Winchester handguns

[smle-man]

Visiting the Cody firearms collection I was introduced to several examples of the Winchester revolvers that were developed to convince Colt not to enter into the rifle market in a meaningful way. According to the tour guide, Colt agreed to stop production on the large frame Lightning after only producing about 5,000. Winchester never proceeded with their revolver design.

During WW1 Winchester received a contract for 1911 pistols but beyond from frame forgings and various small parts they never completed one by the war's end.

[ironhorse1]

Colt was producing the the Burgess lever-action rifle of 1883.

Winchester manufactured prototype revolvers designed by William Mason in 1883.

Mr. Bennett went to Colt to show them the revolvers.

Mr. Bennett convinced the President of Colt not to make rifles and Winchester would not make revolvers.

That's about as short of explanation I can make with the information taken from the book Winchester by R.L. Wilson.

irh

[ironhorse1]

Checking another Winchester book the story above is confirmed but with an exception.

Colt did manufacture the slide action/pump Colt Lighting magazine rifles in 1885. The agreement only applied to lever action rifles.

This was direct competition to the Winchester slide-action rifles in 1890.

irh

[Elgatodeacero]

I do not believe the Colt-Winchester Agreement is a true story.

An excellent discussion of this issue is laid out in a great book about the Burgess rifles called Lever Action Magazine Rifles by Samuel Maxwell, Sr. published 1976.

He lays out the alleged Agreement, then factually, with correspondence between officials at Springfield National Armory, shows it is not an accurate story.

Mr. Maxwell’s conclusion is that Colt was a much stronger company than Winchester and so could not be successfully threatened and the Burgess Rifle by Colt simply did not sell well. The Colt Lightning was selling for around 19 dollars, and the Burgess was selling for 25-27 dollars due in large part to royalty payments that had to be made to Burgess.

He also concludes Winchester had its hands full fighting off lever guns by Whitney (the Kennedy rifle) and Marlin (with the 1881).

An excellent book on Burgess rifles with a whole chapter about why the alleged Colt-Winchester Agreement is not true. Worth seeking out this rare book.