The Winchester Model 68 was a

single-shot In firearm designs, the term single-shot refers to guns that can hold only a single round of ammunition inside and thus must be reloaded manually after every shot. Compared to multi-shot repeating firearms ("repeaters"), single-shot designs have ...

bolt-action Bolt action is a type of manual Action (firearms), firearm action that is operated by ''directly'' manipulating the bolt (firearms), turn-bolt via a cocking handle, bolt handle, most commonly placed on the right-hand side of the firearm (a ...

.22 caliber rimfire

rifle A rifle is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting and higher stopping power, with a gun barrel, barrel that has a helical or spiralling pattern of grooves (rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus o ...

sold from 1934 to 1945 by

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 ...

. While almost identical to the slightly cheaper Winchester Model 67, it offered an

aperture In optics, the aperture of an optical system (including a system consisting of a single lens) is the hole or opening that primarily limits light propagated through the system. More specifically, the entrance pupil as the front side image o ...

sight Visual perception is the ability to detect light and use it to form an image of the surrounding Biophysical environment, environment. Photodetection without image formation is classified as ''light sensing''. In most vertebrates, visual percept ...

Origins and design

The early 1930s were a period of intense competition amongst American rifle manufacturers such including Winchester,

Iver Johnson Iver Johnson was an American firearms, bicycle, and motorcycle manufacturer from 1871 to 1993. The company shared the same name as its founder, Norwegian-born Iver Johnson (1841–1895). The name was resold, and Iver Johnson Arms opened in 2006, ...

, and Mossberg. In an attempt to win the loyalty of entry-level single-shot rimfire rifle buyers, these companies continuously cut production costs and pared profits down to the bare minimum. Winchester already offered a single-shot rimfire rifle aimed at the

competition Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero-sum game). Competition can arise between entities such as organisms, indi ...

market, the Model 60A, but it had failed to win significant

market share Market share is the percentage of the total revenue or sales in a Market (economics), market that a company's business makes up. For example, if there are 50,000 units sold per year in a given industry, a company whose sales were 5,000 of those ...

due to its relatively high price and was considered a sales disappointment.Houze, p. 147. Winchester had already embarked on a program to reduce the production costs of the entry-level Model 60, resulting in the new Model 67, and the design of a similar lower-priced target rifle was a logical next step. As with the Model 60 from which they were derived, the cocking piece at the rear of the bolt had to be manually drawn rearwards to cock the action after closing the bolt, but the new rifles featured a wing-style

safety Safety is the state of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk. Meanings The word 'safety' entered the English language in the 1 ...

with more easily visible "SAFE" and "FIRE" indications. The front

of the Model 68 was a Model 97A with a removable sheetmetal hood and the rear sight was a Model 96A, featuring a removable disc, which had a smaller aperture better suited for target shooting. With the insert removed, the sight was less accurate but offered more light — making it better for small game

hunting Hunting is the Human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, and killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to obtain the animal's body for meat and useful animal products (fur/hide (sk ...

and informal

plinking Plinking is informal target shooting done for leisure, typically at non-standard targets such as tin cans, logs, bottles, balloons, fruits or any other man-made or naturally occurring objects. The term is an onomatopoeia of the sharp, ring ...

. Both rifles featured a

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 ...

made of plain uncheckered

walnut A walnut is the edible seed of any tree of the genus '' Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, '' Juglans regia''. They are accessory fruit because the outer covering of the fruit is technically an i ...

with a pistol grip and finger grooves, and both were takedown designs; the barreled

action Action may refer to: * Action (philosophy), something which is done by a person * Action principles the heart of fundamental physics * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video gam ...

was easily removed by turning a screw under the stock using a

penny A penny is a coin (: pennies) or a unit of currency (: pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. At present, it is ...

Production

The Model 68 was introduced alongside the Model 67 in May 1934 and both rifles immediately proved popular. The Model 68's sales rapidly outpaced the more expensive but slightly better-equipped Model 60A, which was still being sold from inventory, although production had been placed on hiatus in April 1934. The Model 68's sales eventually undercut the Model 60A to such an extent that production of the latter was never resumed. Production changes to the Model 68 generally paralleled the Model 67. The finger grooves in the stock were omitted starting in mid-1935, the bolt retaining spring was eliminated in August 1937, and the sear and extractor were modified in January 1938 to throw ejected cases farther when the bolt was opened. An optional .22 WRF chambering was added in April 1938, somewhat later than its 1935 introduction on the Model 67. Winchester-branded

telescopic sight A telescopic sight, commonly called a scope informally, is an optical sighting device based on a refracting telescope. It is equipped with some form of a referencing pattern – known as a ''reticle'' – mounted in a focally appropriate p ...

s were first offered in 1937. Options were a 2¾-power scope with

crosshairs A reticle or reticule, also known as a graticule or crosshair, is a pattern of fine lines or markings built into the eyepiece An eyepiece, or ocular lens, is a type of lens that is attached to a variety of optical devices such as Optica ...

or a vertical aiming post and a 5-power scope with crosshairs. Open sights were retained; the scopes were boxed separately and attached to integral bases on the barrel by the rifle's buyer. The telescopic-sight options were discontinued in 1939. In August 1943, Winchester management decided to offer the same peep sights used on the Model 68 as options for the Model 67, effectively rendering the Model 68 redundant, although it was curiously not formally discontinued until September 1944. Sales from inventory continued into 1945 and the rifle was listed in the 1946 price list although stocks had already been depleted. Approximately 98,496 to 100,730 Model 68s were produced. The Model 68 was not produced with

serial number A serial number (SN) is a unique identifier used to ''uniquely'' identify an item, and is usually assigned incrementally or sequentially. Despite being called serial "numbers", they do not need to be strictly numerical and may contain letters ...

s, which were not required on rifles or shotguns made or imported to the United States prior to the

Gun Control Act of 1968 The Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA or GCA68) is a U.S. federal law that regulates the firearms industry and firearms ownership. Due to constitutional limitations, the Act is primarily based on regulating interstate commerce in firearms by general ...

. Prices of the Model 68 on today's collector market are comparable to the Model 67, but the relatively rare .22 WRF chambering triples the values of the rifle, a larger premium than the same chambering commands on the Model 67.Fjestad, pp. 2025-2026.

References

The first 100 model 68 rifles were serial numbered.

Bibliography

#Henshaw, Thomas, ''The History of Winchester Firearms 1866-1992'' 6th Ed. Clinton, NJ, USA: New Win Publishing, Inc. 1993. . #Houze, Herbert G. ''To the dreams of youth: Winchester .22 Caliber Single Shot Rifle.'' Iola, WI, USA: Krause Publications, Inc. 1993. #"COLLECTORS CORNER: Collecting the Bolt-Action Winchester .22 Rifle" http://www.ogca.com/boltaction22rifle.htm #Fjestad, S.P., ''Blue Book of Gun Values'' 30th Ed. Minneapolis, MN, USA: Blue Book Publications, Inc. 2009. . {{Winchester_Cartridges_Firearms Single-shot bolt-action rifles Winchester Repeating Arms Company firearms Bolt-action rifles of the United States .22 LR rifles