The Winchester Repeating Arms Company was established in New Haven, Connecticut, and in 1866 began producing the repeating rifle that made it famous, based very closely on the Henry rifle of 1860. A rugged .44 calibre lever-action rifle with a tubular magazine beneath the barrel, the 1873 model was bought by Turkey and used very effectively in the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-8. It was also one of many types employed by the Cheyenne and Sioux at Little Bighorn. Winchester rifles were bought in limited quantities for the US army and navy, and the Royal Navy used them for a period in the 1890s.
Bibliography
- Blair, Claude (gen. ed.), Pollard's History of Firearms (London, 1983)
— Stephen Wood
