Winchester's 1866 Switzerland Trials, Model of 1866 Targets..........

[Savvy_Jack]

Winchester seems to have gotten off to a slow start when advertising or publishing information on their rifles. It shows that the Winchester Model of 1866 was not really advertised much until Winchester included it in their 1873 catalog....the whole darn thing was about the 1866 and not the first word about the New Model of 1873'. More on that shortly.

First, Winchester published targets shot from amatures at the Winchester Armory, in their 1873 catalog. These are typical ranges in which we shoot now days...50 to 75 yards.

I can only upload three photos at a time so I will finish in the next reply or two.

 

[Savvy_Jack]

Before the Winchester New Model of 1873 was advertised in a Winchester catalog, the New Model of 1873' rifle information was mailed out in a brochure sometime during the early months of 1874.

I can only post three photos at a time so I can only post three out of four pages here.

 

[Savvy_Jack]

Winchester submitted three different advertisements in Forest & Stream in August of 1875 which included four targets. The advertisements ran for a little over one year, switching between the three adds.

Again, I can only add three photos so here are three of four targets.

 

[Savvy_Jack]

Winchester's New Model
Infantry Model
1866 44/100 (44 Henry)

Official Swiss Commission, At Aarau, Switzerland
October 8th, 1866

It was in Winchester's 1873 catalog that Winchester published the targets shot during the trials. The Model of 1866 shot targets at 300 paces, 400 paces, 600 paces, 800 paces and 1,000 paces.

Of these targets, here are three

 

[Savvy_Jack]

Yesterday I was able to try and replicate one of the 300 pace Switzerland Trials groups but with full 44-40 loads in the Uberti Winchester 73'...but with a scope
Came in pretty close. Again, only three photos of many.

My apologies for not being as prepared as I thought I was. I will try and get these edited to where it shows thought did go into it, just wasn't prepared for some technical issues.

Better quality details on all of this can be seen here:
https://sites.google.com/view/44win...4-40/accuracytargets/targets-load-development

 

[Savvy_Jack]

Since no one is keeping score, maybe one more for size!!!
I thought this was cool....well...in a perfect world it could hurt pretty bad!

 

[ligonierbill]

Thanks for the history. Love those old Winchesters.

 

[Savvy_Jack]

Thanks Bill

I also learned how to do an overlay on Gimp...sort of.

 

[Savvy_Jack]

The Battle of Königgrätz

Say what? During the time between 14 June and 22 July 1866, the Prussians fought the Austrians. These battles were well observed by the Swiss. It was here that the Swiss decided that they were in need of modern breech-loading weapons.

The Swiss made a Decree that they would find and arm their sharpshooters and Army with breech-loading rifles on 20 July 1866.

During the 6th and 8th days of October, Winchester had already shipped the Model of 1866 to Switzerland for the Swiss Trials. On these two days the aforementioned targets were made.

On the 12th of October the Swiss government proposed an order for 8,000 repeaters for their best outfits but soon changed the proposal to between 90,000 and 110,000 repeaters to arm all of their soldiers. A condition to the contract would be that Winchester would also provide all of the tooling necessary for the 66's to be manufactured in Switzerland. Winchester could not or would not agree and offered some sort of counteroffer with the Henry rifle. The deal fell quiet and eventually Winchester backed off. I am unsure of the details.

The Report To The Commission For The Introduction Of The Breech-Loading Arms was dated Oct 1866 and published in Winchester's 1873 catalog. The information I posted above is not included in the report. The report talks about the Winchester Rifle - A. The Trajectory, B. The Precision and C. The Rapidity of Fire.

Now you know the rest of the story.

https://sites.google.com/view/44win...40/winchester-history/1866-switzerland-trials

 

[Classic12]

Interesting, I had no idea that the Swiss have tried Winchester rifles. Thanks for the history lesson.