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The design of US patent No. 524702 was made by John Browning for Winchester in a rush to compete with the Marlin 1893. Winchester would produce it as the Model 1894. The Winchester 1894 is one of the most popular rifles made by Winchester with over 7 million rifles manufactured before production was moved to Japan.
The Winchester 1894 went from design to sales in less than 2 years, much like the 1892. One of the ways this was accomplished was by using as many of the same parts and machining operations as possible with the 1892 already in production.
The 1894 was designed to use intermediate rifle cartridges, a niche in the Winchester line that hadn’t seen innovation since the model 1873. Initially it was designed and chambered for the same black powder 32-40 and 38-55 cartridges used in the Marlin 1893. In 1895 Winchester released the .30 WCF, one of the first commercial smokeless powder centerfire rifle cartridges. Changes were made to the 1894 to accommodate the higher pressure cartridge, namely a different steel alloy for the barrel and minor changes to the receiver. Despite this, it is often claimed as the “first rifle specifically designed for a smokeless cartridge”.
Inventor: John Browning
Patent Attorney: Earle & Seymour
Assigned: Winchester, January 1894