RIFLES AND SHOTGUNS AMMUNITION - Browning International

®The history of Winchester ® was anintegral part of the conquest ofthe West...2010 marks the bicentennial of thebirth of Oliver Fisher Winchester.Born in Boston, Massachusettson 30 November 1810, he foundfinancial success in the manufactureof shirts, and began his industrialventure in 1857 in the field of armsand ammunition by investing in anexisting company in Connecticut:the Volcanic Repeating ArmsCompany, based in New Haven 80miles east of New York, becomingthe principal stockholder andpresident.Although he was not an inventor, hehad a precise idea of the arms thathe hoped to see produced.He wanted them to be lighter andnot limited to a single shot. He alsoagreed on the importance of safetyand metallic ammunition.Winchester ® entrusted a talentedgunsmith, Benjamin Tyler Henry,with the mission of refining themixtures of powder and mercuryfulminate to improve the propulsionof the projectiles and to producerifled barrels to refine the precisionof the shots as early as 1860.A year later, Henry perfected thefirst repeating rifle with a tubularmagazine. The cowboys and goldprospectors appreciated that.A legendary weapon is born.Winchester ® did not directly profitfrom the Civil War, which lastedfrom 1861 until 1865. Nevertheless,the fact that the army spurned hisweapons encouraged him to favourselling to individuals and to export.This strategy would pay off at the endof the war when Oliver Winchestertook control of the business that herenamed the Winchester RepeatingArms Company ® in 1867.One year earlier, he had createdthe “Model 1866”, with its yellowreceiver, which quickly becameknown as Yellow Boy.A further development of the riflecreated by Henry, was the Winchester® rifle capable of usingcentrefire ammunition with a leveraction which turned out to be avery useful defensive weapon forthe time, but also for combat andwas appreciated for hunting.The versatility of the weapon ledto the sales of more than 100,000in the first seven years of itsproduction.A legendary weapon was born - therifle that conquered the West.Other Winchester ® models followed,fine vintages like champagne:the 1873 (Model 73, .44cal.), the 1876, the 1892, and the1894, the first .30 or .32 calibreWinchester specially conceived forhunting that later was all the ragein Hollywood films.Oliver Winchester died in New Havenon 11 December 1880.In 1901, one John Moses Browningapproached FN Herstal in Belgiumand the start of today’s relationshipwas born making guns underlicence.Eighty years later, in 1981, theWinchester Repeating Arms ® plantwas purchased by FN Herstal.Thus, Winchester ® remains a recognisedbrand of arms and ammunition.Thousands of shooters – clay orgame, own at least one or use theammunition.The legend continues…5