I note from the writings of Philip B Sharpe in "The Rifle in America" page 232;
"In 1894 Winchester put on the market an entirely new action in their famous model 1894. The Reason for it's great effect on shooting was because it was the first rifle "Designed" to handle cartridges loaded with the then new Smokeless Powder. All guns prior to this had been made for black-powder cartridges and only adapted to smokeless as the smokeless numbers came out. The model 1894 was first designed to handle the .30/30, .38/55 and .32/40 cartridges. Of these nunbers, of course the .30/30 was the "Only Brand-New All Smokeless Number". both the .32/40 and .38/55 were black powder varieties. The .38/55 smokeless cartridge was announced July 6, 1895"
"In 1895 Winchester also introduced two new "All-Smokeless" numbers, the famous .32 Winchester Special and the .25/35 Winchester".
This was what Phil Sharpe thought about the origin of the .30WCF (.30/30). It is also noted the US Goverment introduced a .30 caliber "Smokeless Powder" cartridge for the Krag rifle which became known in sporting circles as the .30/40 Krag. This likewise did not derive from a charge of 40 grains of black powder. It would therefore seem we have the .25/35, .30/30 & .30/40 all with "Black Powder Sounding" nomenclature which were all originally designed as smokeless powder rounds. If in fact you have any evidence a factory loaded black powder .30WCF aka .30/30 cartridge was ever placed upon the market I would love to see it. There had been I believe a small cased, low powered cartridge on the market which indeed was a BP .30/30, but I don't recall off hand who made it. It in no way resembled the .30WCF however.
PS; Of course as already mentioned the round was developed by Winchester & they did not apply the /30 to it. The .30/30 designation was first used apparently by Marlin & started out as .30/30S (S = smokeless??), probably because they did not want to stamp "WCF" on their gun. There would thus seem to be no evidence the /30 ever referred to BP.
Last edited by 2-piper; 01/02/09 04:35 PM.
