Out With A Bang

The Washington Post ^ | January 20, 2006 | Stephen Hunter

[neverdem]

A famous ad that most boy baby boomers will recall from Boys' Life, the old scouting magazine of the '50s, showed a happy lad, carrot-topped and freckly like any number of Peck's Bad Boys, his teeth haphazardly arrayed within his wide, gleeful mouth under eyes wide as pie platters as he exclaimed on Christmas morn, "Gee, Dad . . . A Winchester!"

All gone, all gone, all gone. The gun as family totem, the implied trust between generations, the implicit idea that marksmanship followed by hunting were a way of life to be pursued through the decades, the sense of tradition, respect, self-discipline and bright confidence that Winchester and the American kinship group would march forward to a happy tomorrow -- gone if not with the wind, then with the tide of inner-city and nutcase killings that have led America's once-proud and heavily bourgeois gun culture into the wilderness of marginalization.

And now Winchester is gone too, or at least the most interesting parts of it. The traditional company whose symbol was a fringed rider flying across the plains on a pinto, gripping his trusty Model '73, is finally biting the dust. The entity -- now technically U.S. Repeating Arms, which produces the rifles and shotguns as a licensee of the Olin Corp., which still owns Winchester ammunition -- announced Monday it was closing the plant in New Haven where the rifles and shotguns have been fabricated for a century and a half. Some Winchesters will continue to be built overseas, but three guns -- the classic lever-action rifle of western fame, the bolt-action hunting rifle (called the Model 70) and the Model 1300 pump-action shotgun -- will no longer be manufactured.

That lever-gun -- the quintessential cowboy rifle, the mechanism that "won the West" and maybe helped lose it...

[Chode]

ping...

[ozzymandus]

Winchester's death was slow and painful. It started in 1964, when some brainy execs decided to make everything cheaper. Quality went in the dumper, and although Winchester tried hard to recover, and made some fine guns since then, things were never the same.

[neverdem]

Thanks for the pic of the engraved receiver!

[Beagle8U]

Thanks for the ping.

I hope you read my last comment in the other Winchester thread.

[Beagle8U]

Thanks for the ping.

I hope you read my last comment in the other Winchester thread.

[neverdem]

Cool post! If it only had pics of the different models, but I guess you can't have everything. What was the reason for the muskets, lower prices because they weren't rifled or shotshells?

[neverdem]

Thanks for the pics.

[Beagle8U]

"Yep! Henry Repeating Arms is still a going concern and based in, of all places, Brooklyn, New York! I just got a Henry Big Boy .44 for Christmas. Lever action repeater."

Another thing that Henry Repeating Arms does is offer Hunter Safety Instructors a option to buy 2 rifles a year at factory cost.

Few companies do that, but its good advertising for them if you use them in teaching the classes.

I've been an instructor for about 25 years in Mi.

[neverdem]

I hope you read my last comment in the other Winchester thread.

Do a good deed, and get a cool Christmas gift!

[Cobra64]

THE MODEL 55 In 1924 the Model 94 rifle was discontinued in favor of continued production of the 94 carbine. To fill the gap, Winchester introduced the Model 55 as a new improved rifle. The 55 was really a 94 rifle with most of the popular special features of the 94 as standard. Calibers .30-30 .25-35 .32 Winchester Special Total produced from 1924 to 1936 - 20,592. Twenty-four inch barrels, straight grip stocks, fluted combs, half magazine and shotgun butts were standard. Takedown features were standard until 1930 when solid frames became standard. You will find some of these guns with a barrel stamped Model 55 and a receiver with Model 94 markings. This was normal in the scheme of things for the 55.

I have a Model 55, serial number 1077549. Do you know the year of production?

[Travis McGee]

30-30 lever actions actually make a very nice "politically correct assault rifle." It can go places without comment that you couldn't take a "battle rifle" without hassles or worse, yet it can do a very nice job of defending your homestead or camping site. It takes a little practice, but it cas throw out a lot of lead in the AK-47 ballistics league.

[Travis McGee]

That's not a very diverse crowd there in that hunting cabin! I'll damn sure bet it's not on Brokeback Mountain either!

[Beagle8U]

"That's not a very diverse crowd there in that hunting cabin! I'll damn sure bet it's not on Brokeback Mountain either!"

AHA...The smell of old socks, crusty underwear, and deer liver and onions frying in bacon grease.

What more could you ask of deer camp memories?

[LonePalm]

Does anyone remember Chuck Conners as Lucas McCain in the opening of each episode of "The Rifleman" when he flips that Winchester around with one hand to load the next round in preparation for downing the next bad guy?

Very dramatic and you always knew the bad guy was going to lose.

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

[Beagle8U]

I'm not sure, but I think Jimmy Stewart may have sold more Winchesters than John Wayne and Chuck Connors.

[RadioAstronomer]

My best hunting rifle is a pre 1964 Winchester model 70 .300 Win-Mag with a low profile 3x9 widefield Redfield scope and I also own both a Winchester model 94 30-30 and a Winchester Model 12 12-Guage. Glad I have em!

[RadioAstronomer]

It started in 1964, when some brainy execs decided to make everything cheaper.

Why my model 70 is a pre-64.

[SLB]

I have my great grandfather's '94 in 38-55. Is there a web page with serial number to date of mfg cross reference?

[RWCon]

Somehow this fits in with queer cowboys.

[tall_tex]

Thanks for the post, got a model 94 pre 64 of my Dads hangiing on the wall, along with a model 03 Winchester Auto 22 Special, that belonged to my Grandfather.

I wouldn't take anything for either.