Winchester rifle

“ The magazine rifle, which is destined to become the military arm of the future, can hardly merit a place among sporting rifles, as it must always possess the disadvantage of altering its balance as the ammunition is expended. The Winchester Company have, I believe, produced a great improvement in a rifle of this kind, '400, which carries a charge of 110 grains of powder; but even so small a bore must be unhandy if the rifle is arranged to contain a supply of cartridges. ”

“ Any man who has fired a Winchester knows that it drops its empty shell in loading, and I could therefore draw only one conclusion—namely, that all seven discharges of the Winchesters had occurred up by the mail-car. I had heard of men supposing they had fired their guns through hearing another go off; but with a repeating rifle one has to fire before one can reload. The fact was evident that Albert Cullen either had fired his Winchester up by the mail-car, or else had not fired it at all. In either case he had lied, and Lord Ralles and Captain Ackland had backed him up in it. ”

“ With a Winchester .22 automatic rifle I can put the ten shots in three seconds into a two-inch bull at twenty yards, the only time spent is in getting the aim for the first shot, the other shots can be put in as fast as the trigger can be pressed, as there is no recoil, and therefore no time spent in getting a fresh aim for each shot. ”

“ They shot with both hands at the same time, with the hammer underneath, holding the rifle in one hand, and never, when it was a revolver they were using, with a glance at the sights. They would sometimes fire four shots from a Winchester between the time they had picked it up from the ground and before it had nestled comfortably against their shoulder. They also sent one man on a pony racing around a tree about as thick as a man’s leg, and were dissatisfied because he only put four out of six shots into it. ”

“ Now about the gun. If you are in a large game country it is quite necessary that you carry a good rifle. I like the Winchester and not of too large a caliber, but if there is no large game in the locality then I think one should have a Stevens pistol, ten-inch barrel, or a Stevens Pocket Shotgun, 15-inch barrel, and in either case have a good holster to carry it in. As for myself I prefer a Pocket Shotgun. It might be well to have a large shotgun in camp. You will also want your belt axe or hatchet and a good heavy sharp axe at the camp. ”

“ There is a great deal of bear hunting done in the summer months, but it is contrary to the laws of nature, and should not be indulged in by any true sportsman. The skins are nearly worthless then, while in the autumn they are prime; the heat is oppressive, and the flies and mosquitoes are great pests.
The best arm for this class of game is a repeating rifle of large calibre, 45 or 50, carrying a large [179] charge of powder and a solid bullet. The new Winchester express, 50/110, with solid ball, is perhaps the best in the market, all things considered. ”

“ The only animals that can be classed as dangerous are the jaguar and white-jawed peccary, and a 30-30 or 44 calibre is heavy enough for such game. The 44-calibre Winchester or Remington carbine is the arm generally used throughout South America, and 44 calibre is the only ammunition that one can depend upon securing in the field. Every man has his own preference for an arm. However, there is no need of carrying a nine or ten pound weapon when a rifle weighing only from six and three fourths to seven and one half pounds will do all that is necessary. ”

“ Leo quietly got ready his Winchester repeater, a rifle which, as the reader probably knows, can discharge a dozen or more shots in rapid succession; the cartridges being contained in a case resembling a thick ram-rod under the barrel, from which they are thrust almost instantaneously into their places. ”

“ Thar's the lively tones of a Winchester which starts the canyon's echoes to talkin'. That rifle ain't forty foot away, an' it speaks three times before ever you- all, son, could snap your fingers. An' that weepon don't make them observations in vain. It ain't firin' no salootes. Quick as is the work, the sights shifts to a new target every time. At the last, all three hold-ups lays kickin' an' jumpin' like chickens that a-way, two is dead an' the other is too hard hit to respond. ”

“ Unlike the spur on the western side of the gulch, this one was thinly wooded and was besprent with a scattering of boulders; he was in constant fear of dislodging one of these and thus giving a premature alarm. With the occasional crack of a rifle in the depths below to guide him, he finally reached a height from which he could look down upon the clump of young firs; and squeezing himself between two of the surface boulders he pumped the loading lever of the Winchester and prepared to give the firing signal agreed upon. ”

“ As soon as we were located in the new camp, Privates Nevill, Bell and Seiker obtained permission from Captain Roberts to visit Austin to buy a case of ten Winchesters. Up to this time the company was armed with a .50 caliber Sharps carbine. These guns would heat easily and thus were very inaccurate shooters. The state furnished this weapon to its rangers at a cost of $17.50, and at that time furnished no other class of gun. The new center fire [Pg 86] 1873 model Winchester had just appeared on the market and sold at $50 for the rifle and $40 for the carbine. ”

“ Then, through our interpreter, the boy placed an order for a boy's-size Winchester, instructing us to make the best rifle that money could buy, very light and small, but large enough to kill sixteen rebels without reloading. We entered the order on the seared and yellow pages of our Christian consciences. Our fame as fabricants of arms threatened to get us into trouble; inquiries and demands for repairs increased each day. ”

“ Taking up his position opposite his cousin, Grenville looked at his watch and found it was after two o’clock in the morning; the pair then proceeded carefully to wipe out their Winchester rifles, and each felt happier when he lowered his gun with the magazine chock-full of cartridges. These rifles, though made on the Winchester pattern, carried a heavy shell-bullet, and had proved themselves uncommonly serviceable weapons amongst the heaviest game, and, as both men were crack shots, any hostile person getting within range was likely to have an unpleasantly hot time of it. ”

“ A good revolver is always a source of interest and amusement (perhaps sometimes of awe) to uncivilised people, and a good double breech-loading shot-gun is really useful, besides affording some amusement to the traveller who obtains food or natural history specimens thereby. Where there are wild pigs, deer, elephant, or other large game, a rifle is of service, and a Winchester repeater is both handy and effective, weighing about 10 lb. A shot-gun is the most useful, however, of all weapons, and if fitted with ball or No. ”

“ Tyler Henry, an old and first-class workman of Robbins & Lawrence, made in New Haven great improvements on the Jennings rifle. After this it went into the hands of the Winchester Arms Company of New Haven. They made great improvements on the gun and called it the Winchester Repeating Rifle. It is the outcrop of the old Jennings rifle.” [221]
[221] From the Hartford Evening Post, Tuesday, Feb. 25, 1890.
[295]
A PARTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY ON TOOL BUILDING
Smiles: Industrial Biography. Boston, 1864. Smiles: Men of Invention and Industry. N. Y., 1885. Smiles: Boulton and Watt. London, 1904. ”

“ Rooks and rabbits are shot with miniature rifles but the rooks are shot when young and unable to fly, sitting on the branches of the trees near their nests, and the rabbits also when sitting outside their holes.
In England the general public never shoot rifles in sport, except those who shoot sitting shots at rooks and rabbits.
The idea has therefore arisen that the rifle and [Pg 155] pistol are not weapons to use in sport but merely implements at the game of bull’s-eye shooting, and that the shotgun is the sporting firearm. ”

“ They do not know the difference between a shotgun or rifle. Both are “sporting rifles” to them and a military rifle is a “gun.”
A man does not put a razor to the throat of another in play, but he thinks it “humour” to take up a firearm, point it at another and pull the trigger.
The extraordinary thing is that if the “did not know it was loaded” man were taken to a range and asked to hit a target, he would miss it every shot, but he never misses his victim when he is playing at the game of “I did not know it was loaded.” He kills his victim every time. ”

“ When it gets up to ranges of twenty-five or more yards, or to hitting a smaller object at closer range, his sense of direction must be aided by aim.
Almost all makers of pistols make the sights of their pistols wrong; the only proper sights are those on French duelling pistols (see Plates 2 and 10) .
The reason is obvious; for duelling a man has to snap shoot. All other pistol shooting, with very [Pg 63] few exceptions, is very artificial and has been done in deliberate shooting at small black bull’s-eyes just as rifle shooting was spoilt. ”

“ The Spencer Repeating Carbine, first patented in 1860, was a seven-shot repeater that weighed 81⁄4 pounds and had an effective range of 2,000 yards. The Spencer was capable of 15 shots per minute—three times the firepower of the Springfield. Another popular carbine among Federal soldiers was the 15-shot Henry repeater, which was a .42-caliber, rimfire carbine of extraordinary accuracy. About 10,000 of these weapons saw service in the Civil War. This gun was the forerunner of the modern Winchester carbine. ”

“ There is no direct danger to the eyes in pistol shooting, that is to say, with a good pistol there is no chance of a blow back of fire into the eyes, as there is in a cheap, rim fire rifle. The eyes are apt, however, to get bloodshot and sore from powder smoke blown back into them in a head wind, especially from the ejecting cartridge of an automatic pistol.
When doing much shooting daily out-of-doors it is well to wear a pair of big diameter spectacles fitting well behind the ears so that they do not shift. ”

“ A man who has worked hard all his life to become a “crack shot” at a stationary target is not going to risk his reputation by being beaten by a school boy at a moving target.
At the revolver ranges, moving, disappearing, and rapid-firing competitions were instituted but had very little support; a few men shot, but half a dozen men do not constitute a big enough crowd [Pg 157] to warrant the keeping up of competitions which the bulk of shooters do not want.
On the Continent, shooting under practical conditions has always marked the shooting at rifle and pistol clubs. ”

“ I opened the revolver, and a thin shred of lead fell out, showing the bullet had been deformed as it entered the barrel.
A bad shot from such a cause cannot happen to an automatic or a single-shot pistol.
A near-sighted man is at more disadvantage in pistol shooting than in rifle shooting.
With a rifle the hind sight can be fixed to the barrel nearer, or further from the eye until it is at just the right distance to suit the shooter. ”

“ Then he would see the man target at twenty-five meters quite well enough to be able to hit it. It is not necessary for him to see his back sight distinctly.
A good pistol-shot does not focus his eyes on his back sight. That comes in line by itself when he gets into the mechanical lift of his arm.
As I have already mentioned a long-sighted man can continue pistol shooting without wearing glasses after he needs them for reading. But a long-sighted man is apt, when he finds he begins to see the hind sight of his rifle not as clearly as formerly, to use glasses. ”

“ Inventors vie with each other as to who can produce an automatic pistol having the most powerful cartridge, just as rifle inventors do.
What is wanted is not a more powerful automatic pistol, the present ones are far too powerful, but a weak power, large bore one with an extremely light charge corresponding to the duelling pistol, that is to say, one shooting a round bullet of .44 calibre with a very small charge of smokeless powder. ”

“ Variations in the rifling and—where muzzle-loading is abandoned—in the appliances of the chamber will continue to be made, as they have heretofore been made without number numberless. The patterns now fashionable will give place to others, in their turn to be dropped like a last year's coat. Remington, Winchester and the rest will retire in favor of new contrivers, devoted, like them, to the simple task of facilitating the flight of the leaden arrow with its grooved feather in steel or iron. ”

“ It is this want of knowledge of shotgun shooting which makes men shoot a pistol as if it were a rifle being used at a stationary target.
These men only understand lying down with a rifle, and poking about with the sights to find the target after they have put the rifle to their shoulder. Some have a lot of incantations first; they aim at the sky, bring the rifle down slowly, and then make a bull’s-eye on the wrong target as they naturally cannot know which is theirs of a string of targets, if they only fish about looking through a pin hole for it ”

“ An open-air range can only be installed in the country, away from buildings or annoyance to others. Even then it is not immune. Just before the war several rifle ranges in England were ordered to be closed because they inconvenienced golf players, and of course golf is much more important than shooting.
The present automatic pistol with its heavy charge makes such a noise that it can only be shot in an open-air range, well away from houses. The objection to such a range is that it takes so long to get to. ”