Model 1866 The first Winchester rifle – the Winchester Model 1866 – was originally chambered for the
rimfire .44 Henry. Nicknamed the "Yellow Boy" because of its receiver of a bronze/brass alloy called
gunmetal, it was famous for its rugged construction and
lever-action "repeating rifle" mechanism that allowed the user to fire a number of shots before having to reload. Nelson King's improved patent remedied flaws in the Henry rifle by incorporating a loading gate on the side of the frame and integrating a round, sealed magazine that was partially covered by a forestock. A "musket" version was also produced, primarily for military users. (Musket was a term that, at the time, denoted a full-length military-style stock, not to be confused with a true smoothbore
musket). France purchased 6,000 Model 1866 rifles along with 4.5 million .44 Henry cartridges during the
Franco-Prussian War. The
Ottoman Empire purchased 45,000 Model 1866 rifles and 5,000 carbines in 1870 and 1871. These rifles were used in the
1877 Russo-Turkish War, causing much surprise when outnumbered Turks at the
Siege of Plevna inflicted many times more casualties than their opponents armed with single-shot
Krnka and
Berdan rifles. The effect of the 1866 at the siege at Plevna sparked a renewed interest in the adoption of repeating rifles for several European countries. The
Swiss Army initially selected the Model 1866 to replace their existing single-shot Milbank-Amsler rifles. However, ensuing political pressure to adopt a domestic design resulted in the
Vetterli Model 1867, a bolt-action design utilizing a copy of the Winchester's tubular magazine, being adopted instead. Due to public demand, the Model 1866 continued to be manufactured and sold until 1899, mainly because they were less expensive than the later steel-framed centerfire models. Winchester Model 187
Model 1873 The Model 1873 was one of the most successful Winchester rifles of its day, with Winchester marketing it as "The Gun That Won the West". Still an icon in the modern day, it was manufactured between 1873 and 1923. It was originally chambered for the
.44-40 cartridge, which was the first centerfire cartridge manufactured by Winchester and which became immensely popular. The 1873 was later produced chambered for
.38-40 and
.32-20, both of which would become popular handgun cartridges of the day, allowing users to carry just one type of ammunition. The Model 1873 was produced in three variations: a barrel rifle, a barrel carbine, and a "musket" –which was aimed at military contracts and only made up less than 5% of production. The standard rifle-length version was most popular in the 19th century, although Winchester would make rifles to order in any configuration the customer wished, including longer barrels or baby carbines with barrels as short as , octagonal-shaped barrels, color case-hardened receivers and fancy engraving. The original Model 1873 was never offered in the military revolver
.45 Colt cartridge, but a number of modern reproductions are chambered for the round.
One of One Thousand To both celebrate and enhance the Model 1873's prestige, Winchester established a coveted "One of One Thousand" grade in 1875. Barrels producing unusually small groupings during test-firing were fitted to rifles with set triggers and a special finish. Marked "One of One Thousand", they sold for a then pricey $100 (Worth about $3,000 as of 2024). A popular 1950 Western starring
James Stewart, ''
Winchester '73'', was based on the coveted gun. Promotions included a search for "One of One Thousand" rifles by
Universal Studios, with advertisements in sporting magazines and posters in sporting goods stores. In all, over 720,000 Model 1873s were produced up until 1923. With a return to popularity due to present-day
Cowboy action shooting, '73 rifles and carbines of a high quality have been made in Italy by
Uberti, encouraging a return to production under license from the
Olin company in 2013, joining the
Model 1892 and the
Model 1894 being manufactured in Japan by the
Miroku Corporation for
FN/Browning. Nearly faithful in design to the original, including the trigger disconnect safety, sliding dustcover, and a crescent-shaped
buttplate, it incorporates two safety improvements: a firing pin block preventing it from moving forward unless the trigger is pulled, and a cartridge carrier modification to eject used casings away from the shooter.
Model 1876 with his engraved Model 1876 The Winchester Model 1876, or
Centennial Model, was a heavier-framed rifle than the Models 1866 and 1873, chambered for full-powered
centerfire rifle cartridges suitable for
big-game hunting, rather than the handgun-sized rimfire and centerfire rounds of its predecessors. While similar in design to the 1873, the 1876 was actually based on a prototype 1868 lever-action rifle that was never commercially produced by Winchester. Introduced to celebrate the American
Centennial Exposition, the Model 1876 earned a reputation as a durable and powerful hunting rifle. Four versions were produced: a barrel
Carbine, a barrel
Express Rifle with a half-length magazine, a barrel
Sporting Rifle, and a barrel
Musket. Standard rifles had a blued finish while deluxe models were
casehardened. Collectors identify a first model with no dust cover, a second model with a dust cover rail fastened by a screw, and a third model with an integral dust cover. Total production was 63,871 The Canadian
North-West Mounted Police used the '76 in .45-75 as a standard long arm for many years with 750 rifles purchased for the force in 1883; the Mountie-model '76 carbine was also issued to the
Texas Rangers.
Theodore Roosevelt used an engraved, pistol-gripped half-magazine '76 during his early hunting expeditions in the West and praised it. A '76 was also found in the possession of
Apache warrior
Geronimo after his surrender in 1886. The Model 1876 toggle-link action receiver was too short to handle popular big-game cartridges, including the .45-70, and production ceased in 1897, as big-game hunters preferred the Model 1886 action chambered for longer and more powerful cartridges. and in 1903 was chambered for the smokeless high-velocity
.33 Winchester. In 1935, Winchester introduced a slightly modified M1886 as the
Model 71, chambered for the more powerful
.348 Winchester cartridge.
Model 1892 In order to compete with newer Marlin offerings, Winchester returned to its roots with the Model 1892, which was chambered for the same low-pressure cartridges as the Model 1873. The Model 1892 incorporates a much-stronger Browning action that was a scaled-down version of the Model 1886. It was also a much lighter rifle than the 1873 model, with which it was sold concurrently for over twenty years, for the same price. A total of 1,004,675 Model 1892 rifles were made by Winchester, and it was exported internationally, becoming very popular in South America and Australasia. Although Winchester stopped manufacture in 1941, today versions are still being made by the Brazilian arms maker Amadeo Rossi, and by
Chiappa Firearms, an Italian maker. In its modern form, using updated materials and production techniques, the Model 1892's action is strong enough to chamber high-pressure handgun rounds, such as
.357 Magnum,
.44 Magnum, and
.454 Casull. The Winchester '92 was often used in Hollywood Western movies and TV shows out of its correct period, achieving some fame as a 'cowboy' lever action, although it was historically too late for that.
Model 1894 The
John Browning–designed Winchester Model 1894 is the most prevalent of the Winchester repeating rifles. The Model 1894 was first chambered for the .32-40 and .38-55 cartridges, and later, a variety of calibers such as .25-35 WCF,
.30-30, and .32 Winchester Special. Winchester was the first company to manufacture a civilian rifle chambered for the new smokeless propellants, and although delays prevented the .30-30 cartridge from appearing on the shelves until 1895, it remained the first commercially available smokeless powder round for the North American consumer market. Though it was initially too expensive for most shooters, the Model 1894 went on to become one of the best-selling hunting rifles of all timeit had the distinction of being the first sporting rifle to sell over one million units, ultimately selling over seven million before U.S.-production was discontinued in 2006. The Winchester .30-30 configuration is practically synonymous with "deer rifle" in the United States. In the early 20th century, the rifle's designation was abbreviated to "Model 94", as was done with all older Winchester designs still in production (for example, Model 97, Model 12, etc.).
Model 1895 The Winchester Model 1895 has the distinction of being the first Winchester lever-action rifle to load from an
internal box magazine instead of from an internal tube magazine under the barrel. This allowed the Model 1895 to be chambered for military cartridges with
spitzer (pointed) projectiles, and the rifle was used by the armed forces of a number of nations including the United States, Great Britain, and
Imperial Russia. The Russian production models could also be loaded using
charger clips, a feature not found on any other lever-action rifle. Calibers included
.30-40 Krag (.30 US or .30 Army),
.303 British,
.30-03 Springfield,
.30-06 Springfield,
7.62×54mmR, and
.405 Winchester. Theodore Roosevelt used a Model 1895 in .405 on African safaris and called it his "medicine gun" for lions. In 1908, the 1895 Winchester became the first commercially produced sporting rifle chambered in .30-06 (then called ".30 Gov't 06").
Model 88 Introduced in 1955, 60 years after Winchester's last all-new lever-action design, the Model 88 was unlike any previous lever-action. A short-throw lever operated a three-lug
rotating bolt and rounds were fed vertically from a detachable box magazine: in effect, it was lever-operated bolt action. These features in a lever-action permitted the use of high-powered modern short-case cartridges with spitzer bullets:
.243 Winchester,
.284 Winchester,
.308 Winchester (essentially
7.62x51mm NATO), and
.358 Winchester. The Model 88 was discontinued in 1973 and is the third best-selling lever-action rifle in Winchester's history, following only the M1894 and M1892. The later
Sako Finnwolf and
Browning BLR have similar actions. The Model 88 Carbine was offered with a barrel. ==New production==