The Model 12 shotgun came in 1912 and in 1921, Winchester launched the Super-X brand of shotshells, still sold today. Winchester’s success continued into the 20th Century and through the first World War. The Winchester 94 in “30-30” combination has undoubtedly accounted for the taking of more North American game than any other. 30-30 Winchester cartridge, the first commercial sporting round in the United States designed for smokeless powder. Winchester Ammunition in the Smokeless Era Over the next several decades, in partnership with prolific firearms inventor John Moses Browning, Winchester introduced a series of highly successful rifles including the Models 1886, 1892, 1894, and 1895, as well as the Model 1897, the first commercially successful pump-action shotgun. Along with it came the 44-40 Winchester round, the company’s first centerfire metallic cartridge. In 1873, Winchester introduced the Model 1873, the Gun that Won the West. It fired an anemic 44 caliber rimfire round but was easier to load than the Henry. The new company’s first rifle was the Model 1866, known as the Yellow Boy for its brass-framed receiver. In 1866, following a business dispute with Henry, Winchester reorganized again as Winchester Repeating Arms Company, and the rest, as they say, is history. Reorganized as New Haven Arms with Henry as foreman and designer, the new company built the famous Henry rifle that saw extensive use by the Union Army during the Civil War. The Volcanic design failed commercially and the company went bankrupt the following year, but its legacy is the connection of several influential technologies and personalities, including Winchester and Benjamin Henry. An early investor in Volcanic was a New Haven, Connecticut, clothing manufacturer named Oliver Winchester, who saw opportunity in New England’s booming firearms industry. Winchester traces its origins back to the 1850s when partners Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson (later of Smith & Wesson fame) brought several earlier firearm and ammunition developments to market as the Volcanic Repeating Arms Company. Although this post is primarily about Winchester ammunition, we can’t discuss ammunition without also talking about some of the company’s most famous rifles. It’s synonymous with many iconic firearms and some of the most popular calibers of ammunition in the world. For more than 150 years, Winchester has been one of the most famous names in the firearms industry.
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