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The Winchester 1911: An interesting but deeply flawed semi auto shotgun
Posted on 6/3/19 at 7:15 pm
Posted on 6/3/19 at 7:15 pm
When John Browining designed the Auto 5 he tried to contract with Winchester for production. Winchester wouldn’t agree to his terms so he cancelled the deal.
Fast forward a bit and the A5 and some of its licensed variants were a success and Winchester wanted a piece of the action. Problem was JMB held most of the patents for the gun so Winchester had to work around them. One of his patents was a handle on the bolt. To get by this Winchester designed the gun so that the user grabbed a knurled section towards the end of the barrel and pushed the barrel back to move the bolt. Due to paper shells of the time and spring stiffness many users placed the butt on the ground to move the barrel back which meant they could have the end of the barrel of a loaded or loading gun pointed at their head or body. The gun quickly earned the nickname ‘Widowmaker’.
Beyond the safety hazard the gun didn’t perform as well as the Auto-5. Sales were a flop and the gun is now long gone from production. An interesting but dangerous firearms footnote.
youtube demo
Fast forward a bit and the A5 and some of its licensed variants were a success and Winchester wanted a piece of the action. Problem was JMB held most of the patents for the gun so Winchester had to work around them. One of his patents was a handle on the bolt. To get by this Winchester designed the gun so that the user grabbed a knurled section towards the end of the barrel and pushed the barrel back to move the bolt. Due to paper shells of the time and spring stiffness many users placed the butt on the ground to move the barrel back which meant they could have the end of the barrel of a loaded or loading gun pointed at their head or body. The gun quickly earned the nickname ‘Widowmaker’.
Beyond the safety hazard the gun didn’t perform as well as the Auto-5. Sales were a flop and the gun is now long gone from production. An interesting but dangerous firearms footnote.
youtube demo
This post was edited on 6/3/19 at 8:02 pm
6
Posted on 6/3/19 at 7:39 pm to weagle99
quote:
The Winchester 1911
quote:
semi auto shotgun
Didn't see that one coming.
Posted on 6/3/19 at 7:43 pm to weagle99
I have one of those I bought from an old farmer. Kind of an oddity and widow maker is a good knick name. Damn thing slam fires 
Posted on 6/3/19 at 7:50 pm to weagle99
Cool gun trivia, thanks for sharing.
Posted on 6/3/19 at 8:02 pm to weagle99
Met an old farmer years ago in Natchitoches that blew off half of his hand doing this.
Posted on 6/4/19 at 8:03 am to weagle99
Yep, would like to have one just to say I have one. I'm a fan of the Auto-5 and have a few of them and their variants. Or, I should say "HAD" before my boating accident.
Posted on 6/4/19 at 12:48 pm to weagle99
I have one in great shape and it works. I haven’t experienced a slam fire scenario but, based on design, it certainly could happen! 
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