Winchester Model 1910

Last updated
Winchester Model 1910
Winchester .401 SL Model 1910.jpg
Type Semi-automatic rifle
Place of originUnited States
Service history
Used byFlag of France (1794-1958).svg  France Flag of Russia.svg  Russia
Wars World War I
Production history
Designer T.C. Johnson
Manufacturer Winchester Repeating Arms Company
Produced1910 to 1936
No. built20,787
Variants"Plain" and "Fancy Finish" Rifles
Specifications
Mass8 lb (3.6 kg) to 9 lb (4.1 kg)
Length38 in (970 mm)
Barrel  length20 in (510 mm)

Cartridge .401 Winchester Self-Loading
Action Blowback
Rate of fire Semi-automatic
Feed systemDetachable 4-round box magazine
SightsOpen iron sights and optional tang or receiver-mounted aperture sights

The Winchester Model 1910 (also known as the Model 10) is a blowback operated semi-automatic rifle produced by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company beginning in 1910 with production ending in 1936. This rifle is fed from a 4-round capacity, detachable box magazine located immediately forward of the trigger guard. Winchester only chambered the model 1910 in the .401 Winchester Self-Loading or .401 WSL cartridge. [1]

Contents

The basic design for the Model 1910 is covered by * U.S. patent 681,481 issued August 27, 1901 and assigned to Winchester by Thomas Crossley Johnson, a key firearms designer for Winchester. This patent was initially used to protect the design of the rimfire Winchester Model 1903, but came to be applied toward the centerfire Winchester Self Loading rifle series, which includes the Model 1905, Model 1907, and Model 1910. [2]

Variants

In addition to the standard or "plain finish" model, a deluxe or "fancy finish" model was offered with checkering on the forearm and wrist of the stock. The plain finish rifles were offered in 1910 at a list price of $30. [3]

World War I Orders

Flag of France (1794-1958).svg  French Third Republic

Winchester factory records show an order placed in 1915 for 150 Model 1910 rifles, spare magazines, and 25,000 cartridges of .401SL ammunition by the firm of Andre, Schaub & Pioso as an agent of the French government. A subsequent December 7, 1917 order of 400,000 .401SL cartridges is believed to indicate additional Model 1910 rifles were acquired by the French Republic through other means. [4] [5]

They were carried by aircraft observers to ward off fighters, a step between pistols and dedicated aircraft machineguns. They were later gradually replaced from 1916 onward by the .351-caliber Winchester Model 1907s. The Model M1907 rifle won out because it had been adopted in larger numbers and because it was also adopted by Britain's Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service.

Flag of Russia.svg  Russian Empire

Winchester records show orders of about 500 Model 1910 rifles by the Imperial Russian government dating to 1915 and 1916. Further details are not available regarding orders of .401SL. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Semi-automatic rifle</span> Type of autoloading rifle

A semi-automatic rifle is an autoloading rifle that fires a single cartridge with each pull of the trigger. It uses part of the fired cartridge's energy to eject the case and automatically loads another cartridge into its chamber. This is in contrast to bolt-action rifles, which require the user to cycle the bolt manually before they can fire a second time, and fully automatic rifles which fire continuously until the trigger is released.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Browning</span> American firearms designer (1855–1926)

John Moses Browning was an American firearm designer who developed many varieties of military and civilian firearms, cartridges, and gun mechanisms, many of which are still in use around the world. He made his first firearm at age 13 in his father's gun shop and was awarded the first of his 128 firearm patents on October 7, 1879, at the age of 24. He is regarded as one of the most successful firearms designers of the 19th and 20th centuries and a pioneer of modern repeating, semi-automatic, and automatic firearms.

Winchester rifle is a comprehensive term describing a series of lever action repeating rifles manufactured by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. Developed from the 1860 Henry rifle, Winchester rifles were among the earliest repeaters. The Model 1873 was particularly successful, being marketed by the manufacturer as "The Gun That Won the West".

A semi-automatic firearm, also called a self-loading or autoloading firearm, is a repeating firearm whose action mechanism automatically loads a following round of cartridge into the chamber and prepares it for subsequent firing, but requires the shooter to manually actuate the trigger in order to discharge each shot. Typically, this involves the weapon's action utilizing the excess energy released during the preceding shot to unlock and move the bolt, extracting and ejecting the spent cartridge case from the chamber, re-cocking the firing mechanism, and loading a new cartridge into the firing chamber, all without input from the user. To fire again, however, the user must actively release the trigger, and allow it to "reset", before pulling the trigger again to fire off the next round. As a result, each trigger pull only discharges a single round from a semi-automatic weapon, as opposed to a fully automatic weapon, which will shoot continuously as long as the ammunition is replete and the trigger is kept depressed.

A repeating rifle is a single-barreled rifle capable of repeated discharges between each ammunition reload. This is typically achieved by having multiple cartridges stored in a magazine and then fed individually into the chamber by a reciprocating bolt, via either a manual or automatic action mechanism, while the act of chambering the round typically also recocks the hammer/striker for the following shot. In common usage, the term "repeating rifle" most often refers specifically to manual repeating rifles, as opposed to self-loading rifles, which use the recoil, gas, or blowback of the previous shot to cycle the action and load the next round, even though all self-loading firearms are technically a subcategory of repeating firearms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lever action</span> Type of firearm action

A lever action is a type of action for repeating firearms that uses a manually operated cocking handle located around the trigger guard area that pivots forward to move the bolt via internal linkages, which will feed and extract cartridges into and out of the chamber, and cock the firing pin mechanism. This contrasts to other type of repeating actions such as the bolt-action, pump-action, semi-automatic, fully automatic, and/or burst mode actions. A firearm using this operating mechanism is colloquially referred to as a levergun.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magazine (firearms)</span> Ammunition feeding device of a firearm

A magazine, often simply called a mag, is an ammunition storage and feeding device for a repeating firearm, either integral within the gun or externally attached. The magazine functions by holding several cartridges within itself and sequentially pushing each one into a position where it may be readily loaded into the barrel chamber by the firearm's moving action. The detachable magazine is sometimes colloquially referred to as a "clip", although this is technically inaccurate since a clip is actually an accessory device used to help load ammunition into a magazine or cylinder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle rifle</span> Self-loading rifle that fires a full-power rifle cartridge

A battle rifle is a service rifle chambered to fire a fully powered cartridge.

The Winchester Repeating Arms Company was a prominent American manufacturer of repeating firearms and ammunition. The firm was established in 1866 by Oliver Winchester and was located in New Haven, Connecticut. The firm went into receivership in 1931 and was bought by the Western Cartridge Company, a forerunner of the Olin Corporation. The Winchester brand name is still owned by the Olin Corporation, which makes ammunition under that name. The Winchester name is also used under license for firearms produced by two subsidiaries of the Herstal Group – FN Herstal of Belgium and the Browning Arms Company of Ogden, Utah.

The Henry repeating rifle is a lever-action tubular magazine rifle. It is famous for having been used at the Battle of the Little Bighorn and having been the basis for the iconic Winchester rifle of the American Wild West.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ferdinand Mannlicher</span> Austrian firearms designer (1848 - 1904)

Ferdinand Ritter von Mannlicher was an Austrian engineer and small arms designer. Along with James Paris Lee, Mannlicher was particularly noted for inventing the en-bloc clip charger-loading box magazine system. Later, while making improvements to other inventors' prototype designs for rotary-feed magazines, Mannlicher, together with his protégé Otto Schönauer, patented a perfected rotary magazine design, the Mannlicher–Schönauer rifle, which was a commercial and military success.

A self-loading rifle or autoloading rifle is a rifle with an action using a portion of the energy of each cartridge fired to load another cartridge. Self-loading pistols are similar, but intended to be held and fired by a single hand, while rifles are designed to be held with both hands and fired from the shoulder.

A falling-block action is a single-shot firearm action in which a solid metal breechblock slides vertically in grooves cut into the breech of the weapon and is actuated by a lever.

The Mondragón rifle refers to one of two rifle designs developed by Mexican artillery officer General Manuel Mondragón. These designs include the straight-pull bolt-action M1893 and M1894 rifles, and Mexico's first self-loading rifle, the M1908 - the first of the designs to see combat use.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.44 Henry</span> Rimfire revolver and rifle cartridge

The .44 Henry, also known as the .44 Henry Flat, the .44 Rimfire, the .44 Long Rimfire, and the 11x23mmRF in Europe, is a rimfire rifle and handgun cartridge featuring a .875 in (22.2 mm)-long brass or copper case. The round has a total overall length of 1.345 in (34.2 mm), with a 200 or 216 gr .446 in (11.3 mm)-diameter cast solid-lead heeled bullet. The original propellant load is 26 to 28 gr of black powder. The round has a muzzle velocity of approximately 1,125 ft/s (343 m/s), giving a muzzle energy of 568 foot-pounds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Winchester Model 1905</span> Semi-automatic rifle

The Winchester Model 1905, is a blowback-operated, semi-automatic rifle produced by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company beginning in 1905 and discontinued in 1920. This rifle loads cartridges from a 5 or 10-round capacity, detachable box magazine located immediately forward of the trigger guard. Winchester offered factory chamberings in .32SL and .35 Winchester Self-Loading.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.401 Winchester Self-Loading</span> Rifle cartridge

The .401 Winchester Self-Loading or 10.33x38mmSR is an American rifle cartridge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Winchester Model 1907</span> Semi-automatic rifle

The Winchester Model 1907 is a blowback-operated, semi-automatic rifle produced by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company beginning in 1907 with production ending in 1957. It fired a cartridge of intermediate power, cycled through a semi-automatic operating mechanism, fed from a 5, 10, or 15 round detachable box magazine located immediately forward of the trigger guard. In size and handling, it is much like an M1 carbine, though the 1907 is heavier and fires a much harder hitting round.

The Winchester Model 1903 was the first commercially available semi-automatic firearm made by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Repeating firearm</span> Firearms that can be discharged multiple times after a single ammunition reload from its magazine

A repeating firearm or repeater is any firearm that is capable of being fired repeatedly before having to be manually reloaded with new ammunition from the magazine.

References

  1. West, Bill R. (1964) Winchester For Over a Century Stockton Trade Press, p. III-7
  2. US Patent Number 681481: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=681481
  3. Winchester Repeating Arms Company 1910 Guns Catalog Reproduction by Cornell Military Publications. Brighton, MI 48114
  4. 1 2 Houze, Herbert G. (2003) Winchester's First Self-Loading Rifles National Rifle Association, American Rifleman 151(5): Washington. p. 51
  5. Schreier, Konrad F. Jr. (1990) Winchester Center Fire Automatic Rifles Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Armax III(1): Cody, Wyoming. p. 84

The Vintage Semi-Automatic Sporting Rifles Forum - Winchester Model 1910 - http://vintagesemiautorifle.proboards105.com/index.cgi?board=win10 Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine