Alphecca

History of Winchester

Well, there are plenty of them out there but there's a nice synopsis of the legendary company in today's Concord Monitor. Here's a bit of it:

Hollywood loved this rifle. Jimmy Stewart starred in Winchester '73, based on the actual one in one thousand Winchester Model 73. Of course the fact that there were fewer than 140 ever produced had nothing to do with a great story. The Model 73 was manufactured between 1873 and 1924, with a production run of 720,610. They had magazines with the capacity of six, 12 or 15 shots. While it came in three different caliber choices, the most popular was the .44-40. Its popularity was driven by the fact that the .44-40 was a very popular revolver cartridge.

John Wayne had his Winchester modified with an oversized lever. During the '70s, Winchester came out with the John Wayne Commemorative. Chuck Connors starred in the TV Western The Rifleman. Connors's Winchester had been modified to fire from levering the action - highly impractical but it made for great television.

The most interesting modification was accommodated for Steve McQueen, who starred as Josh Logan in Wanted: Dead or Alive. The barrel stock of McQueen's Winchester had been modified by shortening the barrel and stock so he could wear it on his hip as a handgun. It's a good thing it was a half hour show because that was still a lot of weight to carry on the hip.