I haven't been able to find when American ammunition companies first began providing shotgun shells loaded with smokeless powders. From what I've read, the first smokeless shotgun powder to be introduced was the Wood powder in 1876. Capt. A.W. Money and his family came to the U.S. in 1890 and set up the American E.C. and Schultze Powder Company. According to Stadt, Winchester was providing smokeless powder shotshells to select shooters in 1893 and began offering them to the public in 1894. My collection of old Chas. J. Godfrey, No. 11 Warren Street, NYC, catalogues agree with this in that the first I have, August 1893 only lists UMC smokeless powder shotshells, but the August 1894 has both Winchester and UMC smokeless powder shotshells. These catalogues from the mid- to late 1890s show 3 1/4 drams and 1 1/4 ounce of shot as the heaviest 12-gauge factory-loaded smokeless shells. By 1903, UMC is offering the 3 1/2 dram bulk, or 28 grains Ballistite dense smokeless powder and 1 1/4 ounce loads. Those loads remain in the ammunition company's offerings into at least the early 1930s.
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