This week marked the birthday of Colonel D.B Wesson. Along with Horace Smith, Wesson developed the first ever repeating rifle, known as the Volcanic rifle. The pair went on to form the Volcanic Repeating Arms Company, which was backed by the one and only Oliver Winchester.
The rifle Wesson and Smith created was hugely popular with civilians in the U.S. Learn more about the history of commercial ammo and firearms in our article “Commercial Ammo: The Untold History of Springfield Armory and América’s Munitions Factories” at Ammo.com.