Celebrated Winchester rifle may have fired last shot

AFP/Yahoo ^ | 04-02-06

[Vaquero]

Celebrated Winchester rifle may have fired last shot

Sun Apr 2, 4:20 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The famous Winchester rifle glorified in American Westerns may have fired its last shot as a plant where it had been manufactured since 1866 closed its doors last week.

One hundred eighty-six employees of the US Repeating Arms Company plant located in New Haven, Connecticut, were thanked for their work Friday, two days after the facility stopped all manufacturing activity, said Catherine Sullivan-DeCarlo, a spokeswoman for the city government.

She told AFP that the mayor's office has been searching for an investor, who would take over the plant, but has to overcome several obstacles on the way to achieving this goal.

US Repeating Arms Company and its New Haven plant belong to Belgian manufacturer Herstal, which has purchased from US firm Olin the right to use the famous brand name.

"Herstal owns US Repeating Arms and Olin owns the license to the Winchester name so they own the brand name," Sullivan-DeCarlo said.

"We've been talking to different gun manufacturers, and at the same time the mayor has been talking to Olin about possibly keeping the name Winchester here for whoever comes in the factory," she continued.

"Because otherwise, our fear is that the Winchester name will end up overseas."

That would be a rough turn for the celebrated lever-action 1873 gun that made rapid reloading and fire possible and helped conquer the West.

It was Oliver Fisher Winchester, who in 1853 founded New Haven Arms Company, which in 1866 became known as Winchester Arms Company.

The Winchester rifle was in fact based on the Henry rifle that was used during the Civil War.

Pioneers heading West adopted the rifle, and near-mythical personalities like Buffalo Bill made it their weapon of choice.

Western movies and television series had helped maintain the gun's celebrity status long into the 20th century.

Josh Randall, a character in the miniseries "Wanted: Dead or Alive" played by actor Steve McQueen, used one of these gun with a sawed-off barrel.

James Stewart used the 1873 model in "Winchester 73."

The rifle had been modified several times and was used by US troops during World War II.

To keep the plant in New Haven, the city government would like to be able to offer a new investor the possibility of keeping the Winchester trademark and is negotiating this option with Olin.

"We have asked that Herstal not renew the Winchester license now, or for a term of not less than 10 years," New Haven Mayor John DeStefano told the City Council in mid-March.

There is concern that Herstal will keep the brand name to manufacture the rifle at its other plants outside the United States. It is already happening with several other Winchester rifles, but they are not based on the 1894 model, a derivative of the 1873 model. A total of six million such rifles have been manufactured since the end of the 19th century.

If this proposal is not acceptable, the mayor is offering to have Herstal transfer its interest in the facility, the inventory and the intellectual property to the city for a symbolic amount of money in exchange for a waiver of the financial obligations owed to the city and the union.

"If Herstal is willing to do this, it would help the city move ahead smoothly in finding a new user for the site," DeStefano said. "We have several interested companies."

"Winchester has operated in New Haven for 140 years, and is an American icon," added the mayor, fully aware of the fact that if the eventual new owner is not allowed to used the name Winchester, the property would not pack the same bang for the buck.

[Vaquero]

dont you hate it when 'journalists'(sarc) who don't know diddly about guns, writes articles on them?

and don't ya hate it even more, when Unions cause another failure of American companies?(the Belgian ownership for the past few years not withstanding, Winchesters are licensed by Olen, an American company and hopefully will be relicensed to an American company again shortly)

[BerniesFriend]

elebrated Winchester rifle may have fired last shot

I ad an ell of a ood ime eading his rticle..;)

[joesnuffy]

'Olin' I believe is the ammunition production end not long guns

Olin Corp

Winchester Ammo

[skinkinthegrass]

hanks... :D

[Vaquero]

Olin owns the rights to the name for both

[TXBSAFH]

I figure that by the end of 2007 we will see a new winchester. A few facts concernig this mess. One, hestel (sp?) only owned the building and the tooling, the patents had expired long ago on most of their guns and the name winchester was to revert back to olin in 2007. Olin has turned down several offers to renew the lease on the name even though other gun makers expressed a real interst in buying the factor if they did. It would not supprise me one bit to hear of the return of winchester under olin in a new state of the art factory in a more business and gun friendly state in the south or the west. The only reasons I think olin did not buy the plant is the Conn is nto a friendly statre to do business in and the factory had some tax liablity with the city. Better to let it go and start over from scratch.

[CPOSharky]

I wonder how much city and state meddeling (taxes and regulation) had to do with the plant closing.

[rellimpank]

--The rifle had been modified several times and was used by US troops during World War II.--

--to say the least---(sarcasm)--I am nearly speechless--

[Vaquero]

really cracks one up.....it sounds like they modified(by a Mister Carbine Williams.) an Old Model '73 (I own 2 BTW) and made it into an M1 Carbine (I only own 1 of these) for use in the European and Pacific theaters.

They really shouldnt even touch the article if they dont know what the frig they're talking about.

[rellimpank]

--my tagline applies--

[NaughtiusMaximus]

Prices on all Winchester (made in USA) guns have gone crazy around here. Dealers had them zipped off the shelves within days or hours of the news. Gun show prices tripled on used models.

[Joe Brower]

[oyez]

[CFC__VRWC]

I'd read that Smith & Wesson was looking into purchasing the New Haven plant and the license to use the Winchester name. Is that still on the table?

[TXBSAFH]

See post #6. From what I hear S&W is interest but Olin is mum on re licensing the name.

[Vaquero]

That would be great if thats true. Funny how the circle would finally close. Just before the Civil war, Smith and Wesson sold the rights to the Volcanic lever action handgun to a group whose major investor was Oliver Winchester. Winchester a Shirt manufacturer got his head engineer, one B. Tyler Henry to work on this problematic firearm. He changed the gun from a pistol to a rifle and from a case less self enclosed round. to a .44 caliber rimfire brass cartridge round and dubbed it the model 1860 Henry rifle. Infamous amongst the southern soldiers during the civil war as "that damned yankee rifle you load on Sunday and shoot all week". Upon its first modification Henry's name no longer appeared on the rifle as it was called the 1866 Winchester. The rest is history.

So it will have gone full Circle from S&W to S&W and it would only have taken slightly less than 150 years.

[looscnnn]

How much money are we talking that they owe? How much is Olin asking for the Winchester name? How much is Herstal willing to take for USRA?

If the amount is not crazy, like trillions, we could push for the NRA, JPFO, GoA, etc. to get together to form a trust and have members donate money to buy/license the name and USRA. Then it would be owned by gun owners, kinda like the Green Bay Packers.

[NRA2BFree]

I really like those guns! I wouldn't mind having one.

[blackie]

An Armed Citizen, Is A Safe Citizen!

The Second Amendment...
America's Only Homeland Security!

Be Ever Vigilant!

[wardaddy]

Model 100 in .308 sure served me, my dad and his dad well with whitetails.... Salute!