Poll: Winchester Lever Action Development

[The Heretic]

You open this with a lever too, that doesn't make it a lever action. And the repeater part was implicate implicit in the development the Winchester lever-action.

View attachment 1067137

Yes and no. That is colloquially known as a "break action" (which I am sure everybody knows), but yes, falling & rolling block actions are usually not referred to as lever actions. OTOH, there are single shot lever actions out there: the Savage "Stevens" Model 89 lever Action single shot .22 rifle and Ithaca Model 49. Although neither have anything much to do with Winchester lever action development.

 

[Lennie]

That would be considered a falling block action, this series was lineage of Winchester's lever actions not just those by JMB.

The 1885 single shot you reference was a John Browning design.

There is quite a story as to how a Winchester salesperson spotted a single shot rifle when making a sales call at store in Montana. The rifle was made by Browning Arms in Utah. He was shocked at the design as it had features found on no other single shot rifle at the time. It was self cocking when the lever was lowered, it had an ejector rather than just an extractor and it could handle any cartridge produced. The sales person purchased the rifle and had it rushed shipped back to Winchester factory. The management at Winchester was blown away by the design and how easily it could be manufactured. And Winchester was looking for a strong design that could compete with Remington rolling blocks and Sharps rifles. Winchester immediately sent Sam Bennett, one of their ranking VPs to Utah to secure the rights to this rifle. Bennett, on arriving at Browning arms operations in Ogden Utah, inquired as to where this Browning guy was. The workers told Bennett that Browning was on the second floor of the building. After a few minutes, Bennett came back down to the first level and told the workers that the only person on the second floor was young kid of about 21 years of age and he didn't see anyone who looked like Browning. The workers told Bennett the young man whom he had seen on the second floor was indeed John Browning. After negotiations, Bennett acquired for Winchester the rights to the single shot design. He paid $20,000.00 for those rights. Legend has it that he was authorized to spend up to $50,000.00 for the rights. At that time John Browning was not a wealthy individual. He was LDS and $20,000.00 was probably more than he had ever seen or knew of.

And at that time, Browning showed Bennett his work on a lever action rifle. Bennett then made a deal for the rights to that rifle when Browning had the design finished. This lever action became known as the 1886 Winchester.

What is more amazing is that John Browning never use drawings or blue prints with his designs. He thought them out in his mind and understood how the designs would go together.

 

[titsonritz]

The 1885 single shot you reference was a John Browning design.

There is quite a story as to how a Winchester salesperson spotted a single shot rifle when making a sales call at store in Montana. The rifle was made by Browning Arms in Utah. He was shocked at the design as it had features found on no other single shot rifle at the time. It was self cocking when the lever was lowered, it had an ejector rather than just an extractor and it could handle any cartridge produced. The sales person purchased the rifle and had it rushed shipped back to Winchester factory. The management at Winchester was blown away by the design and how easily it could be manufactured. And Winchester was looking for a strong design that could compete with Remington rolling blocks and Sharps rifles. Winchester immediately sent Sam Bennett, one of their ranking VPs to Utah to secure the rights to this rifle. Bennett, on arriving at Browning arms operations in Ogden Utah, inquired as to where this Browning guy was. The workers told Bennett that Browning was on the second floor of the building. After a few minutes, Bennett came back down to the first level and told the workers that the only person on the second floor was young kid of about 21 years of age and he didn't see anyone who looked like Browning. The workers told Bennett the young man whom he had seen on the second floor was indeed John Browning. After negotiations, Bennett acquired for Winchester the rights to the single shot design. He paid $20,000.00 for those rights. Legend has it that he was authorized to spend up to $50,000.00 for the rights. At that time John Browning was not a wealthy individual. He was LDS and $20,000.00 was probably more than he had ever seen or knew of.

And at that time, Browning showed Bennett his work on lever action rifle. Bennett then made a deal for the rights to that rifle when Browning had the design finished. This lever action became known as the 1886 Winchester.

What is more amazing is that John Browning never use drawings or blue prints with his designs. He thought them out in his mind and understood how the designs would go together.

Yep, I am familiar with the story. One of my favorite JMB stories is about his "Potato Digger".

 

[Mark W.]

OK my point was the 1885 was the first lever action rifle designed by John Mosses Browning. All the lever action rifles designed by him 1886 1892 1894 1895 all follow. Hence the 1885 is the father of all following lever actions by Browning.


I have his first and last designed lever actions.