Winchester (Firearms Manufacturer)

For the English city, see Winchester

Winchester is a major American firearms manufacturer founded in 1866 in New Haven, Connecticut. The Winchester brand is nowadays used under license by two subsidiaries of the Herstal Group, Browning Arms Company of Morgan, Utah and Fabrique Nationale (FN) of Belgium. Their most common product is the Winchester Model 70 bolt-action rifle and the original antique pre-1899 firearm referred to as the Winchester Rifle.

Winchester Ammunition[edit]

Olin Corporation now manufactures Winchester branded ammunition since the ammo part of the business was not sold to U.S. Repeating Arms. These product lines within the Winchester brand including Winchester Cowboy Loads revolver cartridges and the Supreme and Supreme Elite, Super-X, AA and Super Target shotgun shells.

Winchester was one of the leading designers of rifle ammunition since its founding in 1866. They are responsible for inventing some of the most popular cartridges in the history of firearms. These include the .30 WCF (.30-30), the .50 BMG, the .270 Winchester, the .308 Winchester, the .243 Winchester, the .22 WMR (.22 Magnum), and the .300 Winchester Magnum. The engineers from Browning and Winchester co-developed the Browning .50 caliber machine gun during World War I. Winchester's engineering team invented the .50 BMG caliber ammunition used by both the Browning machine gun and modern bolt-action sniper rifles such as the Barrett M99.

In the United States and Canada, Winchester's venerable .30-30 was the most popular hunting cartridge in history. Now the commercial civilian market version of the NATO military 7.62x51mm NATO cartridge, called the .308 Winchester, has surpassed the .30-30 in popularity^[1]

See also[edit]

• John Browning - famous Winchester firearms designer
• Winchester rifle
• Winchester Model 1894 lever-action rifle
• Winchester Model 70 bolt-action rifle
• Antique gun
• Essay:Why do conservatives own firearms?
• List of American firearms manufacturers

External links[edit]

• Winchester Ammunition
  • 427 N. Shamrock St. East Alton, Illinois 62024 618-258-2000
  • http://www.winchester.com
• Winchester Rifle Ammunition at AmmoSeek.com
• Winchester Handgun Ammunition at AmmoSeek.com
• Winchester Shotgun Ammunition at AmmoSeek.com
• Winchester official website
• Winchester Employees Tribute

References[edit]

1. ↑ Hawks, Chuck, Ever Popular .30's. Chuckhawks.com, Accessed January 14, 2015