Winchester Model 1911

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Winchester Model 1911 Self Loading shotgun
Winchester Model 1911
Type	Shotgun
Place of origin	United States
Production history
Designer	Thomas Crosley Johnson
Manufacturer	Winchester Repeating Arms Company
Produced	1911-1925
Variants	See text
Specifications
Caliber	12 gauge, 16 gauge, 20 gauge, 28 gauge
Action	long action recoil
Feed system	5-round tubular magazine
Sights	Bead

The Winchester Model 1911 SL Shotgun was a self-loading, recoil-operated shotgun^[1] produced by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company from 1911 to 1925. It was Winchester's first autoloading shotgun, but design flaws kept it from providing competition for the autoloading shotguns made by Remington Arms and Browning Arms Company.

Description and development

The Model 1911 SL (for "Self-Loading") shotgun was developed in 1911 by Thomas Crosley Johnson for the Winchester Repeating Arms Corporation. At the time, Winchester lacked an autoloading shotgun in its product offering, since the company had not accepted John Browning's conditions (he wanted to be paid on a royalty basis, without giving up his rights) for taking his 1898 autoloading design in production.^[2] The weapon rejected by Winchester was to become the Browning Auto-5 shotgun (also license-built as the Remington Model 11), and set the standard for autoloading shotgun designs until after World War II.

Due to patent restrictions on the 1898 design, Winchester was unable to copy the Browning design they had rejected earlier, the only autoloading shotgun design at the time, so Winchester had to adapt the design for their own production without infringing on Browning's patents; T.C. Johnson, reportedly, joked that "it took him nearly ten years to design an automatic shotgun (the Winchester 1911) which would not be an infringement on the Browning gun."^[2] One of Browning's patents was for the charging handle on the bolt of the 1905 shotgun; Winchester worked around this restriction by using the barrel as the mechanism to charge the weapon.^[3] In order to use the 1911 SL, a user would place the gun on safe, point the firearm in a safe direction, load the tubular magazine, and then pull back on the barrel by the checkered section. After disengaging the safety, the weapon was ready to fire.

The stock can be laminated with 3 separate lengthwise pieces glued together.

Design and safety flaws

The novel method of charging the 1911 could be potentially lethal if done incorrectly. Shotgun cartridges of the time were often made of paper, which could make the cartridge body vulnerable to expansion when exposed to moisture in large quantities. If this happened in the 1911, the barrel would have to be cycled in order to open the chamber so that the swelled shotgun shell could be removed. Some users mistakenly cycled the barrel by placing the butt of the weapon against the ground and forcing the barrel down. In this position, the muzzle of the weapon would be pointing towards the face of the user, and the swelled shell could fire, injuring or killing the user. This safety issue led to the Model 1911 being nicknamed "the Widowmaker".^[4] This situation could be avoided with adherence to safety procedures common to handling firearms, in particular, the practice of keeping the weapon pointed in a safe direction at all times.

The potential for slam fire when clearing jams was not the only flaw in the 1911's design. The system of buffer rings used to reduce the recoil (two fiber washers^[5]) when the weapon was fired often failed. The breakdown of these rings greatly increased the recoil when a round was fired. The gun's "hammering recoil" caused many a stock to split.^[3]

The sales of the "mechanically ill-fated" weapon lagged significantly behind those of Remington's and Browning's autoloaders,^[3] and Winchester ceased its production in 1925, after producing almost 83,000 of them.^[2] As recently as 2005, four people accidentally shot themselves with the 1911 while loading or clearing the weapon.^[6]

References

↑ Henshaw, Thomas (1993). The History of Winchester Firearms 1866-1992. Academic Learning Company. pp. 66–67. ISBN 978-0-8329-0503-2.
↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Williamson, Harold Francis (1952). Winchester: the gun that won the West. Combat Forces Press. p. 169.
↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Zutz, Don (2202). The Ducks Unlimited Guide to Shotgunning. Globe Pequot. p. 8. ISBN 978-1-57223-393-5.
↑ Shideler, Dan (December 4, 2010). "Shooting the Widowmaker: the Winchester Model 1911". Gun Digest. Retrieved October 16, 2013.
↑ Oliver, Doug (March 2007). "Three Questions". American Gunsmith 22 (3): 22. |accessdate= requires |url= (help)
↑ Russell, Doug (2005-12-22). "Gun goes off; four injured". McAlester News-Capital. Retrieved 2009-12-22.

Winchester Firearms and Cartridges

Rifles

Lever-Action	Henry rifle Model 1866 Model 1873 Model 1876 Model 1886 Model 1892 Model 1894 Model 1895 Model 53 Model 55 Model 64 Model 65 Model 71 Model 88 Model 150 Model 250 Model 255 Model 9422

Bolt Action	Model 1878 Hotchkiss Model 1895 Lee Navy Model 1900 Model 1902 Model 1904 Model 43 Model 47 Model 51 Imperial Model 52 Model 54 Model 56 Model 57 Model 58 Model 59 Model 60 Model 60A Model 67 Model 68 Model 69 Model 70 Model 72 Model 75 Model 121 Model 131 Model 141 Model 320 Model 325 Model 670 Model 770

Pump-Action	Model 1890 Model 1906 Model 61 Model 62 Model 62A Model 270

Semi-Automatic	Model 1903 Model 1905 Model 1907 Model 1910 Model 30 Model 63 Model 74 Model 77 Model 100 Model 190 Model 490

Falling-block action	Model 1885

Shotguns

Pump-Action	Model 1893 Model 1897 Model 1912 Model 25 Model 42 Model 1200 Model 1300

Lever-Action	Model 1887 Model 1901 Model 9410

single-shot	Model 20 Model 36 Model 37 Model 37A Model 41

double-barrel	Model 21 Model 24 Model 96 Model 101

Semi-Automatic	Model 1911 SL Model 40 Model 50 Model 59 Model 1400 Model 1500 SX-1

Cartridges

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