Interesting shotgun, SC shooter.

And don't forget the Schmidt Rubin Straight-Pull Model 1911 rifle.

I have one & it's excellent.

 

Interesting shotgun, SC shooter.

And don't forget the Schmidt Rubin Straight-Pull Model 1911 rifle.

I have one & it's excellent.

My buddy’s Grandfather had one of those. A cool design and gun for sure!

It is too bad the author of the article in the link did not know America is not a “Democracy.” We are in fact a Republic with Democratic ideals. No “Democracy“ survives... hence the reason I am sure the Democrats keep calling us a “democracy.” Moreover, the reason they don’t want us to have guns at all. I am hard pressed to call to mind any dem that would appreciate a gun like either of these let alone support anyone under their rule to own one… even if that vintage or design.

They would love nothing more than to have mob rule. Here is the POTUS and the C in C:
“If you want to protect yourself, get a double-barrel shotgun," Guess these two classics don’t fall into the realm of theses two classics.

 

A fine gun club friend I had for years who was 50 years older than I am had the Winchester Model 11 that his dad bought new just after the model was first introduced. It was a low number gun, but can't recall its serial number now.

I shot some skeet with it just for fun on an occasion when he was in attendance. Was a whipping to shoot from a recoil standpoint compared with the Remington Model 11 and its Browning design.

 

My uncle had one and it kicked like a mule. They broke a lot of stocks.

 

Actually Browning designed Winchester's first slide action shotgun in 1893, though it was a blackpowder only gun and its descendant 1897 was far more popular and obviously superior. I personally use an early 97 for trap, and it never fails to garner attention, either from very old people who know what it is or from young people who can't wrap their heads around how it works. 😁

 

My old Model 12 gets the exact reaction from the older trap shooters every time I take it out. I recently had to have the forend rebuilt, but she is still a timeless beauty.

 

There was another famous "Widowmaker", the Marlin 1898 shotgun.

 

Do I sense a bit of animosity on Winchester’s part about the development of another “1911” by JMB? 🤔

 

Winchester 1911s aren’t expensive. It’s hard to find a collector grade, for sure. I had last one for about 5 yrs before I sold it $300. It was solid, good wood no rust. There just isn’t much demand for them. I had a 878 Rem a few months ago, most don’t know they existed. Not worth big money either. Win 50 and 59 fall in same category. NIBs for collectors is about it.
Rem may have sold more 1100 that they sold Brn A5s, but they ran for almost 100 yrs. Add in Colt 1911 and Brn M2 50cal and you got 3 of longest running designs that were ever made.

 

As I remember it, that Winchester Model 11 had a fiber buffer in the receiver as a component designed to be a part of the action's operation. If the buffer is worn, or breaks, or is absent then there is a risk that the action beats itself until it fails. Someone might correct me if I'm wrong.

I recall my gun club bud saying he'd returned his family Winchester Model 11 to Winchester in 1948 with a letter requesting that they rebuild it. They sent the gun back with new buffer(s?) and said they could find nothing else wrong with it that required their attention.

My friend was completely "gone" on classic Winchester products and he had a number of fine quality Winchester models. He said his dad was the one who was sold on the various self-loading models of the first decade of the 20th century and bought a number of 'em. The family owned and used Winchester Model 1903, Model 1905, Model 1907, and that Model 1911 shotgun when he was growing up.

Among a host of other brands of firearms, my friend also had Winchester Models 1890, 61, 62, 63, and 67 in .22 rim fire, an 1886 .45-90, 1894s in .25-35, 30 WCF, and .32-40, 1895s in .30-40 and .405 WCF, and center fire bolt-actions models 54 in .30-30, and Model 70s in .220 Swift, .257 Roberts (two - one being a standardweight and one a featherweight), .30-06 SuperGrade, and a custom rebarreled Model 70 in .22 Gebby Varminter (later standardized as .22-250 Remington) that he had J. E. Gebby himself customize.

When he was 17 my friend's dad steered him to buy a new Winchester Model 1907 .351 because his dad was such a fan of the Winchester semi-automatic rifles. That would have been in 1923. He used it and so did his father up until about 1940, by which time they both became enamored of all things bolt-action, particularly the Winchester Model 70. My friend soon became disillusioned with that Model 1907 .351 and became of the opinion that the cartridge, while deer capable, was really a short range number. By the late 1920s he was playing with the Model 54 .30-30 and a Savage Model 20 .250-3000.

He dusted off the Model 1907 in 1970 for a javalina hunt which was the last time he made use of it.

Much later he just up and gave me that same Winchester Model 1907 .351 he bought new in 1923. A few years passed and I took a deer with it, mostly out of respect for him and to be able to say I'd used the rifle and cartridge. At 30 yards it settled the buck's hash. Was in early November of 2001. My friend by age 94 had lost his eyesight due to macular degeneration. He had me lead him to the curbside in front of his house in town where I had parked the pickup with the buck in the back. He said he wanted to "feel the antlers." He was so pleased. Three weeks later my friend passed peacefully. I still miss him.




The Winchester Model 1907's original owner Cres Lawson and I sometime in the early 1990s on an occasion where I presented him with a stuffed armadillo he'd wanted to keep as a gag. That's a story for another time.


To bring this rambling pontification back around to the topic at hand, being the Winchester Model 1911, the Model 1911 shared quite a few design features and patents with the other Winchester Self Loading long guns produced. Winchester's T. C. Johnson and other in house designers managed to circumvent Browning's patents, but the Winchester design team's efforts proved to be a dead end, both in effectiveness and in the market place. Still, the rifles at least were, and are very reliable when used with cartridges meeting the design's admitted limitations. I've fired quite a lot .351 ammunition and played with handloading for it and the rifle feeds and functions flawlessly. I'd trust it to this day over what I've observed out of the AR 15. It's a blow-back action with not much to go haywire. I've heard it termed a "hesitation blow-back" action.

The 1923 vintage Winchester Model 1907 with one of the more uncommonly seen 10-round "police" magazines installed. Anyone could purchase them, but the 10 round capacity was intended for the lawman of the era.

Yet more pontification. I thought more highly of the Model 1907 and its .351 cartridge than its original owner did. I'd had another Model 1907 in shabby condition. Had played with it and even taken it hunting. He was much amused so gave me his better Model 1907.

In the early 1980s the Cleburne, Texas police department was still using Winchester Model 1907 rifles, having three of them on hand. They stood in a large glass fronted gun rack behind the dispatcher and could be seen when entering the police station. I knew officers, staff, and administration and used to regularly pester them to sell me one or all the rifles. They finally responded by covering the glass front of the case with aluminum foil so as to keep the rifles out of sight. During this period officers were issued the rifles on an occasion when a inmate broke out of the county jail and escaped into Buffalo Creek.

 

Yet more pontification.

Pontificate all you want. I appreciate the shared stories.

 

I just watched a movie last night “ Texas Red”. In end of movie Texas Red gets scuffed by a guy with a 1907 Winchester. I think 1st one I’ve seen in a movie.

 

Some years back a local store had a bunch of those 07 Winchesters for sale at the time. Not sure where they got them but they were clean and reasonably priced. I was tempted to buy one. But that was before I started loading ammunition and the round put me off. Fast forward to today and I wish that I would have snagged one.

 

I always thought it was the Marlin 1898 Pump that was called the Widow Maker as the bolt could come back in your face.

 

The Winchester Model 1911 gained its reputation for making widows out of wives by shooting owners who rested the shotgun's butt on the ground then tried to manipulate it to extract the paper shells of the day when they were swollen from damp conditions by using the handy knurled grip provided on the barrel. You see, there is no bolt handle for Winchester had to "wire around" Browning patents and the bolt handle was one of them. Forcing a shell by shoving down hard on the barrel with the muzzle pointed at face and head tended to rearrange or relocate those parts in the event that the gun went off.

Apparently the design when coupled with shotgun shells of the day encouraged that method of shell extraction for Model 1911 users. The gun is comparatively awkward to use as opposed to the excellent Browning Auto-5, Remington Model 11/Savage Model 720 which are all the same breed of cat.

 

I still have my dads Winchester Model 1911 with a 4 digit serial number. My records say it was made in 1911. I haven't shot it in years and I do remember a heavy recoil. There is no blueing on it and the butt stock is cracked. I have often wondered what I should do with it.