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No.
1
.50-45 FRANKFORD ARSENAL AMMUNITION 10 ROUND PACKET - BENET PRIMED CARBINE AND CADET ROUNDS:
This packet of .50-45 Internally Benet Primed Centre
Fire Cartridges, is one of the scarcer loadings provided
by the Springfield Armory and the Frankford Arsenal
during the early Indian Wars Period.
Based on available
Ordnance Department correspondence of the time, this
reduced loading of the standard .50-70 cartridge using
the same weight bullet, seems to have been first
introduced for the Model 1866 Cadet Rifles, and later
for the Model 1869 Cadet Rifles with an additional 10
grains of powder. However, as documented in exchanges
of letters between Gen. Sherman, Gen. Dyer and Col.
Benton, by 1869 and 1870 the leadership of the army and
in particular the Ordnance Department was considering
and recommending this reduced loading for use in
carbines and an experimental trapdoor pistol. The
opinions in play felt the reduced loading would be best
for these smaller arms, although recommending that the
carbines (the pistols were never adopted) be capable of
firing the heavier .50-70 cartridge should a shortage of
the smaller cartridge occur.
This packet is full form, being manufactured of the
khaki colored card stock material used in other
Frankford Arsenal packets. It measures 3” long, 1 3/16”
think and 1 7/8” high. These packets were not labeled,
and like other known specimens, this packet is not
labeled. The seams are all sealed with the original
paper packing tape applied at the arsenal and the
corners and edges are all intact save for one end. The
one end has either been opened or separated as so many
of these early packets did due to weight and shifting in
transit and storage, but the panel is present and
intact, and the edges at this opening are
clean with no tearing or material loss. In one respect,
this opened end is a plus as it allows the collector to
view the 10 Internally Benet Primed cartridges in the
packet. In the photographs below, an example of the
.50-45 cartridge is shown next to the packet with the
larger .50-70 cartridge for comparison; however these
single cartridges are not included in this offering, but
are available under separate listings in this same
section.
Whether these smaller cartridges were not produced in
any great numbers or they were issued and consumed
during the period of use is not definitely known, but
surviving packets of this loading are scarce and are
seldom found except in the most advanced Indian War
cartridge collections. SOLD
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