The Winchester Model 1907 is a blowback-operated,

semi-automatic rifle A semi-automatic rifle is a type of rifle that fires a single round each time the Trigger (firearms), trigger is pulled while automatically loading the next Cartridge (firearms), cartridge. These rifles were developed Pre-World War II, and w ...

produced by the

Winchester Repeating Arms Company The Winchester Repeating Arms Company was a prominent American manufacturer of repeating firearms and ammunition. The firm was established in 1866 by Oliver Winchester and was located in New Haven, Connecticut. The firm went into receivership ...

beginning in 1907 with production ending in 1957. It fired a cartridge of intermediate power, cycled through a semi-automatic operating mechanism, fed from a 5, 10, or 15 round detachable

box magazine A magazine, often simply called a mag, is an ammunition storage and feeding device for a repeating firearm, either integral within the gun (internal/fixed magazine) or externally attached (detachable magazine). The magazine functions by holdi ...

located immediately forward of the

trigger guard A trigger guard is a protective loop surrounding the trigger (firearms), trigger of a firearm designed to prevent unwanted contact with the trigger, which may cause an accidental discharge. Other devices that use a trigger-like actuator mechanism, ...

. In size and handling, it is much like an

M1 carbine The M1 carbine (formally the United States carbine, caliber .30, M1) is a lightweight semi-automatic carbine chambered in the .30 carbine (7.62×33mm) cartridge that was issued to the U.S. military during World War II, the Korean War, and t ...

, though the 1907 is heavier and fires a much harder hitting round. The only cartridge offered by

Winchester Winchester (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs N ...

as a factory chambering in the Model 1907 was the .351SL

centerfire Two rounds of .357 Magnum, a centerfire cartridge; notice the circular primer in the center A center-fire (or centerfire) is a type of metallic cartridge used in firearms, where the primer is located at the center of the base of its casing (i. ...

.West, Bill R. (1964). ''Winchester For Over a Century''. Stockton Trade Press, p. III-5. The energy of this cartridge at the muzzle approximates the original loading of the .30-30 or the modern .35 Remington at approximately .

Variants

In addition to the standard or "plain finish" model, a deluxe or "fancy finish" model was offered with a semi-pistol grip and checkering on the forearm and wrist of the

stock Stocks (also capital stock, or sometimes interchangeably, shares) consist of all the Share (finance), shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided. A single share of the stock means fractional ownership of the corporatio ...

. The plain finish rifles were offered in 1907 at a list price of $28 (approximately $730 in 2016). In 1935, Winchester offered a special "police rifle" variant, featuring a non-adjustable rear sight, sling swivels, a larger magazine release, a special barrel measuring at the muzzle, and the rear sight dovetail moved rearward. A barrel sleeve with Krag

bayonet A bayonet (from Old French , now spelt ) is a -4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... , now spelt ) is a knife, dagger">knife">-4; we might wonder whethe ...

mount and front sight was also an option with the "police rifle". Winchester Model 1907 rifle

In the late 1930s, the 1907 was updated by Winchester with a much thicker fore-end (eliminating the cracking problems common to the earlier models) and stock. The newer model also had a redesigned charging handle which made it easier to lock the bolt back. At the same time, a variant for police use was introduced, featuring an M1892 Krag bayonet lug, and the possibility of using an extended magazine for 20 rounds. For a long time, on the Internet, a photo of a similar rifle from the Cody Firearms Museum (USA), S/N 47357, manufactured in 1935, was presented as a "French order of the First World War", having nothing to do with it.

Patents

The basic design for the Model 1907 is covered by issued August 27, 1901, and assigned to

by Thomas Crossley Johnson, a key firearms designer for Winchester. This patent was initially used to protect the design of the rimfire

Winchester Model 1903 The Winchester Model 1903 was the first commercially available semi-automatic firearm made by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. History The Winchester Model 1903 was designed by T.C. Johnson, who had joined Winchester in 1885 and had become ...

, but came to be applied toward the

Winchester Self Loading rifle series, which includes the Model 1905, Model 1907, and Model 1910.

List of Patents

* Small cartridge,

Box magazine A magazine, often simply called a mag, is an ammunition storage and feeding device for a repeating firearm, either integral within the gun (internal/fixed magazine) or externally attached (detachable magazine). The magazine functions by holdi ...

* Large cartridge,

self-loading A semi-automatic firearm, also called a self-loading or autoloading firearm (automatic firearm, fully automatic and selective fire firearms are also variations on repeating firearm#Autoloading, self-loading firearms), is a repeating firearm who ...

, box magazine, takedown rifle ( Winchester Model 1905) * Cartridge extractor *

Forearm The forearm is the region of the upper limb between the elbow and the wrist. The term forearm is used in anatomy to distinguish it from the arm, a word which is used to describe the entire appendage of the upper limb, but which in anatomy, techn ...

tip *

Recoil Recoil (often called knockback, kickback or simply kick) is the rearward thrust generated when a gun is being discharged. In technical terms, the recoil is a result of conservation of momentum, for according to Newton's third law the force requ ...

buffer * Buttstock bolt

World War I use

France

The government initially ordered 300 Model 1907 rifles in October 1915 from Winchester, soon followed by an order for 2,500 more rifles. Ammunition orders for these rifles exceeded 1.5 million cartridges of .351SL before 1917. Subsequent orders in 1917 and 1918 totaled 2,200 Model 1907 rifles. From unknown sources, it was previously claimed that allegedly according to factory records, these rifles were modified for fully automatic fire and fitted with Lee-Navy rifle bayonets. These rifles allegedly were designated by the name of Winchester Model 1907/17, they used either a 15-round magazine or 20-round magazine and fired from 600 to 700 rounds per minute. Ultimately, no evidence of this was found; the above configuration was actually introduced by Winchester in the 1930s for police use and these rifles were never converted to full auto.

Great Britain

According to a November 1, 1916 Winchester internal report, Great Britain's London Armory was sent 120 Model 1907 rifles and 78,000 rounds of .351SL ammunition between December 1914 and April 1916 for use by the

Royal Flying Corps The Royal Flying Corps (RFC) was the air arm of the British Army before and during the First World War until it merged with the Royal Naval Air Service on 1 April 1918 to form the Royal Air Force. During the early part of the war, the RFC sup ...

. These rifles were specially modified for aerial use by increasing the size of the trigger guard and cocking piece to allow the use of heavy gloves and were intended to use 15-round magazines. These rifles were intended to arm airplane observers.

Russia

The Imperial Russian government is recorded by Winchester as purchasing 500 Model 1907 rifles and 1.5 million rounds of .351SL ammunition through the J.P. Morgan Company in May 1916.Schreier, Konrad F. Jr. (1990). ''Winchester Center Fire Automatic Rifles''. Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Armax III(1): Cody, Wyoming, p. 13.

United States

During

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, a shipment of 19 Model 1907 rifles and 9,000 cartridges of .351 Winchester Self-Loading ammunition was delivered to the 1st Aero Squadron of the

Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps The Aviation Section, Signal Corps, was the aerial warfare service of the United States from 1914 to 1918, and a direct statutory ancestor of the United States Air Force. It absorbed and replaced the Aeronautical Division, U.S. Signal Corps, Aer ...

. The shipment was sent to

Columbus, New Mexico Columbus is an incorporated village in Luna County, New Mexico, United States, about north of the Mexican border. It is considered a place of historical interest, as the scene of a 1916 attack by Mexican general Francisco "Pancho" Villa that ...

and was presumably used in arming the squadron's aircraft when it operated in

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

during the

Pancho Villa Expedition The Pancho Villa Expedition—now known officially in the United States as the Mexican Expedition, but originally referred to as the "Punitive Expedition, US Army"—was a military operation conducted by the United States Army against the para ...

Law enforcement and criminal use

The Model 1907 was a popular rifle with law enforcement in the United States during much of its production - especially in the 1930s when the police in the United States were upgrading their firearms due to the increase in crime. The

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

acquired some Model 1907 rifles in response to the 1933 Kansas City Massacre. It was used by Patrol Inspectors of the U.S. Border Patrol during the late 1920s into the 1930s. Great Depression-era bank robbers such as the Dillinger Gang used modified M1907s during their crime sprees. A Model 1907 imported through Germany was also used in the 1908 assassination of Dom Carlos I of Portugal. The self-loading nature of the Model 1907 allowed for ready conversion to fully automatic fire, a feature taken advantage by organized crime gangs. Several Model 1907's employed by the Dillinger Gang were modified by the gunsmith Hyman Lebman - known for converting Colt Government .38 Super handguns to machine pistols - to be capable of automatic fire. In addition to automatic capability, these modified carbines were altered by barrel shortening and installation of Cutts brand recoil compensators and additional grips, along with commercially available extended magazines. The combination of an intermediate cartridge, automatic fire capability, and moderate recoil lead some historians to refer to these modified Winchester Model 07 carbines as a sort of proto-

Assault Rifle An assault rifle is a select fire rifle that uses an intermediate cartridge, intermediate-rifle cartridge and a Magazine (firearms), detachable magazine.C. Taylor, ''The Fighting Rifle: A Complete Study of the Rifle in Combat'', F.A. Moyer '' ...

References

{{Winchester Cartridges Firearms .351 WSL semi-automatic rifles Simple blowback firearms Weapons and ammunition introduced in 1907 Winchester Repeating Arms Company firearms World War I French infantry weapons World War I Russian infantry weapons Semi-automatic rifles of the United States