Winchester Model 1907

Winchester Model 1907
Production information
Country of origin	United States of America
Designer(s)	T.C. Johnson
Year(s) designed	1901
Production began	1907
Production ended	1957
Number built	58,733
Technical specifications
Weapon type	Semi-automatic rifle
Caliber	.351 Winchester Self-Loading
Action	Blowback
Length	40 inches (100 centimetres)
Barrel length	20 inches (51 centimetres)
Weight	8–9 pounds (3.6–4.1 kilograms)
Feed system	5-, 10-, 15- or 20-round detachable box magazine
Other information
Other name(s)	Winchester Model 07

The Winchester Model 1907 was an American blowback-operated, semi-automatic rifle designed by T.C. Johnson in 1901 and produced by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company from 1907 to 1957. The second iteration of the Winchester Self-Loading rifle, the Model 1907 was essentially an upgrade of the previous Model 1905 chambered for a slightly bigger cartridge.

History

The Model 1907 was based on patents filed in 1901 by T.C. Johnson, a longstanding employee of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. The weapon that became of this patent was the Model 1903, the first semi-automatic firearm commercially sold by the company.

Johnson then decided to scale up the action to fit larger cartridges; this would end up becoming the Model 1905 which was not commercially successful due to its underpowered cartridge owing to its blowback operation. As a result, Johnson decided to redesign the gun, instead having it chambered in a slightly larger cartridge. The result of this was the Model 1907; the weapon was marked in 1907 and was a commercial success, and enjoyed some popularity with law enforcement agencies around the world. Production ended in 1957 with some 58,733 produced over the course of its production run.

The Model 1907 was used by the French Army in some numbers. The French government initially ordered 300 Model 1907 rifles in October 1915 from Winchester, soon followed by an order for 2,500 more rifles. Ammunition orders for these rifles exceeded 1.5 million cartridges of .351SL before 1917. Subsequent orders in 1917 and 1918 totaled 2,200 Model 1907 rifles. The rifle was also used by a number of other nations worldwide during World War I.

Design Details

The Model 1907 was a simple blowback firearm with a balanced breech bolt, as with all the Winchester self-loading rifles of the time. Ammunition was fed through five- to twenty-round box magazines which fed through a magazine well under the receiver. The weapon's charging handle is a plunger located under the barrel that resembles a cleaning rod; this was intentional as the weapon was to have completely flat sides so nothing poking off the side would catch onto things.

Ammunition

The Model 1907 was chambered for only .351 Winchester Self-Loading ammunition, which was slightly longer than the .35 Winchester Self-Loading cartridge chambered in the Model 1905. The cartridge is now obsolete and hard to find, although a few companies such as Buffalo Arms currently load the round.

Variants

The Model 1907 was available in a variety of finishes, from Plain to Fancy Finish and even Police trims.

There were apparently fully-automatic Model 1907s in existence, however there is no evidence available to support this. According to factory records, these rifles were modified for fully automatic fire and fitted with M1895 Lee Navy rifle bayonets. These rifles were designated by the name of Winchester Model 1907/17, used either a 15-round magazine or 20-round magazine and fired at a rate of fire of 600 to 700 rounds per minute.