Robert Morgan on the legacy of the Winchester Rifles
Robert Morgan looks at various Winchester rifles and, in particular, trains his sights on the 1873 and 1876
Last month we looked at the origins of the Winchester rifle and saw how it actually owed a lot to Mr Wesson of Smith & Wesson fame. From his original lever-action pistol with its peculiar internally primed ammunition was developed the Volcanic, the first firearm the shirtmaker Oliver Winchester got involved with, albeit only in a financial role. From the terrible product that was the Volcanic, the Henry rifle was born, which even though not without its own set of problems, quickly proved how good a repeating rifle could be. The addition of King’s Patent on its successor model, the 1866 ‘Yellowboy’, allowed the magazine to be filled from the breech end and ironed out many of the problems, but there was still room for improvement.
The big problem with both the Henry and the 1866 was still the ammunition. The rimfire concept was well established by the late 1860s and the cartridges available were reliable and convenient – providing you lived somewhere where you could purchase them. None of the rimfire cartridges available were reloadable, and with the constant surge westwards of the populace seeking fame and fortune in the nascent United States, general stores stocking ammunition were few and far between. For the average settler, the prospect of having to purchase a year’s supply of cartridges during an annual visit to a big town was a costly one, and was the main reason black powder muzzle-loaders persisted for as long as they did.
Solution
The answer was just around the corner, however. Central fire cartridges, still used to this day, allowed easy home reloading and quickly replaced rimfire in all but a handful of calibres. Now a settler could sit at home in the evenings and with nothing more than a simple hand-press could replace the primer, fill the case with their beloved black powder and seat a lead bullet, almost certainly cast on a stove at home, on the top. Cases, providing they were boiled clean, could give upwards of 20 loads before needing replacement, making the whole exercise cost effective. After all, it was much cheaper to buy 1,000 primers than a 1,000 live rounds.
None of the larger arms manufacturers were slow adopting the new technology, least of all Winchester. The 1866 model had sold well, but was deemed too weak in the action to handle the larger powder capacity of the new centre-fire rounds. Winchester’s first offering in the new rifle, the renowned 1873 model, was the .44-40 Winchester cartridge. While still in a nominal .44 bore-size like the 1866, the 40 grains of black powder (hence the name .44-40) was much greater than the old 27 grains of the rimfire, and had power enough for most game species out to around 200 yards. Then there was the self-protection aspect. The settlers of the Old West had given little, if any, thought to the American Indian tribes whose land they were now occupying. The coming of the railroads and the introduction of barbed wire and other fencing preventing the Indian tribes’ movement and the free-roaming of the buffalo was the final straw and caused regular conflict.
Winchester went on to produce the 1873 model in three other calibres – .22 rimfire, .32-20 and .38-40. While all were useful for putting food on the table, one species was still out of reach for Winchester owners – the buffalo. This animal had always been the preserve of the big single-shot rifles such as the Sharps, but the call for a repeating rifle was overwhelming. In 1876 the situation was redressed and Winchester launched the 1876 model. While Winchester harboured a secret desire to have it adopted by the military, in reality it still wasn’t strong enough to handle the new .45-70 government cartridge. Looking like an 1873 on steroids (the action was identical but almost twice the size), the initial launch calibre was .45-75 Winchester, a deliberate ploy on Winchester’s part to make their rifle sound bigger than the government cartridge but in reality, because of the use of a lighter bullet, it was much weaker. Other calibres followed, the largest of which was the .50-95 Winchester, also known as ‘The Express’, but even this fell short of the .45-70 government offering. However, it was your average buffalo’s worst nightmare, and the repeating rifle accounted for them in their tens of thousands, to such an extent that by the early 1900s the buffalo were almost wiped out.
“It was your average buffalo’s worst nightmare, accounting for them in their tens of thousands”
Standout
We cannot leave the chapter on the 1873 and 1876 without mentioning the legendary ‘1 of 1,000’ series. A sales gimmick introduced by Winchester, there were in fact two types; ‘1of 1,000s’ and ‘1 of 100s’, and both the 1873 and the 1876 were available in either. All types are phenomenally rare, with only around 130 of all models verified and known (about half the total production). According to Winchester, to make a 1 of 1,000, the best shooting barrel of a batch of 1,000 was made into a rifle (a batch of 100 in the case of a 1 of 100). These rifles usually went on to have every deluxe special order feature lavished on them as well, from fancy walnut stocks to chequering and engraving, set triggers to special sights. This meant that where an ordinary ‘off the shelf ’ 1873 model would cost about $2 in 1877, a 1 of 1,000 could set you back nearer $200 or more (over $100,000 in today’s money) depending on the level of engraving. In reality, they shot no better than a standard model, and feedback to the Winchester marketing department gave the impression that most customers now thought that 999 rifles out of 1,000 shot badly, so the project was dropped after a couple of years.