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In the fall of 1892 John Browning submitted the design for US patent No. 511677. The two rifles covered in the patent were among at least 8 rifle and shotgun designs submitted to Winchester that year by Browning. Although some development was made by Winchester, the design was never produced.
The rifles are open-bolt designs made up of only 7 or 8 parts total. They consisted of the barrel, stock, stock bolt, trigger guard, 2 trigger guard screws, mainspring, and single piece which formed the hammer, firing pin, and trigger. Additionally one rifle also included an extractor.
The hammer/trigger piece slides on diagonal grooves made in the rear of the barrel. When the piece is depressed it exposes the breech of the barrel, and compresses the mainspring until a sear notch engages the trigger guard. A cartridge is then loaded manually. The portion of the hammer/trigger piece extending into the trigger guard is moved rearward, disengaging the sear notch. As the piece moves upward it seals the breech and strikes the cartridge, firing the rifle. The hammer/trigger piece is again depressed and the cartridge shell extracted.
Shortly after acquiring a controlling interest in the Whitney Arms Company and Remington Arms Company, Winchester began a development program for an inexpensive .22 rimfire rifle. The program was likely the result of seeing how profitable the simple .22s of Whitney and Remington were, combined with lackluster sales of Winchester’s more expensive 1885 chambered in .22 rimfire.
Winchester’s .22 rifle program appears to have been headed by William Mason and William Wetmore. Initial design considerations were for a rolling block action and a falling block action, with the rolling block receiving more development. After Browning submitted the two designs above, development briefly switched to those models. The .22 program would then veer off on tangents of falling block and break action designs before being supplanted by John Browning’s .22 bolt action rifle in 1898.
Inventor: John Browning
Patent Attorney: Earle & Seymour
Assigned: Winchester, Dec. 1892