[ Winchester Prototype Model 1911 Shotgun ]
Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian McCollum, and I am here today at the Cody
Firearms Museum in beautiful Cody, Wyoming.
And while looking through some of the guns that they
have both on display and in their reserve collection,
I noticed an interesting thing here.
This is a Browning Auto-5.
It's in fact a very early Browning Auto-5, and we
see this very obvious cocking handle on it.
Which is, we'll get to this in a moment, a defining feature of the Browning Auto-5.
And yet it also has this textured patterning on the barrel,
which is the defining feature of the Winchester Model 1911 that competed directly with the Auto-5.
So first off, that's really weird and I want to take a look at it.
... But before that, I need to explain to you perhaps why this is weird.
So John Browning had an arrangement with the Winchester Company
that he would ... design guns and they would buy the patents,
and then they would market and sell the guns.
And the deal was they paid him a flat fee for each one of his patents.
And this was fine, this worked really well for a while.
Until we get to this gun, Browning's semi-auto shotgun.
And at this point he thinks this gun has the potential to be a huge market,
a very popular gun, and he decides he wants a royalty.
He wants to get a fee per gun sold,
instead of his traditional usual flat rate arrangement.
And Winchester doesn't take the bait.
Winchester's like, "Nyah, no, no, I don't think we really need you actually."
Well by this point, because they'd worked together for so long,
Winchester had already helped him start developing the Auto-5, the semi-auto shotgun.
However, all the patents were in Browning's name.
And that's probably because even though Winchester knew they were going to buy it,
or thought they were going to buy the patents,
having ... Browning's name on the patent was a great marketing tool.
People knew Browning, people liked Browning,
people would buy a Browning gun because it was a Browning designed gun.
So have his name on the patent, good plan, until it falls apart and he doesn't sell you the patent.
So ... when relations kind of broke up, Browning ends up going over to Europe and approaches FN.
And FN is quite happy to provide him with a royalty on the patents for this design.
And ... as Browning thought it might, it turns into a tremendously successful gun.
Browning makes a crap ton of money on this.
But it leaves Winchester in this difficult position of like,
"We thought we were going to be selling a semi-auto shotgun.
We thought it was going to be a good market.
But now there's this critical component,
Browning's patented the idea of a bolt handle here that unlocks this long recoil system.
So, we need to come up with some sort of workaround."
And this gun is ... one of the prototype testing guns that Winchester used to figure the system out.
So let me come in close on the gun now,
and let me show you a couple of the details about this particular gun.
And then what Winchester did to it, and how this turned into the Winchester Model of 1911.
Alright, so let's start with the markings on this specific gun.
So here on the side of the receiver we have Fabrique Nationale, Herstal,
Liège, Belgium, Browning's Patent.
... The Auto-5 was manufactured by FN in Liège.
And let's see, we have down
here we have the actual specific patent dates,
on both sides, so actually those are the first ones.
Now this marking's pretty light, but up here on top of the barrel
in addition to FN's manufacturing mark
we have Browning Automatic Arms Company, Ogden, Utah.
Because the first purchaser of the Browning Auto-5 was John Moses Browning.
The first couple of thousand guns, I believe, were shipped to him in Utah for retail sale.
And this is one of the very first of those,
as you can see from the serial number here, number 262.
And on top of that it also has this straight stock to it,
which is indicative of it being one of the very first guns.
So it is extremely unlikely that this rifle did not pass through John Browning's personal gun shop.
Alright, so what's the problem that Winchester is going to run into?
Why do they need to deal with this? The answer is this bolt handle.
Notice that the bolt handle slides back before the bolt actually opens.
And that's because you need a way to unlock this system
so that you can cycle it without having the entire barrel cycle back.
Browning owned the patent on this, licensed it to FN,
and so this option was not an option for Winchester.
Now the first thing that they looked at was, "Maybe we can put a plunger up in the front."
And that's exactly actually what they did for the Winchester Model 1907
and Model 1910 self-loading rifles.
The problem is, on a shotgun you've got the magazine tube up here.
So you don't have any space in the front end of a gun to put in a piston, so that idea is out.
Well, then someone comes up with the next idea, which is,
"What if you just cycle the barrel by hand, like grab the barrel and just pull it back?"
Sorry, the gun's a little stiff and doesn't want to reciprocate on its own.
Well OK, you can cycle the barrel by hand.
But you ... want to give the person something to actually grasp.
And so as an experiment Winchester went and brazed on this sort of textured ribbed section
onto the barrel to act as a gripping surface.
And the result is the Winchester Model of 1911.
And we have one of the very first Winchester 1911s here that I can compare.
So if you look at this guy there's no bolt handle, that's the patented thing from Browning.
So this guy, this little guy right here is gone,
and now instead we have this textured surface on the barrel.
So this is our actual Auto-5 modified for testing,
and this is one of the very first Winchester Model 1911 shotguns.
You can see they've got exactly the same pattern.
Now, if you're familiar with the Winchester 1911, you're thinking to yourself,
"That that's not what a Winchester 1911 looks like." And you're right.
A standard production Winchester 1911 has this knurled surface on the barrel
instead of the actual like soldered on, or brazed on, rings.
So this was more ... efficient to actually produce.
Putting knurling on is a pretty simple process, quick and easy on a lathe.
Now there were a couple of other changes made
between this very early pattern and the standard gun.
So I'll start with the one that's the most important to the user,
and that is this little button right here, which is not on the early gun.
This is a bolt hold open, and it allows you to lock the gun open when it's empty.
Because one of the problems that someone didn't think about at the very
beginning with these early guns is: let's say you shoot the whole magazine dry in the gun,
you can then reload the tube down here.
But then when you have to actually cycle
the first round into the chamber you have to grab the barrel.
If you've been doing a lot of shooting that barrel is really hot,
and you're either going to burn yourself, or have to ... use some sort of glove.
This is a problem. This is kind of like that thing with suppressors.
You put a suppressor on your rifle, shoot a bunch, and then if you don't think about it
and grab the suppressor, you are in for a very unpleasant surprise.
So by offering a way to lock the bolt open on the last shot,
you can then reload the tube, drop a cartridge in here, hit the button,
and the bolt will close, chambering the first round.
Not requiring you to actually grab the barrel to reload.
Much more subtle, but a mechanical improvement to the gun,
is the addition of some more material on the back of the later receiver.
You can see on the early gun it's just straight out here to the end.
And there's a little bit of a hump here on the later gun.
Just addressed an area that didn't turn out to be quite as strong as they had originally expected.
Another subtle difference is a slight change in the pattern of the end of the magazine tube.
And the early gun has a straight stock, where the late one has a semi-pistol grip.
So this gun kind of by itself embodies so many cool aspects of firearms history.
It is first off a legitimately awesome, very, very early example of one of the
very first Auto-5s that was actually produced, shipped to Browning.
This specific gun went through John Browning's shop in Ogden, Utah.
... I should say I can't prove that definitively, but 99% chance.
Like it's the 200 and somethingth gun, they went to Browning's shop.
And then the idea that Winchester sent an agent to John Browning's personal gun store,
and bought this thing, and then shipped it back to Winchester
to figure out how they could work a loophole around it.
That's cool, the personal connection to Browning.
And then the idea that it is in fact, legitimately,
a prototype experimental shotgun, they are like,
"Aha, maybe if we texture the barrel so that you don't need a bolt handle,
you can just cycle the thing by hand on the barrel.
Let's figure out what can we braze onto the barrel up here."
That makes it a cool gun, again for an entirely different reason.
So, very cool to be able to get to take a look at this.
And this really is kind of representative of a lot of the guns that are here at the Cody Museum.
Because their collection includes like most of the original Winchester firearms collection,
they have a ton of prototypes like this, and developmental guns,
and even some of Browning's patent model guns.
So if you're ever in the Cody area, absolutely make sure to stop in, take a look.
They've just rebuilt the whole museum and it's really quite fantastic.
Thanks for watching.