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US patent 345881 was the last of four submitted in 1885, and the only one not assigned to Winchester during application. Winchester would purchase the patent, though it was, perhaps, too vast a departure from the rest of Winchester’s products and would be quickly shelved. An improved design was supplied by Browning the following year.
The shotgun is a pump action with a rotating bolt, exposed hammer, and top ejection. While conceptually advanced, it locked upon a single lug at the rear of the breech-block. This arrangement was proving a point of weakness in similarly locked bolt action rifles of the time. The use of an intermediate slide to translate motion from the action bar to the breech bock, however, would outlast nearly every other design and is a standard feature in pump shotguns today.
Inventor: John Browning, Matthew Browning
Patent Attorney: John Earle
Assigned: Winchester, date unknown