U.S. Repeating Arms Co

Shooting Industry, March, 1996 by Robert M. Hausman

A spirit of cooperation and a commitment to quality characterize the atmosphere at U.S. Repeating Arms co.'s new $15 million plant. Opened in October 1994 in New Haven, Conn., the 225,000-square-foot plant house state-of-the-art equipment run by approximately 550 employees. The company that builds Winchester rifles and shotguns has come a long way from the Volcanic Repeating Arms Co.

Oliver F. Winchester, born in Boston in 1810, worked initially as a carpenter. By 1830 he was a master builder - supervising home and building construction in the Baltimore. Md., area. In 1834 he went into the clothing business and by 1855 began to invest in other businesses.

One of the new businesses was the Volcanic Repeating Arms Co., a manufacturer of a lever-action handgun and carbine. Winchester became a director of the company and moved the firm from Norwich to New Haven,Conn. He became its president a year later and changed its name to the New Haven Arms Co.

In 1860, the Henry repeating rifle, invented by B. Tyler Henry, a Volcanic employee, was patented and in 1862 the first Henry rifles were sold. During the Civil War the Henry rifle saw service on both sides and was often referred to by Southerners as the Damn Yankee Rifle which could be "loaded on Sunday and fired all week long without reloading." O.F. Winchester, well known for his promotion skills, said of the Henry rifle, "It is very powerful for its size, and because of the rapidity with which it can be loaded and fired, 10 men armed with them are a match for 50 armed with any other gun." Magazine capacity was usually 17 for the rifle versions and 13 for the carbine.

In 1866, Winchester bought a controlling interest in New Haven Arms and changed its name to the Winchester Repeating Arms Co. In the same year, the Model 1866 Yellow Boy lever action was introduced - the first gun to bear the Winchester name. In early advertising, The Winchester Man was described as "slow to rile, but when he picked up his Winchester, he meant business; there wouldn't be a lot of banging - you need only one shot with a Winchester." The rifles sold rapidly during the post war years as it was a time of westward expansion and they not only served to ward off bandits and Indians, but also to put meat on the table for the western settlers.

In 1878, at the age of 23, John Browning filed for a patent for a single-shot rifle and a year later built a small gun factory in Ogden, Utah. He manufactured 25 rifles and sold them all within a week. Sometime in 1883, a Winchester salesman came across John Browning's single-shot rifle. Within a week, T.G. Bennet, vice president of Winchester and the son-in-law of Oliver Winchester, was on his way to Utah to buy the gun. The rifle became the Winchester Model 1885.

Its simplicity of design allowed it to be chambered for all cartridges from .22 to .70 caliber giving Winchester a virtual market monopoly on single-shot rifles.

Two of Winchester's most famed products - the Model 94 lever-action rifle which has sold over 5 million units in its over 100 years of production. as well as the Model 1895 big-game rifle which was referred to by Theodore Roosevelt as his "big medicine" - were both invented by John Browning. In all, Browning developed 44 guns for Winchester over the course of a 19-year relationship before finally parting company in 1901. This relationship was revived by GIAT Industries in 1991 with its acquisition of Browning Arms Co.

It is rumored that Browning firearms will eventually be produced in Winchester's new plant. But Ken Heitz, Winchester product manager says, "At the present time, Browning manufacturing operations are not planned to be consolidated within the New Haven plant. Browning's main products continue to be manufactured in Japan and Europe."

The first Winchester bolt action was the Model 1883 Hotchkiss Magazine Gun produced in the year 1883. The first of the firm's semi-auto shotguns was introduced in 1911 and was called appropriately, the Model 1911. In 1930, the Model 21 side-by-side shotgun first made its appearance. and has come to be considered the premier American made double. In 1931, the Olin Corp. purchased the Winchester Repeating Arms Co. and combined it with the Western Cartridge Co. In 1936, the famed Model 70 centerfire bolt action rifle was introduced as the first centerfire bolt action designed by Winchester specifically for sporting use. Other Winchester innovations included the patented invention of the double magazine lube that is still in use today for .22 caliber tubular magazine repeaters.

In 1981, USRAC was formed and continued manufacturing Winchester-brand rifles and shotguns under license from Olin Corp. USRAC, which licenses the Winchester name from Olin Corp., was acquired by the French government-owned defense contractor giant GIAT Industries in late 1990. GIAT has since made a nearly $50 million investment to keep the Winchester rifle and shotgun tradition alive. The City of New Haven and the State of Connecticut have done their part by providing about $40 million in loans and tax abatements.