Winchester Supreme

Guns Magazine, July, 2000 by Holt Bodinson

With a durable, innovative design, this new Over/Under is a tribute to the classic shotguns of yesterday.

It's been a wait of 13 years for Winchester to resume production of an over/under shotgun. There's no need to hunt for used Model 101s any longer. The new Winchester Supremes are here. They're made right, priced right, and they should be arriving on dealer's shelves around mid-year.

The big surprise is the stamping on the barrel that reads: "Made In Belgium." The new Winchesters follow in the proud steps of the Browning Superposed. They're precision made by Fabrique Nationale, and, like the Browning Gold and BAR, are assembled and finished in Portugal.

The product of Belgium and U.S. design and research, the Winchester Supreme will be offered in two models initially -- Field and Sporting Clays -- and for at least the coming year, in 12 gauge only. The future should include an increasing variety of gauges, barrel lengths and sport-specific models.

A Gun Made Right

The design team responsible for the Supreme got it right. The barrels are secured to the shallow frame by receiver-mounted trunions rather than a hinge pin. The result is a strong, light, compact action, free from any projections that would interfere with loading. More importantly, the shallow-frame action of the Supreme facilitates the ideal hands-in-line, hand-to-barrel relationship so important to accurate shotgunning.

The Supreme has been carefully designed to compensate for wear over time. The locking system consists of two cone-profiled locking bolts that work through the standing breech and mate with tapered locking recesses positioned between the barrels. In addition, there is a heavy recoil lug that engages at the bottom of the receiver.

Being independently mounted, the tapered locking bolts are self-adjusting and are able to wear-in separately to maintain a perfect seat in the matching recesses of the mono-bloc. There is also an adjusting screw incorporated in the forearm iron that can be turned to compensate for overall wear.

The barrels of the Field and Sporting grade guns are back-bored and accept Invector Plus choke tubes. The 3" chambers of the Field grade and 2 3/4" chambers of the Sporting version are fully chrome-plated to prevent corrosion and facilitate extraction.

The Field grade is offered with a 28" barrel with a 6mm ventilated rib and weighs 7 lbs. 6 oz. The Sporting version is offered with either 28" or 30" ported barrels. Carrying a competition 10mm ventilated rib, the gun weighs between 7 lbs. 9 oz. and 7 lbs. 12 oz.

Swing And Control

Both grades of Winchester are stocked in straight-grained, checkered walnut and share common stock dimensions -- 14 1/4" length of pull; 1 3/8" drop at comb; 2 1/4" drop at heel. The Field model features a schnabel forearm that I find aesthetically pleasing and easy to handle. The Sporting version carries a semi-beavertail forearm with deep finger grooves that provides excellent hand and swing control. Both models are being offered initially with full pistol grips. Wood-to-metal fit is uniform and well executed.

One of the useful touches found on both models is a resilient recoil pad that carries a polymer insert in the heel. This prevents the stock from snagging on a shooter's coat or vest.

The new Winchesters feature inertial triggers and a conventional tang safety that also doubles as a barrel selector. The competition trigger of the Sporting model is adjustable 1/8" fore-and-aft and is available with three different trigger shoes.

Visually, the greatest differences between both models are their respective actions. The action of the Supreme Sporting model is blued and roll-engraved with scrolls and the scene of a rising pheasant on the right panel and a rising quail on the left.

The Sporting action carries a durable silver-nitride finish and handsome, scalloped side panels with the words "Supreme Sporting" engraved on both panels as well as an engraved picture of a breaking clay pigeon on the bottom of the receiver.

Going To The Range

Shooting a variety of Winchester's new AA target and Supreme high velocity field loads through both models over an outstanding sporting clays course at the National Shooting Complex in San Antonio, Texas, I came away suitably impressed. The guns are natural pointers, fit well and performed flawlessly over a tough competition course.

While I favor the aesthetics and forearm design of the Sporting version, I could hit the clays equally well with either gun -- which, personally speaking, says a lot more for the inherently excellent design of the Supremes than it does the shooter. And so it was with quail as well.

Wild bobwhites bear as little resemblance to their pen-raised kin as Cessnas do to F-16s. In the dense brush around Hondo, Texas, the little gray rockets seemed to come out of nowhere and end their darting flights in the next county. My guide was Richard Key of Key Hole Outdoors, who brought along some great German shorthairs and some hunting pals. Under severely hot and dry conditions, the birding could not have been a better test for a new shotgun.