Posted on 11/30/2019 1:55:10 AM PST by ammodotcom
Today marks an important day in 2nd Amendment history. It is the birthday of Oliver Winchester – founder of one of the most widely recognized names in the world of firearms.
Oliver Winchester was born in Boston, on November 30, 1810. He started his career with a clothing company based out of New York City and New Haven, Connecticut. After successfully running this aspect of his business, Winchester began to look for new opportunities. Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson (yes, that “Smith & Wesson” who later formed the Smith & Wesson Revolver Company) acquired and improved a rifle design with the help of shop foreman, Benjamin Tyler Henry. Talk about a genius cluster! In 1855, they began to manufacture what would be known as the “Volcanic” lever-action rifle. The company would become incorporated as the Volcanic Repeating Arms Company; its largest stockholder was Oliver Winchester.
After limited success with this new rifle, Winchester seized the opportunity to take control over the failing company and renamed it the New Haven Arms Company. Although initial returns were slow, Benjamin Henry, the company’s leading engineer, improved the Volcanic repeating rifle’s design by enlarging the frame and magazine to accommodate the all-new brass cased .44 caliber cartridge. This ingenuity put the company on the map, and in 1860, the patent for the infamous Henry rifle was issued. The next six years of production produced over 12,000 Henry, many of which were used in the Civil War. In the following months, Benjamin Henry, angered over what he believed was inadequate compensation, filed a lawsuit for ownership of the company. Oliver Winchester hastenly reorganized the company as the Winchester Repeating Arms Company to circumvent this issue.
The Model 1866 soon rolled out as the first Winchester rifle. Based on the Henry rifle, it came with an improved magazine and a wooden forend. In the following years, larger caliber rifles such as the infamous Model 1873, “The Gun That Won The West”, brought more notoriety and foundation to the company. Although Mr. Winchester would miss the opportunity to see his company’s greatest achievements; he passed away in December of 1880.
Winchester Repeating Arms Company’s collaboration with John Browning brought about much success with a host of shotguns, including the still produced Model 1885. The turn of the 20th century hosted a series of new arms developments, many from the top engineer at the time, T.C. Johnson. But it was the start of the First World War that set development and production requirements into full force. The company became a major producer of the .30-06 M1917 Enfield rifle for the United States military, and worked once more with Browning to develop the .50 caliber BMG.
During the war, the company borrowed heavily to finance the expansion. In an attempt to pay down its debt following the war’s end, they used their surplus production capacity to manufacture consumer goods such as kitchen knives, roller skates, and refrigerators. The strategy was a failure, and the Great Depression sent the company into bankruptcy. John M. Olin’s Western Cartridge Company purchased the Winchester Repeating Arms Company at auction in 1931, with plans to restore the brand to its former glory. The Second World War helped this cause tremendously as Winchester produced the U.S. M1 Carbine and the M1 Garand rifle during this time period.
Over the following decades, the Olin Winchester-Western division struggled with rising labor costs and other companies’ cast-and-stamped production methods. By 1980, Olin decided to sell the company back to its employees, which re-incorporated as the U.S. Repeating Arms Company. Olin retained the Winchester ammunition business. U.S. Repeating Arms went bankrupt in 1989, and after a number of sellouts to forgien holdings companies, the New Haven plant closed its doors on January 16, 2006, after 140 years of producing rifles and shotguns.
In August of 2006, Olin Corporation, owner of Winchester trademarks, entered a new license deal with Browning to make Winchester brand rifles and shotguns once again. The Model 1885, Model 1892, and Model 1886 are all produced by Miroku Corporation of Japan, then imported to the U.S. by Browning. Currently, Fabrique Nationale d’Herstal (FN) makes the remainder of Winchester’s rifle and shotgun lineup in various locations around Europe.
Winchester-branded ammunition continues to be produced by the Olin Corporation. Some of the most successful cartridges ever invented have been under the Winchester name: the .44-40 WCF, the .30-30 WCF, the .32 Winchester Special, the .50 BMG, the .270 Winchester, the .308 Winchester (the commercial version of the 7.62x51mm NATO), the .243 Winchester, the .22 WMR (aka the .22 Magnum), and the .300 Winchester Magnum. In North America, the .30-30 and .308 Winchester are some of the best selling cartridges in firearm history.
Through its history, the Winchester name has experienced great successes and significant failures; but it’s truly an important story to know in the realm of firearms. Here’s to the man that started it all, happy birthday to Mr. Oliver Winchester.
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The model 94 was the cream of the crop. I am fortunate to have my Great Grandfather’s that he bought new.
Bump
I have 2 other 94s in my stable. One is an old 94-22. Great little plinker
My Grandma also took quite a few deer with Granddad’s before it came to Dad and then myself. Still fairly tight and a great firearm, also in 30-30. :)
No mention in this article about his bat$#it crazy wife - the one who built the Winchester house in San Jose.
Circa 2000 I purchased a Winchester Model 70 Featherweight in 30.06. Fancy model.
A beautiful piece.
Shoots .72in at 100yds out of the box with a perfect trigger.
It’s the finest rifle I have ever owned, whomever made it.
There are roughly 161 rooms, including 40 bedrooms, 2 ballrooms (one completed and one
unfinished) as well as 47 fireplaces, over 10,000 panes of glass, 17 chimneys (with evidence
of two others), two basements and three elevators. Winchester's property was about 162 acres
(66 ha) at one time,
Some years back, I got a smoking deal on a 94 Winchester rifle (not the carbine) with an octagonal barrel in 38-55. When the wife found out I had spent the vacation money, you know what hit the fan. Had to sell it.
Since then, I have reached puberty and, if necessary, say “yes dear” and do whatever I want.
I’ve taken the tour a couple of times. It’s a lovely property, worth tens of million$ by now, I’m sure.
“...the all-new brass cased .44 caliber cartridge...” [original article, second paragraph]
Not sure who writes these pieces, but ammodotcom fact-checkers ought to complete their education before being turned loose on text.
Rimfire cartridges hit the US commercial market in 1857. The first offered was 22 Short; cartridge material was copper, not brass. Early manufacturing was plagued with metallurgy problems; the biggest hurdle was producing a cartridge case tough enough to handle the pressure, while staying soft enough to be pinched by the blow of the firing pin, igniting the priming compound.
Brass as a case material remained problematic until the late 1870s, when British inventors perfected the heat-treatment and deep-draw techniques required to make high-pressure centerfire cases possible.
Rimfire rounds had copper cases for some years beyond that.
What the story leaves out — and what the modern incarnation of Henry Repeating Arms Company would rather you didn’t know — is that BT Henry was a sleazeball. He waited until Oliver Winchester was in Europe to file his petition, thinking he could get the deal struck before Winchester could be warned what he was up to and get back to America.
But he wasn’t as shrewd as he believed. He failed.
“...collaboration with John Browning brought about much success with a host of shotguns, including the still produced Model 1885...” [original article, fourth paragraph]
More technical/nomenclature errors.
The M1885 was the first arm Winchester produced to any design by John M Browning, but it was a rifle. It’s an interpretation to describe four models - M1887, M1893, M1897, M1901 - as a “host of shotguns,” but those were the only smoothbore models JMB sold to Winchester, of only two basic designs at that. Perhaps the author was thinking in terms of production totals and longevity: the M1897 was produced into the 1950s, with over 1,000,000 made. Many are still in daily use.
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