Mike Irwin
Staff
Early manufacturer's for Colt's cap and ball revolvers often packaged ammo in packs of 6 rounds.
http://firearmshistory.blogspot.com/2015/12/early-cartridge-technologies-skin.html
http://www.gunauction.com/buy/9569886
Cartridges for Colt's revolving rifle in .56 were packaged in 5s...
http://www.icollector.com/Rare-orig...ber-model-1855-root-revolving-rifle_i17737489
As cartridges became self-contained, manufacturers seemed to adopt the 50-round box for handguns and 20-round box for rifles fairly early on.
Although, shown here (http://cartridgecollectors.org/?page=introduction-to-22-box-collecting) is what may be a pre-Civil War box of .22 Shorts, quantity 100.
Why those numbers were adopted, I don't know.
As Jim points out, the military often packaged ammunition in different quantities.
This page (http://www.oldammo.com/boxes.htm) shows some interesting variations in military packaging, including 5-round and 40-round boxes.
The true odd man out in the US military loads were the 24-round boxes of .45 ACP ammo in half-moon clips for the Model of 1917 Colt and S&W revolvers. https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/68/b3/7c/68b37c1126ad71a9fae9b4f4f356b738.jpg
http://firearmshistory.blogspot.com/2015/12/early-cartridge-technologies-skin.html
http://www.gunauction.com/buy/9569886
Cartridges for Colt's revolving rifle in .56 were packaged in 5s...
http://www.icollector.com/Rare-orig...ber-model-1855-root-revolving-rifle_i17737489
As cartridges became self-contained, manufacturers seemed to adopt the 50-round box for handguns and 20-round box for rifles fairly early on.
Although, shown here (http://cartridgecollectors.org/?page=introduction-to-22-box-collecting) is what may be a pre-Civil War box of .22 Shorts, quantity 100.
Why those numbers were adopted, I don't know.
As Jim points out, the military often packaged ammunition in different quantities.
This page (http://www.oldammo.com/boxes.htm) shows some interesting variations in military packaging, including 5-round and 40-round boxes.
The true odd man out in the US military loads were the 24-round boxes of .45 ACP ammo in half-moon clips for the Model of 1917 Colt and S&W revolvers. https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/68/b3/7c/68b37c1126ad71a9fae9b4f4f356b738.jpg