Remington, Winchester and Colt Firearms Codexery

Winchester Model 1911

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The Winchester Repeating Arms Company manufactured the self-loading, recoil-operated Model 1911 SL shotgun between 1911 and 1925.[1] Thomas Crossley Johnson created the Model 1911 SL for Winchester; the company had earlier turned down John Browning's autoloading design because they would not accept his royalty payment terms.[2][3]

How it changed

Winchester lacked an autoloading shotgun because it refused John Browning's royalty payment terms for his 1898 design.[2] The rejected Browning design became the Browning Auto-5, which set the standard for autoloading shotguns until after World War II.[2] Patent restrictions prevented Winchester from copying the Browning design, forcing T.C. Johnson to adapt the design without infringing Browning's patents.[4] Johnson designed the Model 1911 to be cocked by grabbing the barrel and jerking it sharply backward.[3]

This cocking method required compressing a large recoil spring, which was difficult.[3] A swelled paper shotgun shell could fire in this position, injuring or killing the user.[5] If a user performed the charging procedure incorrectly, the outcome could be fatal.[5] To cycle the barrel, certain individuals would set the weapon's butt on the ground and push the barrel downward, which caused the muzzle to aim at their face.[5]

Winchester's sales figures for this model were lower than those for autoloaders from Remington and Browning; production ended in 1925 after roughly 83,000 units had been made.[6]

What the maker and period sources say

A 2010 Gun Digest article by Shideler states that Winchester's lawyers had tied up the Auto-5 with patents, so Johnson could borrow only the long-recoil operation and humpbacked profile.[3] The same article notes that the rear of the receiver contains a cushion-type barrel buffer to soften the recoiling barrel's impact.[3] A 2021 article states that Winchester used the simple method of adding texturing to the barrel and requiring the user to cycle the barrel back to open the action.[7] That article also notes that the design failings included a lack of a bolt handle, a very strong recoil spring, and a sensitive single-action trigger mechanism.[7]

The buffer ring system of two fiber washers often failed, greatly increasing recoil and causing many stocks to split.[8][9] In a 2005 event, four individuals sustained injuries while loading or clearing a Model 1911.[6]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Winchester Model 1911" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Henshaw, "The History of Winchester Firearms 1866-1992", Academic Learning Company, 1993, p. 66–67 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Winchester Model 1911" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Williamson, "Winchester: the gun that won the West", Combat Forces Press, 1952, p. 169 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Shideler, "Shooting the Widowmaker: the Winchester Model 1911", Gun Digest, December 4, 2010. facts only, no text reused. gundigest.com
  4. Wikipedia, "Winchester Model 1911" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Williamson, "Winchester: the gun that won the West", Combat Forces Press, 1952, p. 169; "Winchester's Prototype Model 1911 Was Actually a Browning Auto-5", June 28, 2021; Zutz, "The Ducks Unlimited Guide to Shotgunning", Globe Pequot, 2000, p. 8 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Winchester Model 1911" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Shideler, "Shooting the Widowmaker: the Winchester Model 1911", Gun Digest, December 4, 2010 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Winchester Model 1911" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Zutz, "The Ducks Unlimited Guide to Shotgunning", Globe Pequot, 2000, p. 8; Williamson, "Winchester: the gun that won the West", Combat Forces Press, 1952, p. 169; Russell, "Gun goes off; four injured", McAlester News-Capital, 2005-12-22 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  7. "Winchester's Prototype Model 1911 Was Actually a Browning Auto-5", June 28, 2021. facts only, no text reused. forgottenweapons.com
  8. Wikipedia, "Winchester Model 1911" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Oliver, "Three Questions", American Gunsmith, March 2007, p. 22 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Winchester Model 1911" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Zutz, "The Ducks Unlimited Guide to Shotgunning", Globe Pequot, 2000, p. 8 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Winchester Model 1911 (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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