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Post by gastrap on Jan 19, 2012 12:05:18 GMT -5
Where was Winchesters head in those days? Why did they bother making such a high quality expensive semi-auto rifle in the worlds worst cartridges. Why didn't they make the 05 in 32-20? Why didn't they make the 07 in 38-40 and 44-40? They certainly could have gotten them to function with rimmed cartridges, they could have killed the expensive and hard to produce 1873 and 1892 lever guns. They had the 1894 and 1895 for high power lever guns. Look at Remington with their model 25 in 32-20. The 14 in 35 Remington and the 14 1/2 in 38-40 and 44-40. All were faster than a lever action. I think if Winchester would have put a little more thought into it they could have captured the market and stopped the Remington pumps in their tracks. What do you guys think out there?
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Post by Hardrada55 on Jan 19, 2012 14:48:00 GMT -5
I think Winchester wanted to make money selling specialized ammo for their new rifles, rather than share the ammo market for these new rifles with Peters and Western and Remington. You're right, of course. The smart thing to do would have been to chamber the Winchester self-loaders and the Remington 8 in familiar cartridges like the .30-30 and .32 Special and .25-35 and .33 Winchester or some kind of .35-30 wildcat.
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Post by enforcer on Jan 25, 2012 13:37:55 GMT -5
Their heads were in the future, the .351 and .401 were infant steps toward intermediate cartridges. Even the earlier 32 SL became the basis for the U.S. 30 Carbine. The .351 and .401 were really ahead of their time. I think Winchester was looking to optimize smokeless powder and improve on the old black powder pistol cartridges of the late 19th century. It seems that really only law enforcement took real advantage of these rifle/cartirdge combinations. The .401 would certainly out perform the 38-40 or 44-40 (two of my favorites BTW for recreational shooting) on game. I read somewhere there was a prototype Thompson SMG in .351, that would be very interesting.
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