The Winchester Model 1877 (no typo)

[Pete44ru]

The proverbial hen's tooth...........

[Pitchy]

A little more history please, looks real cool.

[kimwcook]

A little more history please, looks real cool.

Yes, please.

[pwl44m]

Ha !! You Guys don't know what that is ? Well I won't spoil Petes post, I'll let Him tell Ya.
Perry

[Martini450]

Isn't this the revolver that, at least according to legend, Winchester showed to the folks at Colt to discourage them from going into the levergun business? For some reason, I'm wanting to say that Borchardt may have had a hand in the design, but my memory could very well be playing me false.

[Pete44ru]

So the story goes, back in the day, Colt came out with the 1883 Burgess lever rifle, and in turn Winchester developed some revolver prototypes.

Since the Winchester revolvers were developed well prior to the Burgess rifle, I'd say someone has the story bass-ackwards: Winchester came out with a revolver, so Colt countered with a levergun, then both agreed to keep to their own patch.

"Official Rumor" said that Colt and Winchester entered into a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ that neither of them would venture into each other’s market - Colt would not do lever guns, and Winchester would withdraw their revolvers.

At least one, and maybe more, Winchester Model 1877 revolver has known to have been delivered to a diplomatic entity.

.

[Sixgun]

Looks like a double action. Man! I'd like to give that baby a workout.------Sixgun

[Martini450]

Neat piece, thanks for posting it. Did they chamber it for 44WCF? What's the extra cylinderical metal component below/right of the revolver?

I looked into one of my Winchester source books after posting earlier, and it turns out this gun was indeed a Hugo Borchardt design from when he worked for Winchester. He left Winchester about that time and worked for Sharps, before heading back to Germany and designing the Borchardt pistol for Ludwig Loewe, predecessor to the Luger.

[Booger Bill]

If I recall right the story was a single action and the pictures I seen wasnt quite like the one pictured. Close though. This one must be another deal I didnt know about as it looks DA.

[Pete44ru]

Here's more of the story, and I'm stickin' to it:

There were more than a few versions of a Winchester revolver - starting from the Hugo Borchardt single tool-room sample only model, through the 6 single-action Wetmore-designed guns, to the double-action .44 cal William Mason & Stephen W. Wood designed Model 1877 w/swing-out cyl, that was submitted to Russian Ordnance for testing.

The Wetmore revolvers were actually manufactured 1875-76, for an experimental ".50-40" cartridge, and were on display at the 1876 Philadelphia centennial Exposition - and are sometimes referred to as the 1876 Centennial Winchester Revolver.

I would opine that Colt would have definitely felt threatened by Winchester's handgun aspirations at this point, enter the Burgess as soon as poss a few years later.

.

[Martini450]

Yup, my book (Winchester The Gun That Won The West) has pictures of three Winchester revolvers in the back, and they each look a little different from one another. By the way Pete, is your photograph something you snapped in a museum?

[Pete44ru]

No, sir. I obtained the pic online, since I don't have a scanner to copy my old analog print/pics.

.

[Ysabel Kid]

Looks like a double action. Man! I'd like to give that baby a workout.------Sixgun

+1

[JRD]

Note that while Winchester never launched their revolver into production, and Colt did drop the Burgess lever rifle, Colt didn't exit the rifle market entirely. Colt introduced the Elliot patented slide action Lightning rifle in 1884 and kept them in production until after the turn of the century.

[Rimfire McNutjob]

Looks like a double action. Man! I'd like to give that baby a workout.------Sixgun

OMG, have we finally run into something not in your collection?

[Sixgun]

Looks like a double action. Man! I'd like to give that baby a workout.------Sixgun

OMG, have we finally run into something not in your collection?

I did not want to sound off like a braggart. You see the picture of that Winchester revolver that Pete posted? Well, that picture is one that I took of my personal Winchester revolver collection (its at 7 now). I actually own the Buffalo Bill museum along with Colt, Marlin, Savage, and Smith & Wesson. My daddy is Al Gore--------Al Gore Jr.

[Pete44ru]

Thank yer daddy, fer inventing the Internet, Sixgun. .

.

[Cast Bullet Hunter]

It's been several years, but that looks like the Winchester revolver displayed at the Cody museum. If I remember correctly the the label indicates it was chambered in .40-60 or similar. The bottle-neck cartridge appears to be why the cylinder was rebated, for weight saving.