The Winchester 1911 Widow Maker
Its dubious distinction has kept collectors away but this is changing in recent years. However, be careful with this hundred-year-old shotgun, before it adds you to its list.
The beginning of this story starts with a Dear John letter. You see, Winchester firearms had a long and fruitful relationship with a genius gun designer from Utah by the name of John Moses Browning. It was Browning that worked in partnership with Winchester for nearly twenty years, giving them some of the most classic designs of all time. These included the Winchester Model 1887 and the Model 1897 pump shotgun, the falling block single shot Model 1885, and the lever-action Model 1886, Model 1892, Model 1894, Model 1895 rifles.
Well, in 1898, Browning left Winchester, formed a partnership with FN in Belgium, and brought to that Hertsal-based company a revolutionary new semi-automatic shotgun, his Auto-5. Browning also collaborated the design out to Winchester’s archrival, Remington, who produced it as the Model 11 starting in 1905.
This led Winchester with an urgent need to beat Browning at his own game, while not being able for the first time in twenty years, of using his patents. …
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