The .45-75 Winchester ''Centennial'' is a centerfire rifle cartridge developed in 1876 for the newly designed Winchester Model 1876 ''Centennial''

lever-action The toggle-link action used in the iconic Winchester Model 1873 rifle, one of the most famous lever-action firearms Lever-action is a type of action for repeating firearms that uses a manually operated cocking handle located around the trigge ...

rifle. Winchester Repeating Arms Company introduced the rifle and cartridge at the United States

Centennial Exposition The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World's Fair to be held in the United States, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of th ...

. The Model 1876 rifle used an enlarged version of the famous Winchester Model 1873 action to offer a lever-action repeating rifle using cartridges suitable for

big-game hunting Big-game hunting is the hunting of large game animals for meat, commercially valuable by-products (such as horns/antlers, furs, tusks, bones, body fat/ oil, or special organs and contents), trophy/taxidermy, or simply just for recreation ...

. The cartridge and rifle enjoyed brief popularity with

Gilded Age In United States history, the Gilded Age was an era extending roughly from 1877 to 1900, which was sandwiched between the Reconstruction era and the Progressive Era. It was a time of rapid economic growth, especially in the Northern and West ...

American hunters including Theodore Roosevelt, and was issued to the Canadian

North-West Mounted Police The North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) was a Canadian para-military police force, established in 1873, to maintain order in the new Canadian North-West Territories (NWT) following the 1870 transfer of Rupert’s Land and North-Western Territo ...

and to Texas Rangers.

Description

Nomenclature of the era indicated the .45-75 cartridge contained a diameter bullet with of

gunpowder Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, carbon (in the form of charcoal) and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). Th ...

. Early Winchester ammunition boxes suggested reloading empty cartridge cases with government musket powder or with American Powder Company ''Deadshot Fg'', Hazard Powder Company ''Sea Shooting Fg'', ''

DuPont DuPont de Nemours, Inc., commonly shortened to DuPont, is an American multinational chemical company first formed in 1802 by French-American chemist and industrialist Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours. The company played a major role in ...

Rifle FFg'', Oriental Powder Company ''Western Sporting Fg'', Laflin & Rand ''Orange Rifle Fg'', or Austin Powder Company ''Rifle Powder FFg''. Boxes also recommended casting bullets from an alloy of one part

tin Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (from la, stannum) and atomic number 50. Tin is a silvery-coloured metal. Tin is soft enough to be cut with little force and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, ...

and sixteen parts

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cut, ...

and lubricating bullets with

Japan wax Japan wax (木蝋 ''Mokurō''), also known as sumac wax, sumach wax, vegetable wax, China green tallow, and Japan tallow, is a pale-yellow, waxy, water-insoluble solid with a gummy feel, obtained from the berries of certain sumacs native to Japan an ...

tallow Tallow is a rendered form of beef or mutton fat, primarily made up of triglycerides. In industry, tallow is not strictly defined as beef or mutton fat. In this context, tallow is animal fat that conforms to certain technical criteria, includin ...

. The .45-75 was shorter and fatter than the .45-70 government cartridge. Although the .45-75 was nominally superior to the popular .45-70, the weak toggle-link action with its elevator-style carrier originally designed for handgun cartridges limited the ability of the Model 1876 rifle to safely fire higher pressure loads intended for stronger actions. Within a decade, the Model 1876's advantage of faster loading for subsequent shots was eclipsed by the stronger and smoother

Winchester Model 1886 The Winchester Model 1886 was a lever-action repeating rifle designed by John Browning to handle some of the more powerful cartridges of the period. Originally chambered in .45-70, .45-90 WCF, and .40-82 WCF, it was later offered in a half do ...

action capable of handling longer cartridges, including the .45-70 with varying lengths for 300 and 500 grain bullets. The Kennedy lever-action rifle manufactured by Whitney Arms Company was also chambered for the .45-75. The .45-75 and similarly short .40-60 Winchester, .45-60 Winchester, and .50-95 Winchester Express cartridges designed for the Model 1876 rifle faded into obsolescence as 20th-century hunters preferred more powerful

smokeless powder Finnish smokeless powderSmokeless powder is a type of propellant used in firearms and artillery that produces less smoke and less fouling when fired compared to gunpowder ("black powder"). The combustion products are mainly gaseous, compared to ...

loadings of longer cartridges designed for stronger rifles. Winchester production of .45-75 cartridges ended during the Great Depression.

Dimensions

References

External links

.45-75 Winchester (Centennial)

Case Histories: .45-75 WCF

Handloading the .45-75 WCF
* {{DEFAULTSORT:4575 Winchester Pistol and rifle cartridges Guns of the American West

Description

Dimensions

See also

References

External links