Winchester’s Self Loading Rifles
In the early 1900s, following the acrimonious split with John Browning, Winchester turned to one of its promising young designers. Thomas Crossley Johnson is perhaps one of the lesser known alumni of the generation of great firearms designers but his body of work is impressive.
T.C. Johnson was responsible for Winchester’s line of highly successful semi-automatic rifles developed between 1900 and 1910. Johnson’s first success came in 1903, with the introduction of the Model 1903, a .22 semi-automatic rifle. The 1903 was the first semi-automatic rifle designed and commercially offered in North America. The new rifle came at an important time for Winchester in the wake of the break up of the lucrative Winchester-Browning partnership which had seen Winchester purchase every major design and invention the Browning brothers offered them.
So important was Johnson’s new .22 rifle to Winchester that the company wrote to its dealers and salesmen stating that “any suggestion of their [the Brownings] claiming that they are the ‘whole thing’ and there is nothing left, the .22 Automatic gun is our answer…”
Johnson’s patent showing the Model 1903’s tube magazine and action (source)
Johnson patented his new semi-automatic take-down rifle in April 1901, the Model 1903 (see image #1) retained the classic Winchester receiver shape reminiscent of the company’s lever action rifles but used a blowback action and fed from a 10-round tube magazine in the butt rather than beneath the barrel.
By the early 1930s Winchester had built 126,000 Model 1903s. In 1933, Winchester re-introduced the M1903 as the Model 63, chambered in the popular .22LR cartridge. Approximately 175,000 Model 63s were made before production finally ended in the late 1950s.
From 1903 into the late 1920s Johnson was responsible for many of Winchester’s new guns, becoming the company’s chief designer in 1907. The company steadily introduced a series of self loading rifles including the Model 1905, Model 1907, and Model 1910. Johnson filed a patent protecting the design of what would become the Model 1905 in June 1902.
Johnson’s patent showing the Model 1905 (source)
In another first the Model 1905 (see image #2) was the first centre fire, semi-automatic rifle to be sold commercially in the US. It used the same blowback action as Johnson’s earlier .22 calibre rifle but was chambered in .32 and .35 Winchester Self-Loading. Instead of a tube magazine the 1905 fed from either 5 or 10 round single-stack box magazines. Like the 1903, the 1905 didn’t use a conventional charging handle – instead it had an ‘operating sleeve’ beneath the barrel, projecting from the forend.
In 1907 Winchester released a more powerful version of the rifle (see image #3) chambered in .351 Winchester Self-loading suitable for hunting medium sized game. It also proved popular with police departments and saw limited military use during World War One with France, Britain, Russia and the US. Both the 1907 and the later 1910 had noticeably thicker fore-ends to prevent cracking.
Johnson’s final blowback rifle was the Model 1910 (see image #4), chambered in .401 Winchester Self-Loading, designed for hunting larger game such as deer. Like the Model 1907 the 1910 saw some military purchases from France and Russia during the Great War. The 1910 remained in production for nearly 30 years, with Winchester manufacturing over 20,000.
T.C. Johnson’s semi-automatic rifle designs were instrumental in aiding Winchester to survive the split from Browning, on whom they had relied for so long. Johnson remained at Winchester for his entire career and also developed several shotguns and a series of bolt action rifles, including the Model 54 hunting rifle, he died in June 1934.
Sources:
Images: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Patents: US #681,481, US #720,698
Winchester Repeating Arms Company 1865-1981, H.A. Houze, (2004)
The History of Winchester Firearms 1866-1992, T. Henshaw, (1993)
Winchester: The Gun That Won the West, H. F. Williamson. (1952)
I’ve written more about Johnson’s life and work here
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