The .50-110 Winchester is an obsolete American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 black powder centerfire

Centerfire ammunition

A centerfire cartridge is a cartridge with a primer located in the center of the cartridge case head. Unlike rimfire cartridges, the primer is a separate and replaceable component....

 rifle

Rifle

A rifle is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves cut into the barrel walls. The raised areas of the rifling are called "lands," which make contact with the projectile , imparting spin around an axis corresponding to the...

 cartridge

Cartridge (firearms)

A cartridge, also called a round, packages the bullet, gunpowder and primer into a single metallic case precisely made to fit the firing chamber of a firearm. The primer is a small charge of impact-sensitive chemical that may be located at the center of the case head or at its rim . Electrically...

.

Introduced in 1899 for the Winchester

Winchester Repeating Arms Company

The Winchester Repeating Arms Company was a prominent American maker of repeating firearms, located in New Haven, Connecticut. The Winchester brand is today used under license by two subsidiaries of the Herstal Group, Fabrique Nationale of Belgium and the Browning Arms Company of Morgan, Utah.-...

 Model 1886 repeater, the .50-110 Winchester was also available in single-shot weapons such as the Winchester 1885 Hi-Wall. Slight variations in charge weight in the same case led to the mistaken belief these were different rounds, when in fact they were not.

Designed for black powder, the .50-110 was also available in a potent smokeless loading, comparable to British elephant

Elephant

Elephants are large land mammals in two extant genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta, with the third genus Mammuthus extinct...

 rounds. In power, the standard load was comparable to the contemporary British .500 Black Powder Express, It is sufficient for elk

Elk

The Elk is the large deer, also called Cervus canadensis or wapiti, of North America and eastern Asia.Elk may also refer to:Other antlered mammals:...

, deer

Deer

Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...

, moose

Moose

The moose or Eurasian elk is the largest extant species in the deer family. Moose are distinguished by the palmate antlers of the males; other members of the family have antlers with a dendritic configuration...

, or bear

Bear

Bears are mammals of the family Ursidae. Bears are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans, with the pinnipeds being their closest living relatives. Although there are only eight living species of bear, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Northern...

 at medium range or in woods, and thin-skinned African game, but not dangerous animals such as elephant. The high-velocity smokeless load was in a class with the .444 Marlin

.444 Marlin

The .444 Marlin is a rifle cartridge designed in 1964 by Marlin Firearms and Remington Arms. It was designed to fill in a gap for the older .45-70 at a time when that cartridge was not currently available in any lever action, making it the largest at the time available lever-action cartridge...

, and its power exceeded the .348

.348 Winchester

The .348 Winchester is an American rifle cartridge. It was introduced in 1936, and developed for the Winchester Model 71 lever rifle. The .348 was one of the most powerful rimmed rounds ever used in a lever rifle.-Performance:...

 and .358 Winchester

.358 Winchester

The .358 Winchester is a .35 caliber rifle cartridge based on a necked up .308 Winchester created by Winchester in 1955. The cartridge is also known in Europe as the 8.8x51mm. -History:...

.

Winchester continued to offer the cartridge commercially until 1935 and while it is still offered by some suppliers, due to its obsolescence and resultant obscurity, it is significantly more costly than more current cartridges — averaging from US$3 to $4 per round.

Sources

• Barnes, Frank C., ed. by John T. Amber. ".50-110 Winchester", in Cartridges of the World, pp. 116 & 124. Northfield, IL: DBI Books, 1972. ISBN 0-695-80326-3.
• ______ and _____. ".30-30 Winchester", in Cartridges of the World, p. 34. Northfield, IL: DBI Books, 1972. ISBN 0-695-80326-3.
• ______ and _____. ".577 Nitro-Express", in Cartridges of the World, p. 233. Northfield, IL: DBI Books, 1972. ISBN 0-695-80326-3.
• ______ and _____. ".500 No. 2 Express (.577/.500)", in Cartridges of the World, p. 230. Northfield, IL: DBI Books, 1972. ISBN 0-695-80326-3.
• ______ and _____. ".444 Marlin", in Cartridges of the World, p. 62. Northfield, IL: DBI Books, 1972. ISBN 0-695-80326-3.
• ______ and _____. ".348 Winchester", in Cartridges of the World, p. 52. Northfield, IL: DBI Books, 1972. ISBN 0-695-80326-3.
• ______ and _____. ".358 Winchester", in Cartridges of the World, p. 54. Northfield, IL: DBI Books, 1972. ISBN 0-695-80326-3.