Winchester rifle
Winchester rifle is a comprehensive term describing a series of lever action repeating rifles manufactured by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. Developed from the 1860 Henry rifle, Winchester rifles were among the earliest repeaters. The Model 1873 was particularly successful, being marketed by the manufacturer as "The Gun That Won the West".
Predecessors
In 1848, Walter Hunt of New York patented his "Volition Repeating Rifle" incorporating a tubular magazine, which was operated by two levers and complex linkages. The Hunt rifle fired what he called the "Rocket Ball", an early form of caseless ammunition in which the powder charge was contained in the bullet's hollow base. Hunt's design was fragile and unworkable, but in 1849, Lewis Jennings purchased the Hunt patents and developed a functioning, if still complex rifle. This version was produced in small numbers by Robbins & Lawrence of Windsor, Vermont until 1852.[25]
Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson of Norwich, Connecticut, acquired the Jennings patent from Robbins & Lawrence, as well as shop foreman Benjamin Tyler Henry. Smith made several improvements to the Jennings design, and in 1855 Smith and Wesson together with several investors formed a corporation, the Volcanic Repeating Arms Company, to manufacture Smith's modification of the Hunt-Jennings, the Volcanic lever-action pistol and rifle. Its largest stockholder was Oliver Winchester.[25]
For the Volcanic rifle, Smith added a primer charge to Hunt's "Rocket Ball" and thus created one of the first fixed metallic cartridges which incorporated bullet, primer and powder in one self-contained unit. While still with the company, Smith went a step further and added a cylindrical copper case to hold the bullet and powder with the primer in the case rim, thus creating one of the most significant inventions in firearms history: the metallic rimfire cartridge.[fn 1] Smith's cartridge, the .22 Short, would be introduced commercially in 1857 with the landmark Smith & Wesson Model 1 revolver and is still manufactured today.
The
Benjamin Henry continued to work with Smith's cartridge concept and perfected the much larger, more powerful .44 Henry cartridge. Henry also supervised the redesign of the rifle to use the new ammunition, retaining only the general form of the breech mechanism and the tubular magazine. This became the Henry rifle of 1860, which was manufactured by the New Haven Arms Company, and used in considerable numbers by certain Union army units in the American Civil War. Confederates called the Henry "that damned Yankee rifle that they load on Sunday and shoot all week!"[26]
Development
After the war,
From 1883,
Winchester lever-action repeating rifles
Model 1866
The first Winchester rifle – the Winchester Model 1866 – was originally chambered for the
France purchased 6,000 Model 1866 rifles along with 4.5 million .44 Henry cartridges during the
The
Due to public demand, the Model 1866 continued to be manufactured and sold until 1899, mainly because they were less expensive than the later steel-framed centerfire models.
Model 1873
The Model 1873 was one of the most successful Winchester rifles of its day, with Winchester marketing it as "The Gun That Won the West". Still an icon in the modern day, it was manufactured between 1873 and 1923. It was originally chambered for the
The original Model 1873 was never offered in the military revolver .45 Colt cartridge, but a number of modern reproductions are chambered for the round.
To both celebrate and enhance the Model 1873's prestige, Winchester established a coveted "One of One Thousand" grade in 1875. Barrels producing unusually small groupings during test-firing were fitted to rifles with set triggers and a special finish. Marked "One of One Thousand", they sold for a then pricey $100 (equivalent to $2,800 in 2023).
A second grade of Model 1873 barrels producing above average accuracy were fitted to rifles marked "One of One Hundred", and sold for $20 over list. Approximately 136 "One of One Thousand" Model 1873s were sold, and only eight "One of One Hundreds".[29]
In all, over 720,000 Model 1873s were produced up until 1923. With a return to popularity due to present-day
In 2014, a weathered Model 1873 was found leaning against a tree in Great Basin National Park. It became known as the Forgotten Winchester and sparked media interest because of the mystery about who left it there and why they never came back for it.[31]
Model 1876
The Winchester Model 1876, or Centennial Model, was a heavier-framed rifle than the Models 1866 and 1873, chambered for full-powered centerfire rifle cartridges suitable for big-game hunting, rather than the handgun-sized rimfire and centerfire rounds of its predecessors.[32] While similar in design to the 1873, the 1876 was actually based on a prototype 1868 lever-action rifle that was never commercially produced by Winchester.[33]
Introduced to celebrate the American
Originally chambered for the new .45-75 Winchester Centennial cartridge (designed to replicate the .45-70 ballistics in a shorter case), the Model 1876 also had versions in .40-60 Winchester, .45-60 Winchester and .50-95 Express; the '76 in the latter chambering is the only repeater known to have been in widespread use by professional buffalo hunters.[34] The Canadian North-West Mounted Police used the '76 in .45-75 as a standard long arm for many years with 750 rifles purchased for the force in 1883;[35] the Mountie-model '76 carbine was also issued to the Texas Rangers. Theodore Roosevelt used an engraved, pistol-gripped half-magazine '76 during his early hunting expeditions in the West and praised it. A '76 was also found in the possession of Apache warrior Geronimo after his surrender in 1886.[36]
The Model 1876 toggle-link action receiver was too short to handle popular big-game cartridges, including the .45-70, and production ceased in 1897, as big-game hunters preferred the Model 1886 action chambered for longer and more powerful cartridges.[32]
Model 1886
The Model 1886 continued the trend towards chambering heavier rounds and had an all-new and considerably stronger locking-block action than the toggle-link Model 1876. It was designed by
Model 1892
In order to compete with newer Marlin offerings, Winchester returned to its roots with the Model 1892, which was chambered for the same low-pressure cartridges as the Model 1873. The Model 1892 incorporates a much-stronger Browning action that was a scaled-down version of the Model 1886. It was also a much lighter rifle than the 1873 model, with which it was sold concurrently for over twenty years, for the same price.
A total of 1,004,675 Model 1892 rifles were made by Winchester, and it was exported internationally, becoming very popular in South America and Australasia. Although Winchester stopped manufacture in 1941, today versions are still being made by the Brazilian arms maker Amadeo Rossi, and by Chiappa Firearms, an Italian maker. In its modern form, using updated materials and production techniques, the Model 1892's action is strong enough to chamber high-pressure handgun rounds, such as .357 Magnum, .44 Magnum, and .454 Casull. The Winchester '92 was often used in Hollywood Western movies and TV shows out of its correct period, achieving some fame as a 'cowboy' lever action, although it was historically too late for that.[39]
Model 1894
The
Model 1895
The Winchester Model 1895 has the distinction of being the first Winchester lever-action rifle to load from an
Model 88
Winchester Model 88 | |
---|---|
Place of origin | box magazine[41] |
Introduced in 1955, 60 years after Winchester's last all-new lever-action design, the Model 88 was unlike any previous lever-action. A short-throw lever operated a three-lug
Model 9422
Winchester's Model 9422 was introduced in 1972. It was designed to capture the image of the traditional lever-actions with exposed hammer, straight grip, tube magazine and barrel bands. Unlike older Winchester lever actions it came grooved for
The 9422 action design was original and extremely reliable. The feed system handled the cartridge from the magazine to the breech face by its rim, and the slide cammed the rear of the breechblock up into the locking recess. A concealed polymer buffer above the breech gave a firm-feeling lockup and a very positive unlocking motion.
The 9422 had worldwide appeal to customers raised on
New production
In 2013, Winchester brought back the Model 1873, manufactured under license from the
See also
- Antique guns
- Evans Repeating Rifle
- List of rifle cartridges
- List of Winchester models
- Pistola Herval
- Mare's Leg
- Winchester Repeating Arms Company
Footnotes
- pinfirecartridge.
References
Citations
- ^ "Jornada de Historia Militar en Antofagasta. Guerra del Pacifico". 30 August 2019.
- ^ "ArmasBrasil - Clavina Winchester".
- ^ "Military rifle cartridges of Haiti".
- ^ "The military rifle cartridges of the Dominican Republic: from .50-70 to 5.56mm".
- ^ "The military rifle cartridges of Honduras from Cortez to zelaya".
- ^ "The military rifle cartridges of Guatemala".
- ^ "The military Rifle Cartridges of El Salvador: from conquistadors to Civil War".
- ^ "The military rifle cartridges of Costa Rica: arms of Latin America's most "peaceful" country".
- ^ "Siamese Thai: Military Rifle cartridges. - Free Online Library". www.thefreelibrary.com. Retrieved 2022-12-26.
- ^ Kea, R. A. “Firearms and Warfare on the Gold and Slave Coasts from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Centuries.” The Journal of African History, vol. 12, no. 2, 1971, pp. 185–213. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/180879. Accessed 5 Sep. 2022
- ^ "Winchester Lever-Actions Go To War".
- ^ Cahen, Cl.; Cour, A.; Kedourie, E. (2012). "D̲j̲ays̲h̲". In Bearman, P.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C.E.; van Donzel, E.; Heinrichs, W.P. (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Brill.
- ^ "The rifles of the Franco-Prussian War 1870-1871".
- ISBN 9780282270940.
- ^ Esposito, Gabriele (2016). Armies of the War of the Pacific 1879–83. Oxford. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ "Competing Voices from the Mexican Revolution".
- ^ McLachlan, Sean (20 September 2011). Armies of the Adowa Campaign 1896: The Italian Disaster in Ethiopia. Men-at-Arms 471. Osprey Publishing.p 37. ISBN 9781849084574.
- ^ Villela Jr, M E C. Canudos: memórias de um combatente. 2 ed. Rio de Janeiro: Eduerj, 1997. p. 107.
- ^ "Museo Histórico de Cobija conserva los fusiles Winchester usados en la Guerra del Acre". 11 October 2013.
- OCLC 842879929.
- ^ "O Exército Republicano" (PDF).
- ^ Douglas de Souza Aguiar Junior (25 June 2017). "O Museu de Polícia Militar de São Paulo". Armas On-Line (in Brazilian Portuguese).
- ISBN 9780156421171.
- ^ "A Guerrilha do Araguaia: Memória, esquecimento e Ensino de História na região do conflito" (PDF).
- ^ a b c Taylor, Jim. "A Short History of the Levergun". Paco Kelly's Leverguns.
- ^ "1860 Henry". Fort Smith National Historic Site. National Park Service. April 10, 2015. Retrieved April 17, 2016.
- ^ Trenk, Richard (August 1997). "The Plevna Delay: Winchesters and Peabody-Martinis in the Russo-Turkish War". Man At Arms. Vol. 19, no. 4. Mowbray Publishing. Archived from the original on November 13, 2015. Retrieved April 17, 2016 – via Militaryrifles.com.
- ^ 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.
- ^ a b c Lewis, Edmund (October 2005). "One of One Hundred". American Rifleman. National Rifle Association of America. pp. 96, 129 & 134.
- ^ Schreier, Philip (November 2013). "'Guaranteed by Us': Winchester's 'New' Model 1873". American Rifleman. Vol. 161, no. 11. National Rifle Association of America. p. 64. Retrieved October 23, 2013.
- ^ French, Brett (July 7, 2015). "Mysterious rifle arrives at Cody Firearms Museum for TLC". The Billings Gazette. Retrieved 2017-10-08.
- ^ a b c Hacker, Rick (November 2014). "Winchester Model 1876". American Rifleman. Vol. 162. National Rifle Association of America. p. 120.
- ^ Durston, Kirk. "The Winchester Model 1876" (PDF). Paco Kelly's Leverguns. Retrieved April 17, 2016.
- ^ "The Winchester Model 1876 Rifle". Bar-w.com. Archived from the original on October 13, 2002. Retrieved December 26, 2008.
- ISBN 978-0-89689-241-5.
- ISBN 978-0-76274-508-1.
- ^ Barnes, Frank C. ".577/500 Magnum Nitro Express". In Amber, John T. (ed.). Cartridges of the World. p. 116.
As well as the related .50-100 and .50-105.
- ^ "Winchester's Big 50". American Rifleman. National Rifle Association of America. Archived from the original on October 5, 2011.
- ^ Rackley, Paul. "The Coolest Movie Guns: John Wayne's Winchester 1892 from 'True Grit'". American Rifleman. National Rifle Association of America. Archived from the original on April 26, 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-91015-603-5.
- ^ OCLC 67543348.
- ^ Anderson, Dave (September 1, 2005). "Gone but not forgotten: Winchester's 9422 lever action". Guns.
- ^ Schreier, Philip (November 2013). "'Guaranteed by Us': Winchester's 'New' Model 1873". American Rifleman. Vol. 161, no. 11. National Rifle Association of America. p. 64. Retrieved October 23, 2013.
Bibliography
- Apuzzo, Matt (January 17, 2006). "End of an era as Winchester rifle plant prepares to close". North County Times. Escondido, California. Associated Press. Archived from the original on July 17, 2009.
- "End of an era as Winchester rifle plant prepares to close". Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Associated Peess. January 18, 2006. Archived from the original on September 1, 2009.
- Campbell, John (1998). The Winchester Single Shot. Lincoln, Rhode Island: Andrew Mowbray Inc. ISBN 0-917218-68-X.
- Hunter, Stephen (January 21, 2006). "Out With a Bang: The Loss of the Classic Winchester Is Loaded With Symbolism". The Washington Post.
- Kelver, Gerald O. (1998) [1951]. Major Ned H. Roberts and the Schuetzen Rifle (Revised ed.). Brighton, Colorado: Pioneer Press.
- McLerran, Wayne (2014). Browning Model 1885 Black Powder Cartridge Rifle: A Reference Manual for the Shooter, Collector & Gunsmith (3rd ed.). TexasMac Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9893702-5-7.
- "Model 1873 Sporter Octagon Color Case Hardened". www.winchesterguns.com. Retrieved 2019-05-14.
External links
- Official website
- The Winchester Arms Collectors Association, Inc. (WACA) is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the preservation of all Winchester produced and related items
- Largest Collection of Winchester Manuals
- Pump-action shotgun: internal workings are quite similar to the Winchester-shotgun
- A video narration of lever guns from the Henry to the 1895 Winchester
- Winchester 1886 World Record Rifle
- How to Identify a Winchester 1866