Winchester Repeating Arms Company The Winchester Repeating Arms Company was a prominent American maker of repeating firearm s , located in New Haven , Connecticut . The Winchester brand is today used under license by two subsidiaries of the Herstal Group , Fabrique Nationale ( FN ) of Belgium and the Browning Arms Company of Morgan , Utah . Early history . Predecessors . The ancestor of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company was the Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson partnership of Norwich , Connecticut ( not to be confused with the famous Smith & Wesson Revolver Company founded later by the same men ) . Smith & Wesson acquired Lewis Jennings ' improved version of inventor Walter Hunt ' s 1848 " Volition Repeating Rifle " and its caseless " Rocket Ball " ammunition , which had been produced in small numbers by Robbins & Lawrence of Windsor , Vermont . Jennings ' rifle was a commercial failure , and Robbins & Lawrence ceased production in 1852 . Smith designed a much - improved rifle based on Jennings ' , and the partners also hired away Robbins & Lawrence shop foreman Benjamin Tyler Henry . In 1855 the Smith & Wesson partnership , in order to manufacture what they called the " Volcanic " lever - action rifle and pistol , sought investors and incorporated as the Volcanic Repeating Arms Company . Its largest stockholder was clothing manufacturer Oliver Winchester . The Volcanic rifle had only limited success . The company moved to New Haven ( without Smith or Wesson ) in 1856 , but by the end of that year became insolvent . Oliver Winchester and his partner John M . Davies purchased the bankrupt firm ' s assets from the remaining stockholders , and reorganized it as the New Haven Arms Company in April 1857 . After Smith ' s departure Benjamin Henry continued to work with a Smith development project , the self - contained metallic rimfire cartridge , and perfected the much larger , more powerful . 44 Henry round . Henry also supervised a new rifle design based loosely on the Volcanic to use the new ammunition , retaining only the general form of the breech mechanism and the tubular magazine . This became the Henry rifle of 1860 , which was manufactured by the New Haven Arms Company , and used in considerable numbers by certain Union army units in the American Civil War . The Henry rifle ensured New Haven Arms ' success , and together with the Spencer rifle established the lever - action repeater in the firearms market . The Winchester rifle . In 1866 Benjamin Henry , angered over what he believed was inadequate compensation , attempted to have the Connecticut legislature award ownership of New Haven Arms to him . Oliver Winchester , hastening back from Europe , forestalled the move and reorganized New Haven Arms yet again as the Winchester Repeating Arms Company . Winchester had the basic design of the Henry rifle completely modified and improved to become the first Winchester rifle , the Model 1866 , which fired the same . 44 caliber rimfire cartridges as the Henry but had an improved magazine ( with the addition of a loading gate on the right side of the receiver , invented by Winchester employee Nelson King ) and , for the first time , a wooden forearm . The Henry and the 1866 Winchester shared a unique double firing pin which struck the head of the rimfire cartridge in two places when the weapon was fired , increasing the chances that the fulminate in the hollow rim would ignite the 28 or so grains of black powder inside the case . Another extremely popular model was rolled out in 1873 . The Model 1873 introduced the first Winchester center fire cartridge , the . 44 - 40 WCF ( Winchester Center Fire ) . These rifle families are commonly known as the " Gun That Won the West . " The Model 1873 was followed by the Model 1876 ( or " Centennial Model " ) , a larger version of the ' 73 , which utilized the same toggle - link action and brass cartridge elevator dating from the Henry . It was chambered for longer , more powerful cartridges such as . 45 - 60 WCF , . 45 - 75 WCF , and . 50 - 95 WCF . The action was not long enough to allow Winchester to achieve their goal of producing a repeating rifle capable of handling the . 45 - 70 Government cartridge ; this would not happen until they began manufacture of the Browning - designed Model 1886 . Oliver Winchester died in December 1880 ; his son and successor , William Wirt Winchester , died of tuberculosis four months later . From 1883 , John Browning worked in partnership with the Winchester Repeating Arms Company and designed a series of rifles and shotguns , most notably the Winchester Model 1885 Single Shot , Winchester Model 1887 lever - action shotgun , Model 1897 pump - action shotgun ; and the lever - action Model 1886 , Model 1892 , Model 1894 and Model 1895 rifles . Several of these are still in production today through companies such as Browning , Rossi , Navy Arms and others which have revived several of the discontinued models or produced reproductions . 20th century developments . The turn of the twentieth century . The early years of the twentieth century found the Winchester Repeating Arms Company competing with new John Browning designs , manufactured under license by other firearm companies . The race to produce the first commercial self - loading rifle brought forth the . 22 rimfire Winchester Model 1903 and later centerfire Model 1905 , Model 1907 , and Model 1910 rifles . Winchester engineers , after ten years of work , designed the Model 1911 to circumvent Browning ' s self - loading shotgun patents , prepared by the company ' s very own patent lawyers . One of Winchester ' s premier engineers , T . C . Johnson , was instrumental in the development of these self - loading firearms and went on to superintend the designs of Winchester ' s classic Model 1912 , Model 52 and Model 54 . The First World War . The company was a major producer of the . 303 Pattern 1914 Enfield rifle for the British Government and the similar . 30 - 06 M1917 Enfield rifle for the United States during World War I . Working at the Winchester plant during that war , Browning developed the final design of the Browning Automatic Rifle ( BAR ) , of which it produced some 27 , 000 . Browning and the Winchester engineers also developed the Browning . 50 caliber machine gun during the war . The caliber . 50 BMG ( 12 . 7 x 99 mm ) ammunition for it was designed by the Winchester ballistic engineers . The commercial rights to these new Browning guns were owned by Colt . Failure and recovery . During the war Winchester had borrowed heavily to finance its massive expansion . With the return of peace , the company attempted to use its surplus production capacity , and pay down its debt , by trying to become a general manufacturer of consumer goods : everything from kitchen knives to roller skates to refrigerators , to be marketed through " Winchester Stores . " They merged with the Simmons Hardware Company . The Winchester and Keen Kutter brands did business together during the 1920s but in 1929 they agreed to separate and returned to their core business . The strategy was a failure for Winchester , and the Great Depression put the final nail in the company ' s coffin . Winchester Repeating Arms Company went into receivership in 1931 , and was bought at bankruptcy auction by the Olin family ' s Western Cartridge Company on December 22 of that year . Oliver Winchester ' s firm would maintain a nominal existence until 1935 , when Western Cartridge merged with its subsidiary to form Winchester - Western Company ; in 1944 the firearms and ammunition operations would be reorganized as the Winchester - Western Division of Olin Industries . Fortunately for Winchester , Western ' s First Vice - President John M . Olin was a sportsman and gun enthusiast , and he started at once to restore the brand to its former luster by concentrating on its classic models and updated versions thereof , with particular attention to quality and prestige . Olin personally pushed the deluxe Model 52 Sporter and the semi - custom Model 21 double - barreled shotgun . Winchester flourished , even during the later Depression . The Second World War . The U . S . M1 carbine ( technically not a carbine in the sense of a short version of a parent rifle ) was designed at Winchester by an eight man team including Edwin Pugsley , Bill Roemer , Marsh Williams , Fred Humiston , Cliff Warner and Ralph Clarkson , although the popular press played up the role of ex - convict Williams . More M1 carbines were manufactured by Winchester and other firms than any other U . S . small arm of World War II . During World War II , Winchester produced the M1 Garand rifle and post - war was the first civilian manufacturer of the M14 rifle . Decline and fall . By the 1960s the rising cost of skilled labor was making it increasingly unprofitable to produce Winchester ' s classic designs , as they required considerable hand - work to finish . In particular , Winchester ' s flagship Model 12 pump shotgun and Model 70 bolt - action rifle with their machined forgings could no longer compete in price with Remington ' s cast - and - stamped 870 and 700 . Accordingly S . K . Janson formed a new Winchester design group to advance the use of " modern " engineering design methods and manufacturing principles in gun design . The result was a new line of guns which replaced most of the older products in 1963 – 1964 . The immediate reaction of the shooting press and public was overwhelmingly negative : the popular verdict was that Winchester had sacrificed quality to the " cheapness experts , " and Winchester was no longer considered to be a prestige brand , causing a marked loss of market share . To this day , gun collectors consider " post - 64 " Winchesters to be both less desirable and less valuable than their predecessors . In the early 70 ' s the Olin Winchester - Western Division tried to diversify with at least two unsuccessful attempts . The first was an experimental indoor shooting range called Wingo in San Diego , California . This short lived attempt had a strong tie to firearms and ammunition with exclusive guns , ammo and target launching machines being produced . The flaw was to see it quickly profitable in a western city with too many competing outdoor activities . The second venture was trying to compete with Coleman Company in the camping and sporting goods market . " Trailblazer by Winchester " products included propane powered stoves and lanterns . They also produced tents and sleeping bags . These products struggled to compete with similar offerings from an established company founded in 1900 . Labor costs continued to rise through the 1960s and ' 70s , and a prolonged and bitter strike in 1979 – 1980 ultimately convinced Olin that firearms could no longer be produced profitably in New Haven . In December 1980 the New Haven plant was sold to its employees , incorporated as the U . S . Repeating Arms Company , and granted a license to make Winchester arms . Olin retained the Winchester ammunition business . U . S . Repeating Arms itself went bankrupt in 1989 . After bankruptcy it was acquired by a French holding company , then sold to Belgian armsmakers Herstal Group , which also owns gun makers Fabrique Nationale d ' Herstal ( FN ) and Browning Arms Company . On January 16 , 2006 U . S . Repeating Arms announced it was closing its New Haven plant where Winchester rifles and shotguns had been produced for 140 years . Along with the closing of the plant , production of the Model 94 rifle ( the descendant of the original Winchester rifle ) , Model 70 rifle and Model 1300 shotgun were discontinued . Revival . On August 15 , 2006 , Olin Corporation , owner of the Winchester trademarks , announced that it had entered into a new license agreement with Browning to make Winchester brand rifles and shotguns , though not at the closed Winchester plant in New Haven . The production of Model 1885 falling block action , Model 1892 and Model 1886 lever action rifles are produced under licensed agreement by Miroku Corp . of Japan and imported back to United States by Browning . In 2008 Fabrique Nationale announced that it would produce Model 70 rifles at its plant in Columbia , SC . In the summer of 2010 Fabrique Nationale d ' Herstal ( FN ) resumed production of the Winchester model 1894 and the evolution of the Winchester 1300 , now called the Winchester SXP . A number of gun cleaning kits , Chinese folding knives , tools , and other accessories are also now sold under the Winchester trademark . Ammunition . Winchester ' s success was founded on a cartridge , the . 44 Henry rimfire , and the Henry and 1866 rifles designed for it . Winchester was a leading designer of rifle ammunition throughout its existence , and has been responsible for some of the most successful cartridges ever introduced , including the . 44 - 40 WCF ( Winchester Center Fire ) , 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 . In North America the . 30 - 30 is the best - selling hunting cartridge in history ; and the . 308 , the commercial version of the military 7 . 62x51mm NATO , is not far behind , and one of the most popular hunting cartridges in the world . Olin Corporation continues to manufacture Winchester ammunition ( the cartridge business was not sold to U . S . Repeating Arms ) in several lines including Super - X , Supreme and Supreme Elite , AA and Super Target shotshells , and Winchester Cowboy Loads revolver cartridges .