7
The history of Winchester
®
was an integral part
of the conquest of the West...
HUNTING & FIRING
2010 marked the bicentennial of the birth of
Oliver Fisher Winchester. Born in Boston, Mas-
sachusetts on 30
th
November 1810, he found
financial success in the manufacture of shirts,
and began his industrial venture in 1857 in
the field of arms and ammunition by investing
in an existing company in Connecticut: the
Volcanic Repeating Arms Company, based in
New Haven 80 miles east of New York, beco-
ming the principal stockholder and President.
Although he was not an inventor, he had a
precise idea of the arms that he hoped to see
produced.
He wanted them to be lighter and not limited
to a single shot. He was also exceptionally
demanding regarding the safety of the guns
developed.
Winchester entrusted a talented gunsmith,
Benjamin Tyler Henry, with the mission of
refining the mixtures of powder and mercury
fulminate to improve the propulsion of the
projectiles and to produce rifled barrels to
refine the precision of the shots as early as
1860.
A year later, Henry perfected the first repea-
ting rifle with a tubular magazine.
A legendary weapon was born.
Winchester did not directly profit from the
Civil War (in America), which lasted from 1861
until 1865. Nevertheless, the fact that the
army spurned his weapons encouraged him
to favour selling to individuals and to export.
This strategy would pay off at the end of the
war when Oliver Winchester took control of the
business that he renamed it the Winchester
Repeating Arms Company
®
in 1867.
One year earlier, he had created the “Model
1866”, with its yellow receiver, which quickly
became known as Yellow Boy.
A further development of the rifle created
by Henry, was the Winchester
®
rifle capable
of using centrefire ammunition with a lever
action which turned out to be a very useful
defensive weapon for the time, but also for
combat and was appreciated by hunters for
hunting.
The versatility of the weapon led to the sales
of more than 100,000 in the first seven years
of its production.
A legendary weapon was born - the rifle that
conquered the West.
Other Winchester
®
models followed, fine vin-
tages like champagne: the 1873 (Model 73,
.44 cal.), the 1876, the 1892, and the 1894,
the first .30 and .32 calibre Winchester
®
specially conceived for hunting that later was
all the rage in Hollywood films.
Oliver Winchester died in New Haven on 11
th
December 1880.
In 1901, one John Moses Browning approa-
ched FN Herstal in Belgium and the start of
today’s relationship was born making guns
under licence. Eighty years later, in 1981,
the Winchester Repeating Arms
®
plant was
purchased by FN Herstal.
Winchester
®
remains a recognised brand of
arms and ammunition today.
Thousands of shooters – clay or game, own at
least one Winchester
®
gun or use Winchester
®
ammunition.
The legend continues…
MODEL 94
™
Sporter
MODEL 94
™
Take Down
MODEL 94
™
Short Rifle
