small game where the more powerful cartridge is not necessary". It effectively gave .32-20 performance.

Winchester recognized the benefit and increased versatility that a factory loading for small game would offer, since the average family would have to sacrifice at least a month?s pay to buy just one rifle, and that one rifle was just about all that most families could afford. With his or her magazine full of these .30 W.C.F. ?Short Range? rounds, hunters could use their big game rifles to harvest turkeys, squirrels and other small game animals with no meat loss. Then, if bigger game was expected to be encountered, a quick change to the standard .30 W.C.F. cartridge would handle that situation.

A few months later, Marlin followed suit with their .30-30 MARLIN SMOKELESS ?Short Range? cartridge made by U.M.C.

In 1904, Winchester increased the lead bullet weight from 100 to 117 grs. and the following year, they also offered a 117 gr. soft point and a 117 gr. full metal patch version.

These ?Short Range? cartridges were easily identified as having a cannelure part way down the case neck. Originally, it was used to keep the soft lead bullet from being pushed into the case under spring pressure while in the magazine. It was not needed with the metal patched bullets, but was retained to distinguish them from the full power .30 W.C.F. cartridges which looked similar.

Winchester cartridges retained the .30 W.C.F. designation on their headstamps and advertising up until about 1946 after which they changed their nomenclature to .30-30. Interestingly, today it's called the .30-30 Winchester but it was Marlin & U.M.C. that gave it that designation.

Over the years, it has been known as the:

.30 WINCHESTER SMOKELESS

.30 WINCHESTER

.30 W.C.F.

.30-6-100

.30 Marlin

.30-30 MARLIN SMOKELESS

.30-30 S.

.30-30 W.C.F.

.30-30 Win.

.30 American (Federal case, small primer)

DWM 543 (Germany)

7.62x51R (Europe)

Mark, thanks for the great history lesson here. Some I had read and forgotten and some was new to me. Either way...a good report. You've answered a lot of my questions about this old cartridge.

I took a quick look through "Cartridges of the World", and as near as I can tell the 8mm Lebel first used jacketed bullets in 1886, with the 8X57 in 1887 and the .303 British in 1888.

I had always understood that jackets or half-jackets were used a little earlier (1870's) when leading started to become a problem with the increased rates of fire with repeating (black powder) rifles, but I haven't found a source for that yet.

Metal Patched = Jacketed

The original load for the .303 British used a 215 grain round nose jacketed bullet over compressed black powder. The original Russian 7.62x54R was similar, with a 210 grain jacketed bullet over black powder. (They used that from 1891 till they switched at the same time to smokeless powder and a 147 grain spitzer bullet in 1908.)

Ricochet,

My info says that the 303 was adopted as a service cartridge in 1888 in the Mk1 and used a 215 gn jacketed rn.

Pecos,

As near as I can tell, on our side of the pond the switch (from a military standpoint) came in 1892 when the 30-40 replaced the 45-70. It originally showcased a 220 gn FMJ RN at a blistering 2200 fs.