The high road for the high-wall: John Browning's first design for Winchester is lovingly recreated

Guns Magazine, Nov, 2005 by Holt Bodinson

Sometime in 1883, a Winchester salesman named Andrew McAusland bought a well-used single-shot rifle with the inscription, "Browning Brothers, Ogden, Utah" stamped on the barrel. The action intrigued him. It was simple, compact, strong and rather elegant. The breechblock functioned like a Sharps, but the firing pin worked in a straight line, and there was a centrally located hammer that was lowered and cocked with the movement of the under lever. Overall the rifle exhibited quality workmanship, yet he had never heard of the makers and patent holders, much less their place of business. Still, thinking the innovative design might be of interest to the Winchester management and engineering staff, McAusland shipped the rifle back to New Haven, Conn.

John Moses Browning's design certainly was of interest. One week after its arrival, Oliver Winchester's son-in-law, Thomas G. Bennett, Vice-President and General Manager of Winchester, boarded a train and headed to Utah to talk some business with those Browning boys.

The meeting between Browning and Bennett is one of those fortuitous events in the history of firearms that resulted in combining the design genius of John Browning with the production and marketing capability of Winchester. The combination made both sides famous and wealthy.

The negotiations lasted only one day and Browning asked $10,000 for the patent rights. He also enticed Bennett a bit with the hint that he was sitting on a repeating rifle design capable of handling the most powerful cartridges of the day (Winchester had only the relatively weak Model 1876, while rival Marlin had the 1881 chambered for the .40-60 Marlin and the .45-70).

Bennett countered with an offer of $8,000 and with a proviso that Winchester be given first right-of-refusal to Browning's repeating rifle design (later to become the popular 1886 Winchester). Browning accepted Bennett's offer. The deal concluded, Bennett scooped up all the finished rifles in the shop and returned to New Haven.

The Single Shot

Winchester did not catalog the new single shot until 1885. In the interim, its engineering staff modified and improved the basic Browning design for production purposes. Among the modifications, the Browning breechblock, operating at 90 degrees to the bore, was given a 6-degree cant so that the block cammed the head of the case into the chamber. Browning's spring-retracted firing pin was replaced with a cam-activated one and the tip diameter reduced. A safety gas vent was incorporated from the firing pin channel to the top of the breechblock. High Wall, Low Wall, and takedown actions were added to the line. Single- and double-set triggers were offered as options. Flat springs were replaced by coil springs in 1908.

The Winchester Single-Shot was kept in production for 35 years with total production exceeding 139,000 units. The options in barrels, stocking and sights were endless. It was the first commercial sporting arm in America adapted to smokeless powder loads with the chambering of the .30-40 Krag, In fact, the Winchester Single-Shot was chambered for a greater variety of cartridges than any rifle in history with calibers offered ranging from the diminutive .22 BB cap to the .577 Eley, including proprietary Sharps and Ballard cartridges.

New Blood

The new Ballard company has decided to reciprocate after all these years by recreating the Winchester High Wall and Low Wall. Ballard Rifle, LLC located in Cody, Wyoming, is, in fact, the actual successor company to the original Ballard Rifle Co. And, yes, it makes a variety of beautiful Marlin Ballards of every variation, restores original Ballards, and offers a complete catalog of original-dimensioned parts, sights and bullet moulds.

Having resurrected the Ballard, the company has turned its sights on the Winchester High Wall and Low Wall, and they've hit the mark. Unlike many other attempts to copy to some degree the Winchester single-shot design, Ballard Rifle has recreated it exactly to the extent that all of their parts are interchangeable with the originals. Better yet, Ballard is making nine different models of the single-shot ranging from a big-bore "Safari" express model to a Low Wall "Hunter" chambered for popular varmint cartridges.

I admit to having a soft spot when it comes to single shots. There is simply something racy, clean and uncluttered about them, plus they stir up images of a romantic past. They're the buffalo gun, the Creedmoor match rifle, and the big-bore Farquharson on safari in some distant land. So when Kelly McNitt, President of Ballard Rifle, and Earl Hines, old friend, Coors Match champion and crack machinist at Ballard, spoke with me about their new Winchester line, I just had to see it for myself.

It wasn't long before a "Safari" express model in .405 WCF and a "Varminter" in .22-250 Rem were in hand. Those two distinctive models in two vastly different chamberings typify the versatility of the single shot. There are no feeding problems to contend with or issues about action length or stock design. The single shot is like a chameleon. It takes on whatever form you want it to and swallows and digests whatever you feed it.