POTD: Rimfire, Cupfire, Even Pinfire! – What about Teatfire?
Sam.S 08.06.21
Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Today is an interesting find in that I initially knew very little about it. The Teatfire cartridge! The Teatfire cartridge was something I stumbled upon months ago researching for my Pinfire Curious Relics article back in February. At the time my childish brain merely laughed at the name and forgot about this interesting tidbit in American history.
As far as I have gathered the whole concept of this new cartridge is very much akin to rimfire, but is the way it is to avoid the then-current patents out on rimfire. So, Teatfire was born using a small nub or “teat” filled with priming compound that would either be flat or rounded at one end of the cartridge and the other end have a recessed cavity which had a bullet. The rim of the cartridge rested at the front of the cylinder of the revolver it was intended.
Surprisingly in my couple of hours of research, it appears that this cartridge type was a somewhat popular option for handguns during the civil war. Although after the war’s end the cartridge very much fell out of favor and ceased production (along with the revolver) in 1870. The rise of Smith and Wesson’s rimfire revolvers had done in the loveable aptly named teatfire.
32 TEATFIRE [Photograph found in IMPERIAL SPORTING .30 UP TO .349″, CartridgeCollector.Net]. (n.d.). Retrieved August 5, 2021, from https://www.cartridgecollector.net/32-teatfire
