Firearm Factory of the Month: Winchester

 Today we look at the history and current status of one of the most storied gun factories in the World: Winchester. I call it Winchester, but the company that ran the factory in New Haven only went by that name officially for part of its history.

We begin our story with Horace Smith & Daniel B. Wesson, yes those two men who started the famous revolver company Smith & Wesson.

The year was 1852, the place was Norwich Connecticut, the two men who had both apprenticed as gunsmiths decided to start a company and build firearms. They formed the Smith & Wesson Company to develop a lever action pistol and self-contained "rocket ball ammo" that had been worked on previously by other gunsmiths.

In 1855 they changed the name to "Volcanic Repeating Arms Company", they also found a new investor, a shirt maker by the name of Oliver Winchester. 

In 1856 after both Smith & Wesson had left the company, Winchester forced the company into receivership, took over and moved operations to New Haven, where he built a new factory to develop the lever action repeater. He named the new company: New Haven Arms Company.

The factory was just blocks from the storied campus of Yale University, which was founded more than 150 years prior to Winchester breaking ground on Union Street in Wooster Square.

The picture below is from the Wooster Square factory in 1859.

In 1866, the operation moved to Bridgeport, before buying the huge lot in New Haven and building the iconic Winchester plant in 1870 on the corner of Munson and Lock Street (later renamed Winchester Ave.). The map below is from 1870 when the factory was still new.

Like nearly all factories built before electricity, the buildings were long and narrow with lots of windows in which to harvest the daylight.

Power came from steam engines which powered machinery through a series of leather belts and shafts.

In 1860 Winchester introduced their signature product, the modern lever action rifle, dubbed the "Henry Rifle", it fired a self-contained 44 caliber metallic cartridge. Used throughout the Civil War, the rebels called it "that Yankee rifle that you load on Sunday and shoot all week".

In 1866 Benjamin Tyler Henry, the designer of the 1860 Henry Rifle attempted to gain a share of the company. To prevent a take-over Winchester reorganized the company and changed the name to Winchester Repeating Arms Company.

That same year they introduced an improved version of the Henry, known as the model of 1866.

With the success of the company, the factory kept expanding, eventually covering more than 80 acres of ground.

In 1873 Winchester introduced another new rifle, this one was dubbed the "gun that won the west". Popular with lawmen, outlaws and sportsmen, it became the standard to which all other rifles were judged.

In December of 1880 Oliver Winchester passed away, Oliver's son William took over the company, but he died the following March. All the while the town of New Haven grew up around the factory.

A series of CEOs ran the company for the years that followed.

In 1892 Winchester introduced a new lever action rifle, designed by John Moses Browning.

Followed in 1894 by an improved and slightly larger version, this is the gun that would become the most popular deer hunting rifle in North America.

Winchester provided weapons to the government during the Spanish-American War and the Great War. 

In 1912 Winchester introduced a new pump shotgun, the model of 1912. Later this gun would evolve into the model 1200 with an aluminum receiver.

During WWI more than 20,000 people worked at the factory.

In the picture below there is a poster promoting Women's suffrage, the right to vote was finally granted in the 9th Amendment ratified in 1920.

The Great Depression hit Winchester hard, the company was in bad shape and in 1931 it was purchased by the Western Cartridge Division of Olin Corporation. The company's name was changed to Winchester-Western.

In 1936 Winchester introduced a bolt action rifle based on the Mauser action, the gun that would be nick-named "The Rifleman's Rifle". Dubbed the model 70 it was an instant hit.

Then came WWII, Winchester was given a contract to make M-1 Garand rifles, the only private contractor to do so during the war.

After the war the company saw great growth but also increased costs.

In 1964 the company decided to redesign their classic rifles and shotguns to reduce costs. Making the pre-64 models worth more money.

In 1980 a labor dispute and employee walk out result in Olin Corp divesting the gun manufacturing at Winchester. The employees (along with other investors) purchased the rights to the company and it was renamed once more to U.S. Repeating Arms Company. This was the beginning of the end. By now only a few hundred people were building guns there, occupying a fraction of the factory.

When US Repeating Arms failed, Browning a division of FN Herstal, purchased the company and on March 13, 2006 the New Haven factory was closed for good.

The factory sat empty for a number of years

This is a favorite picture of mine, these are the bluing tanks in which thousands of Winchester guns were blued. I own several guns that were blued in these tanks.

Shotgun magazine rings, still on their posts waiting to be installed on guns that will never arrive

even with the lights off, you can see how the building was designed to make the most of the daylight.

What Remains:

Winchester rifles are still being produced, just not by the people and company we knew as Winchester and not in New Haven. That shouldn't worry the collector as millions of New Haven built rifles are on the used market and available at nearly any gun show.

I could not find the locations of the Wooster Square plant (Union Street no longer exists) or the one in Bridgeport, I suspect they have both been demolished.

The 1870 to present property and buildings were purchased and turned into work lofts, apartments and office space.

Sources:

Winchester Lofts - Sporting Classics Daily

History of Winchester Firearms Manufacturing?

The History Of Winchester’s New Haven Factory | An Official Journal Of The NRA

Recalling the New Haven Winchester Arms Strike - Yale University Press

Winchester Lofts - DiMella Shaffer

The History Of Winchester’s New Haven Factory by HERBERT G. HOUZE - You Will Shoot Your Eye Out

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Featured Gun: the Remington Model 8

 The Remington Model 8 by Randy Chamberlain

The Remington Model 8 was the first truly reliable high-power semiautomatic rifle to be offered commercially.  In 1900, when firearm designer John Browning secured patent # 659,786 on his new rifle design, he first tried to sell the design to Winchester Repeating Arms Company but once Browning mentioned royalties, the negotiations turned hostile and Winchester turned him down.  Browning then took his design to Remington Arms; however, the timing was not on Browning’s side because the head of Remington has just died before Browning was scheduled to introduce his new rifle. 

Not having good luck in the USA, Browning took his design abroad on a steamship to Belgium, where he had already developed a successful partnership with Fabrique Nationale.  FN had already produced Browning’s Model 1900 7.65mm blowback auto pistol.  FN liked the new design that Browning pitched, and they bought a license from Browning to begin production outside of the US, however the production was oddly delayed until 1910. 

After his success in Belgium, Browning returned to the USA and arranged another meeting with Remington Arms.  This time, he successfully sold his new auto-loading design to Remington for production within the US.  In 1906, Remington introduced the design to the public as the Remington Autoloading Rifle, but later they changed the name to Remington Model 8 in 1911.   

The Remington Model 8 was very successful as the first commercial semiautomatic rifle to be offered to the average person in the United States.  The autoloading feature was an exciting new spoil at the time as most people were still using lever-action rifles or single-shot rifles, as well as some still using the older muzzleloaders designs.   The Model 8 has a long-stroke recoil operation that kept the breechblock closed until after the bullet left the barrel and used a rotating bolt head.  When fired, the barrel and bolt, moved together to the rear of the receiver to compress two recoil springs.  The bolt separated and one of the springs moved the barrel forward within its large diameter sleeve, which allowed for extraction and ejection.  Once the barrel returned to its position, the second spring released the bolt and it returned forward as well, picking up a new round from the magazine and placing it into the chamber.  The rifle featured a fixed 5-round magazine and a device to hold the bolt open once the magazine is empty.  With it’s take-down design, it could easily be configured into a smaller package for transport.

Remington created four calibers for the Model 8 to compete with the most popular hunting rifle of the time, a .30-30 Winchester.  The Remington ammo had rimless cartridges for seamless feeding from the magazine and came in  .25 Remington, .30 Remington, .32 Remington and .35 Remington.  The rifle was also available with five different grades of finish: Standard, Special, Peerless, Expert and Premier.

Both the FN Browning 1900 and the Model 8 were primarily used for hunting in the commercial market.  The 1900 would never achieve the same level of sales as the American counterpart though because the autoloading function hadn’t been proved yet.  Due to the lack of sales, only 4913 Model 1900 were made between 1910 through 1929, where over 80,000 of the American version of the design was produced. 

The Model 8 was also used as a police gun but was modified to use a detachable extended capacity magazine, among other customizations for the police force.  The model 8’s military use in World War I was limited to use by the French Aeronautique Mitlitaire, but in very small numbers. 

One interesting point of use in history was in the capture of notorious Bonnie and Clyde.  Texas Ranger Frank Hamer had his .35 Model 8 (serial no 10045) customized with a 15-round magazine from Petmeckey’s Sporting Goods in Austin Texas prior to their capture and the autoloading feature was a key factor in stopping the notorious couple once and for all.  The Model 8 also came with further modifications for law enforcement agencies to accept a 20-round magazine that was made by the Peace Officers Equipment Company in St. Joseph Missouri.

The Remington Model 8 was beautifully made with a complex design for its time.  The rifle was noted as very reliable, which was a hallmark trade of John Browning’s designs.  However, like many other fine guns, the Model 8 fell victim to The Great Depression.  In 1936, it was redesigned as the Model 81 Woodsmaster, with upgrades by C.C. Loomis. The Model 81 offered .300 savage and the .25 was discontinued after a limited number were produced.   The Model 81 was offered in Standard (81A), Special (81B), Peerless (81D), Expert (81E) and Premier (81F) grades as well.  The FBI stocked several model 81 rifles chambered for .30 Remington and .35 Reminton calibers.  Production of the model 81stopped all together in 1950 after 55,000 copies were made.

 

Sources:

·         Wikipedia, Remington Model 8 Semi-automatic rifle

·         American Rifleman, A look back at the Remington Model 8, by Dave Campbell, 3/5/2015

·         Firearm News, Remington Model 8 proved the accuracy of self-loading rifles, by Jeff John, 6/24/2022

Hamer’s Hammer: The Remington Model 8

Remington Model 8 Semi-Automatic Rifle

About the author:

Randy has been a decades long member of the NRA and the Civilian Marksmanship Program; he began collecting weapons in the 70's and has owned more than 500 weapons including a Remington model 8. He will continue to contribute his vast knowledge of surplus and collector weapons.

Ruger 50th Anniversary Mark II Project part 3

 In part two we got the parts blued

See part one here & part two here

Now we will clean the parts that didn't get blued.

First, I install the rear sight

Then I assemble the grip frame, this is one of the more difficult guns to assemble.

Then the bolt goes in and I install the receiver and main spring housing.....this project is done

A couple of before and after pictures

Final Costs for this build

50th Anniversary upper receiver: $35.00

Mark II lower receiver/grip frame: $100.00

Mark II 50th Anniversary grip panels: $12.39

Mark II Magazine: $20.83

Mark II blued Bolt: $26.40

Total: $194.62

Ruger 50th Anniversary Mark II Project part 2

When we left off, we had assembled and test fired the gun, everything was copacetic, so we will continue with the refinishing of this pistol.

I started with the frame, it only had some minor pitting/dents on the back of the grip frame, typical of these pistols, the frames are made from stamped mild sheet steel and often get dented or deformed from drops.

Once the back was done, I cleaned up the front of the pistol, often the bluing is worn off from gripping the gun. I polished both sides to 400 grit. In case you didn't know, you can blue over existing bluing, the bluing will only get so thick, and existing bluing does not affect the bare steel areas.

Then I returned to working the barrel/receiver assembly. I tried to stay away from the engraving/roll marks until I got to the 320 grit level, I wanted the pits removed, but I want to preserve the engraving more.

Once everything was sanded to 600 grit, I went over it with a crocus cloth, just to removed any left-over sanding marks

The small parts are in good shape (the bolt is new, trigger is aluminum, and the rear sight was in good shape). The only thing left to do is clean and prep for bluing.

I use acetone to remove any grease, oil or debris

After 30 minutes in the bluing tank, I covered the parts in WD-40