What's in a name? A cartridge name, that is...

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Mike Irwin

Staff
In another thread a side discussion got going about about the "proper" name for the .45 Colt/Long Colt, and that got me to thinking about how many different, accepted, and even official, names there have been for cartridges over the years.

What we might now find odd may once have been common usage, and vice versa.

With that in mind, and bored out of my skull at the office today, I put together a quick and dirty list of some common (or once common) cartridges and their equivilient names.

So far this is just for handguns, and it is by no means exhaustive. I'll continue to update it as I think of more.

If anyone has any suggestions, let me know, but I do ask that you keep your suggestions to cartridges for which you have a factual basis (you can lay your hands on something with that nomenclatural usage).

I hope you find this to be interesting.
 

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J

jacobtowne

New member
Frank Barnes's Cartridges of the World is a good source for information on modern and obsolete cartridges - historical and otherwise - as well as synonyms.
JT
 
M

mete

New member
The 380 also goes by the name 9mmShort [or Kurz or Corto ].... The 45 Long Colt will forever be a confuser .The "short Colt " was the 45 S&W, 45 Schofield [since it was made for the S&W Schofield] and the 45Colt Gov't [because the gov't bought this more often since it would be used in both the Colt and Schofield revolvers ! ....There was both a 41 Long Colt and 41 Short Colt.
 
M

Mike Irwin

Staff
"More synonyms for .380 ACP: .380 Auto, 9mm Short, 9mm Kurz"

Obviously I'm so bored that my brain has shut down. Sigh...
I didn't include the "Auto" in the .25, .32, or .380 as they're sort of already in there...


"There was both a 41 Long Colt and 41 Short Colt."

See note 5
 
M

Mike Irwin

Staff
"you might want to put .44-40 on the list with its 44 wcf alias."

Good one. I was figuring on putting it and the .38 WCF on the rifles list, but they could go either, or both.
 
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James K

Member In Memoriam
In the old days, gun companies just hated the idea of putting another company's name on their guns. So we got a different name for a cartridge every time a new company brought out a gun for it. It would take much too much time to go into detail but Cartridges of the World is one place to start. On handgun cartridges, try and find a copy of White & Munhall's Pistol and Revolver Cartridges.

The .380 is often called the 9mm Browning Short not to distinguish it from the 9mm Parabellum but to distinguish it from the 9mm Browning, which came out before either (in the FN Model 1903). The 9mm Browning is now usually called the 9mm Browning Long (the same situation with the .45 "Long" Colt).

To throw even more schnitzel in the ".45 Colt" game, the army Model 1909 revolver was issued with special Model 1909 ammunition, which is like the .45 Colt but with a larger rim for better extraction in the swing out cylinder gun. The .45 Colt will fit the Model 1909, but Model 1909 ammo can be used in the SAA Colt only by skipping every other chamber (making the six-shooter a "three-shooter").

Mike, the next time you decide to do this topic warn me so I can buy extra strength aspirin. My head hurts.

Jim
 
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