A couple days ago I started wondering what the oldest American Centerfire cartridge is that is still in commercial production today. I’ve narrowed it down to 44-40 (1873), 45 Colt (1873), 50-90 Sharps (1872), or .38 Short Colt (1871?). The reasons I have question mark on the .38 is because I haven’t found a source to verify it (but Remington still makes it) and I’m not sure that 50-90 is still being produced commercially. Of course there might be another that I have left out.

Can anyone weigh in on this?

Buffalo Arms makes 50-90 Sharps. There are other companies making it as well. No surprise; long distance cowboy action shooters use all sorts of old calibers.

50-90 (50 2 1/2") Sharps Ammunition 540 Grain .512" Lead Bullet Smokeless Box of 20 - Buffalo Arms

Copyright 2016 B.A.C.O

50-70 Government, 1866 to date. PCI makes loaded ammo. P.C.I. AMMO 50-70 GOV'T 425gr LD-RNFP (NEW) 20/BX - Graf & Sons
Ten-X also makes it - TEN-X AMMO .50-70 SINGLE SHOT

You could say the early .50-70 was a centerfire, at least to the extent that it wasn't a rimfire and the firing pin struck in the center of the base. However it was inside primed and could not be reloaded. And to a limited extent, it is still made, but with boxer primers. Generally, military ammunition was inside primed until the early 1880s and none is manufactured today. While the .50-70 was by no means the first center fire cartridge (there were many before it) it is probably the earliest U. S. center fire cartridge remaining in production in some form. At least I know of no other.

I thought 44 Russian, even though its not made in huge numbers, there still is some being manufactured. Someone could point out its been out of all inventories for long periods of time before today and possible resurgence with Cowboy shooting and people who like to shoot super cheap 44 reloads with the smaller case. Information I see says 1870, so it's older than the more famous 44-40 and especially 45 Colt. Interesting to know when it was out of production and back in again, with all the small manufacturers and all that today.

What about the 45-70?

__________________
No baby we aint

.50-70 pre-dates both the.44 S&W Russian and .45-70 by several years. I can find no center-fire cartridge whatsoever whether in current production or not, which was introduced before 1870, with the sole exception being the 50-70 dating to 1866.

.44 Russian dates only to 1872,and .45-70 to 1873.

The oldest self-contained cartridge still in production is the .22 BB Cap introduced for Flobert "parlor pistols" c. 1845. The oldest American self-contained cartridge is the .22 Short, introduced by S&W in the Model 1 revolver in c. 1864 or slightly earlier! Not long before the .50-70.

__________________
Gunsmithing since 1961