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The Winchester Repeating Arms Company was a prominent American maker of repeating firearms during the late 19th Century and the early 20th Century. A semi-automatic firearm requires a trigger pull for each round that is fired. ...
A firearm is a kinetic energy weapon that fires either a single or multiple projectiles propelled at high velocity by the gases produced by action of the rapid confined burning of a propellant. ...
Early history
Predecessors The ancestor of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company was the Volcanic Repeating Arms Company, which manufactured the Volcanic lever action rifle of Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson. It was later reorganized into the New Haven Arms Company, its largest stockholder being Oliver Winchester. The Volcanic rifle used a form of "caseless" ammunition and had only limited success. Wesson had also designed an early form of rimfire cartridge which was subsequently perfected by Benjamin Tyler Henry. 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 was used in considerable numbers by certain Union army units in the civil war. Horace Smith (born Cheshire, Massachusetts, 1808 - died 1893) partnered with Daniel B. Wesson in Norwich, Connecticut in the early 1850s to develop the first repeating rifle, the Volcanic rifle. ...
Daniel B. Wesson (born Worcester, Massachusetts, May 18, 1825 - died August 4, 1906) partnered with Horace Smith in Norwich, Connecticut in the early 1850s to develop the first repeating rifle, the Winchester rifle. ...
Oliver Fisher Winchester (November 30, 1810 - December 11, 1880) was a famous American businessman and politician. ...
The Volcanic lever action rifle was a precursor to the Henry and Winchester line of repeating rifles, and was designed by Horace Smith and Daniel B. Wesson Smith & Wesson. ...
A rimfire is a type of firearm cartridge. ...
Benjamin Tyler Henry (1821–1898) was an American gunsmith and manufacturer. ...
The Henry repeating rifle was an American . ...
The "Winchester" Rifle -
 A Winchester Rifle, circa 1894 After the war Oliver Winchester continued to exercise control of the company, renaming it the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, and had the basic design of the Henry rifle completely modified and improved to become the first Winchester rifle, the Model 1866, which fired the same .44 caliber rimfire cartridges as the Henry but had an improved magazine (with the addition of a loading gate on the right side of the receiver, invented by Winchester employee Nelson King) and, for the first time, a wooden forearm. The Henry and the 1866 Winchester shared a unique double firing pin which struck the head of the rimfire cartridge in two places when the weapon was fired, increasing the chances that the fulminate in the hollow rim would ignite the 28 or so grains of black powder inside the case. Winchester Model 1894 The Winchester rifle has become synonymous with the word repeating rifle (multishot rifle) which was manufactured by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company and was commonly used in the United States during the latter half of the 19th century. ...
Image File history File links Winchester_rifle_grko474_rifle. ...
Image File history File links Winchester_rifle_grko474_rifle. ...
Oliver Fisher Winchester (November 30, 1810 - December 11, 1880) was a famous American businessman and politician. ...
The Henry repeating rifle was an American . ...
Another extremely popular model was rolled out in 1873. The Model 1873 introduced the first Winchester center fire cartridge, the .44-40 WCF (Winchester Central Fire). These rifle families are commonly known as the "Gun That Won the West".
The Model 1873 was followed by the Model 1876 (or "Centennial Model"), a larger version of the '73, which utilzed the same toggle-link action and brass cartridge elevator dating from the Henry. It was chambered for longer, more powerful cartidges such as .45-60 WCF, .45-75 WCF, and .50-95 WCF. The action was not strong enough to allow Winchester to achieve their goal of producing a repeating rifle capable of handling the .45-70 Government cartridge; this would not happen until they began manufacture of the Browning-designed Model 1886.
From 1883, John Browning worked in partnership with the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, and designed a series of repeating rifles and shotguns, most notably the Winchester Model 1885 Single Shot, Winchester Model 1887 lever action shotguns , Model 1897, and Model 1912 shotguns; and the lever-action Model 1886, Model 1892, Model 1894 and Model 1895 (with a box magazine) rifles. Of these, none is still in production today, though other companies such as Browning, Rossi, Navy Arms and others have revived several of the discontinued models. John Moses Browning (January 21, 1855 – November 26, 1926), born in Ogden, Utah, was an American firearms designer who developed myriad varieties of weapons, cartridges, and gun mechanics, many of which are used in the U.S. military and elsewhere to this day. ...
The Winchester Model 1887 and Winchester Model 1901 are a series of lever-action shotguns that were produced by Winchester Repeating Arms during the late 19th century and the early 20th century. ...
Winchester Model 1897 The Winchester Model 1897 is a pump-action shotgun with an external hammer and tube magazine. ...
Winchester Model 1912 12-gauge hammerless pump-action shotgun manufactured in 1948 The Winchester Model 1912 (also commonly known as the Model 12, or M12) is a hammerless slide-action, i. ...
A Winchester Rifle, Model of 1894 Winchester Model 1894 (also known as Winchester . ...
20th Century Developments
The Turn of the Century The early years of the twentieth century found the Winchester Repeating Arms Company competing with new John Browning designs, manufactured under license by other firearm companies. The race to produce the first commercial self-loading rifle brought forth the .22 rimfire Winchester Model 1903 and later centerfire Model 1905, Model 1907, and Model 1910 rifles. Winchester engineers, after ten years of work, designed the Model 1911 to circumvent Browning's self-loading shotgun patents, prepared by the company's very own patent lawyers. One of Winchester's premier engineers, T.C. Johnson, was instrumental in the development of these self-loading firearms and indeed went on to assist with the design of the Winchester Model 1912 and Model 54. John Moses Browning (January 21, 1855 – November 26, 1926), born in Ogden, Utah, was an American firearms designer who developed myriad varieties of weapons, cartridges, and gun mechanics, many of which are used in the U.S. military and elsewhere to this day. ...
Walther P99, a semiautomatic pistol from the late 1990s A semi-automatic firearm is a gun that requires only a trigger pull for each round that is fired, unlike a single-action revolver, a pump-action firearm, a bolt-action firearm, or a lever-action firearm, which require the shooter...
Winchester Model 1912 12-gauge hammerless pump-action shotgun manufactured in 1948 The Winchester Model 1912 (also commonly known as the Model 12, or M12) is a hammerless slide-action, i. ...
The World Wars
 Winchester model 1200 shotgun, introduced in 1964 as a modernization of the previous Model 12 The company later bought and manufactured several of John Browning's highly superior rifle and shotgun designs and was a major producer of M1917 Enfield military rifles during World War I. Working at the Winchester plant during that war, Browning developed the final design of the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR), of which it produced some 27,000. Browning and the Winchester engineers also developed the Browning .50 BMG caliber (12.7 x 99 mm) machine gun during the war. The caliber .50 (12.7 x 99 mm) ammunition for it was designed by the Winchester ballistic engineers. Image File history File links Winchester_model_1200. ...
Image File history File links Winchester_model_1200. ...
John Moses Browning (January 21, 1855 – November 26, 1926), born in Ogden, Utah, was an American firearms designer who developed myriad varieties of weapons, cartridges, and gun mechanics, many of which are used in the U.S. military and elsewhere to this day. ...
The M1917 Enfield, P17 Enfield, American Enfield, formally named United States Rifle, cal . ...
Combatants Allied Powers: Russian Empire France British Empire Italy United States Central Powers: Austria-Hungary German Empire Ottoman Empire Bulgaria Commanders Nikolay II Aleksey Brusilov Georges Clemenceau Joseph Joffre Ferdinand Foch Robert Nivelle Herbert H. Asquith D. Lloyd George Sir Douglas Haig Sir John Jellicoe Victor Emmanuel III Luigi Cadorna...
The Browning Automatic Rifle (commonly known as the BAR; properly pronounced bee ay are) is a family of automatic rifles (or machine rifles) and light machine guns used by the United States and other countries during the 20th century. ...
A . ...
The commercial rights to these new Browning guns were owned by Colt. The U.S. M1 carbine (although not a carbine in the truest sense) was designed by Winchester engineers Clifford Warner and Ralph Clarkson (contrary to a widely published myth, not by convict D.M. "Carbine" Williams) and was then manufactured in large numbers by Winchester and other firms. During World War II, Winchester was the sole civilian producer of the M1 rifle and later was the first civilian manufacturer of the M14 rifle. In 1963 the Winchester firm was purchased by the Olin-Matheson Chemical Corporation and continued its production of civilian rifles and shotguns. Colts Manufacturing Company (CMC) is a United States firearms manufacturer founded in 1847. ...
The M1 Carbine (formally the United States Carbine, Caliber . ...
Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki TÅjÅ Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000...
The M14 rifle (more formally the United States Rifle, Caliber 7. ...
The Cold War and Beyond In the mid 1950's S. K. Janson formed a new Winchester design group to advance the use of modern engineering design methods and manufacturing principles in gun design. The result was a new line of guns which replaced most of the older products. Olin later sold off Winchester's firearms manufacturing business in 1981, retaining only the Winchester branded ammunition business. Olin still owns the rights to the Winchester trademarks and manufactures Winchester brand ammunition. From 1981 until 2006, Winchester guns were made by the U.S. Repeating Arms Company. The U.S. Repeating Arms Co. was initially an employee buyout of Winchester's arms making division. When it went bankrupt it was acquired a French holding company, then sold to an arms making cartel sponsored by the Belgian province of Herstal, which also owns famous gun maker Fabrique National (FN) The U.S. Repeating Arms Company. ...
Belgium is a federal state and is composed of three communities, three regions, and four linguistic regions. ...
Herstal is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Liège. ...
The End of an Era On January 16, 2006 U.S. Repeating Arms announced it was closing the New Haven, Connecticut plant where Winchester rifles and shotguns were produced for 140 years.[1] Along with the closing of the plant, the Model 94 rifle (the descendant of the original Winchester rifle), Model 70 rifle and Model 1300 shotgun would be discontinued. The U.S. Repeating Arms Company. ...
Nickname: The Elm City Location in Connecticut Coordinates: NECTA New Haven Region South Central Region Settled 1638 Incorporated (city) 1784 Consolidated 1895 Government Type Mayor-board of aldermen - Mayor John DeStefano, Jr. ...
Winchester Model 1894 The Winchester rifle has become synonymous with the word repeating rifle (multishot rifle) which was manufactured by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company and was commonly used in the United States during the latter half of the 19th century. ...
A New Era On August 15, 2006, Olin Corporation, owner of the Winchester trademarks, announced that it had entered into a new license agreement with Browning to make Winchester brand rifles and shotguns, though not at the closed Winchester plant in New Haven. Browning, based in Morgan, Utah, and the former licensee, U.S. Repeating Arms Company, are both subsidiaries of FN Herstal. The Olin Corporation (NYSE: OLN) is a major manufacturer of copper alloys (through subsidiary Olin Brass), ammunition (through the Winchester Ammunition), and chlorine and sodium hydroxide (Olin Chlor-Alkali Products). ...
Morgan is a city located in Morgan County, Utah. ...
Fabrique Nationale de Herstal, more often known as Fabrique Nationale and abbreviated simply as FN or FN Herstal originated in the Belgian city of Herstal, near Liège. ...
Presidents - Oliver Winchester (1857-1880)
- William Wirt Winchester (1880-1881), son of Oliver Winchester.
- William Converse (1881-1890), husband of Mary A. Pardee.
- Thomas Gray Bennett (1890-1910), husband of Hannah Jane Winchester.
- George E. Hodson (1910-1915). He was a partner in the company with Oliver.
- Winchester Bennett (1915-1918), son of Thomas Gray Bennett.
- Thomas Gray Bennett (1918-1919)
Oliver Fisher Winchester (November 30, 1810 - December 11, 1880) was a famous American businessman and politician. ...
William Wirt Winchester (1837 – March 7, 1881) was the second president of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company from 1880 to 1881. ...
See also The Winchester Model 21 is a Double-barreled shotgun that was produced from 1931 to 1959. ...
7mm magnum Winchester Model 70, with a muzzle brake. ...
Benjamin Tyler Henry (1821–1898) was an American gunsmith and manufacturer. ...
John Moses Browning (January 21, 1855 – November 26, 1926), born in Ogden, Utah, was an American firearms designer who developed myriad varieties of weapons, cartridges, and gun mechanics, many of which are used in the U.S. military and elsewhere to this day. ...
The Winchester Model 1887 and Winchester Model 1901 are a series of lever-action shotguns that were produced by Winchester Repeating Arms during the late 19th century and the early 20th century. ...
A Winchester Rifle, Model of 1894 Winchester Model 1894 (also known as Winchester 30-30 rifle) is one of the most famous and most popular hunting rifles. ...
Winchester Model 1897 The Winchester Model 1897 is a pump-action shotgun with an external hammer and tube magazine. ...
Winchester Model 1912 12-gauge hammerless pump-action shotgun manufactured in 1948 The Winchester Model 1912 (also commonly known as the Model 12, or M12) is a hammerless slide-action, i. ...
Winchester model 1200 shotgun, introduced in 1964 as a modernization of the previous Model 12 The Winchester Model 1200 is a manually operated, repeating shotgun with a slide action (pump gun). ...
Winchester 73 is an American western movie from 1950. ...
Antique guns are collected by enthusiasts on several continents. ...
References - ↑ Out With A Bang: The Loss of the Classic Winchester Is Loaded With Symbolism, Washington Post, January 21, 2006
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