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December 2013 Several early Winchester Smokeless .22 rim fire target cartridge boxes...... Winchester began producing a line of .22 short and long target cartridges in the mid-1890s that were intended to appeal to those operating indoor shooting galleries and who participated in the competitive single shot rifle matches that were popular at the time; these were labeled as 'target cartridges' on their side sealing labels and were loaded with black powder when initially introduced. It is thought that the target cartridges differed from standard production cartridges only in their labeling. Some time after 1902, Winchester began producing smokeless 'gallery' cartridges, and packaged them in boxes that had the word 'SMOKELESS' printed on the top labels in large red letters.
As is the case with most Winchester box labels, many variations of these
smokeless target labels can be found. I have included pictures of five of
these 'Smokeless' marked target cartridge boxes
from my collection to illustrate just a small part of this variety. All
four of these boxes contained cartridges that were loaded with greaseless
bullets; all are prominently marked on the labels to indicate this.
Greaseless bullets were introduced in 1902 and dropped in 1929. The Company
advertised that they offered the advantage over greased bullets of not
fouling the barrel, but they proved also to be less messy to handle
The first box of of Smokeless cartridges shown here are .22 shorts; it was produced from some time shortly after1902, when greaseless bullets were introduced, and around 1906, when Winchester first began putting the label index numbers and date codes on their labels.
This second box,
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. . . . . . .
This third box of smokeless .22 short cartridges also has a 10-8 label date, indicating that there were at least two variations that month. I suspect that this label was designed after the one shown above, as it has the index number (15) on the left side of the top label, which tends to be the placement on later labels. It also lacks any shadowing under the bullet.It's 9-15 dated side label adds 'and through't the world' to the trade mark text under the large red 'W' on the end. . . . . . .
This next box contains .22 long cartridges, and like the first box above, dates from about 1902 to 1906. Note the switch in positions of the patent date in the oval and the 'H' logo trade mark from the .22 short boxes, and the horizontal orientation of the 'SMOKELESS' rather than being diagonal. The side label, while marked as 'target cartridges, is much different from all of the .22 short boxes. The '1/2' was typically seen on earlier boxes, and refers to the fact that the box is a one half pack containing 50 cartridges, and not the 100 cartridges that were typically included in the early boxes of .22 rimfire, up until about 1905 or thereabout.
. .
The lower right corner of the label of this .22 long box is marked M-970 (or M-910). This box was produced prior to the application of the standard label codes used by Winchester, and this code does not conform to those codes. What the code on this box represents is unknown to me. . . .
This last box, also .22 longs, inclues the standard codes on the top and side labels. Apparently, this style of top label in .22 long had the index number of 16; the date code is 9-15. Once again, the shadowing from the illustrated bullet is absent from this top label. The solid red side label is still another variation from those on the .22 short boxes. . . . . . . . . . .
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and
did not readily attract grit and lint when carried in one's pocket. To my
knowledge, all of this style of 'Smokeless' boxes are labeled as rifle
cartridges. Such labeling was started by Winchester in the early 1890s, and
was intended to avoid taxes and regulations in some southern states on
pistol ammunition (both rim fire and centerfire). This practice continued
into the 1920s. 
also
in .22 short, includes the file number (15) and the date code (10-8) on it's
top label, indicating that this particular variation of the green Smokeless
Rifle Cartridges label was designed in October of 1908. While the date is
not intended to indicate when the cartridges were made, it does give a
general idea of about when they were made, within perhaps a year or two of
the label date. About the only difference I can see between the top label on
this box and the one above, aside from the addition of the label index
number and the date code, is the bolder shading on the illustrated bullet.
Note that the side label also has its own index number (107) and label
variation date code (11-8).
I've
included here and below pictures of the cartridges in this second box, both
sides of a colorful advertising insert that was found in the box, as
well as another insert lauding the superiority of their 'special alloyed and
Greaseless bullets'.
