Mike Irwin
Staff
"Colonel Douglas Wesson (grandson of Daniel Wesson) worked with ballistic experts to come up with a new cartridge..."
Phil Sharpe and Elmer Keith had both been after S&W for several years to develop an even more potent cartridge based on a lengthened case.
Sharpe, particularly, did a lot of the initial ballistics work, especially with bullets that both he and Elmer Keith designed.
S&W was apparently at first a hard sell on the project, and didn't want to pursue it. They felt that the .38-44 was more than enough cartridge and, that in the middle of the Depression, it simply wouldn't sell.
I've seen several possible scenarios about how S&W finally decided to pick up the project, with the most plausible being that Sharpe cornered Wesson, either in writing or in person, and sold him on the concept.
Phil Sharpe and Elmer Keith had both been after S&W for several years to develop an even more potent cartridge based on a lengthened case.
Sharpe, particularly, did a lot of the initial ballistics work, especially with bullets that both he and Elmer Keith designed.
S&W was apparently at first a hard sell on the project, and didn't want to pursue it. They felt that the .38-44 was more than enough cartridge and, that in the middle of the Depression, it simply wouldn't sell.
I've seen several possible scenarios about how S&W finally decided to pick up the project, with the most plausible being that Sharpe cornered Wesson, either in writing or in person, and sold him on the concept.