Winchester vs Colt

[TRAP55]

There's an "unofficial" story I've heard for years, about when Colt was starting to give Winchester some serious competition with the Lightning Pump Action rifle.
Winchester hired a couple of Colt ex-employees to design a revolver to compete with the Colt SAA, and 1878 Double Action, and make it cheaper to produce.
As the story goes, Winchester met with Colt, and let them have a "hands on" look at their prototype. A deal was made that if Winchester stayed out of the handgun business, Colt would get out of the rifle business. Colt made the last Lightning Rifle in 1904, and Winchester never produced the Model 1883 Double Action.
I knew the revolver existed, but had never seen it until now when I ran across this:

http://www.historicalfirearms.info/post/153837543574/winchester-model-1883-prototype-double-action/embed

Easy to see it's design heritage coming from the Colt 1878 and the Remington Model 1875.

[pitfighter]

Great stuff - we've all heard the story, interesting to see the revolver.

[Sutcliffe]

Tiny grip on that thing

Probably worth a mint.

[CinnamonBear723]

Thanks for sharing. Cool piece of history for sure.

[Croweman08]

I believe winchester also made a few prototype bolt action handguns......

[TRAP55]

Probably worth a mint.

My first thought too, like the surviving .45acp Trials Luger. The Cody Museum may have it, I'm still trying to find out who has it. I'm surprised Uberti hasn't made a repro yet.
Two interesting digs to Colt that I noticed, the prototype was supposed to be chambered in 44/40 WCF, but completed in .45 Colt. The other is the Bisley birdshead grip. Would like to have been a fly on the wall at that meeting!

[Kevfin]

Thank you for the information. I did not know that. The gun looks really cool too. I wonder how many copies of this prototype exist and who has them?

[DirtyRussianAmmo]

Thanks for sharing, TRAP. Great bit of inside history.

[Enfield47]

What a cool story. I didn't know that Winchester and Colt were so at odds with one another's designs. Thanks for posting about it.

[TRAP55]

Winchester decided to market the Model 1890 instead of this lever action that JM Browning had just completed. It remained a prototype, and never produced.

https://collections.centerofthewest.org/view/firearm_rifle_lever_action_winchester_repeating_arms_co_new_haven_ct_mason?Makers%5B0%5D=winchester_repeating_arms_co_new_haven_ct3&Makers%5B1%5D=winchester_repeating_arms_co_new_haven_ct3&partial=0&bbm=0&wg=1&cfm=1&pim=0&dmnh=0&ondisplay=1&offset=28&maxOffset=417