Jump to content

Winchester Model 1907 Fans Will Love This...


Recommended Posts

I believe someone here was looking for original 1907 advertising a while back. Here are some Winchester Model 1907 photos from a 1957 Federal Laboratories catalog that surfaced. Just goes to prove that the Model 1907 was the AR-15 of its time...Enjoy!

 

FedLabs1957_LEWeapons.jpgFedLabs1957_Model07.jpg

 

David Albert

dalbert@sturmgewehr.com

 

 

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

David,

Very nice and very interesting.

Promoting the 351 as the perfect police rifle the year before it was discontinued. The fact that the 351 wasn't included in every police arms room in the U.S. shows how little police know about firearms.

And nice to mention the good old 1894.

Jim C

Link to comment
Share on other sites

David,

Very nice and very interesting.

Promoting the 351 as the perfect police rifle the year before it was discontinued. The fact that the 351 wasn't included in every police arms room in the U.S. shows how little police know about firearms.

And nice to mention the good old 1894.

Jim C

 

 

Jim,

 

Good point about the Model 07 being promoted just before being discontinued.

 

I'll have to pull out my Grandfather's Model 94, and take another look at it after seeing the advertisement. I think I fired one round through it many years ago, but other than that, it just sits in a safe.

 

David Albert

dalbert@sturmgewehr.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

I've had my 1907, which just happens to be a low three digit serial number, for several years. I have never had an opportunity to shoot it, I think I need to change that in the near future

 

I will be interested to know what you think of the trigger pull when you do. Mine is rather heavy, which I think is the norm.

I think the 1907 is an interesting firearm and quite like it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Ditto on the trigger pull. They are all pretty similar but for that type of gun it's not a big deal IMO. I shot the .32 and the .401 today. The .32 is very tame, but the 401 packs a punch and went through some heat treated steel plates that the 32 would not penetrate. It left rather gaping holes. There is a rather noticeable weight and balance difference between the two guns as well since the bolt weight on the 401 is a lot heavier.

 

I will say these things are kind of addictive and seem to pile up? Most of them seem to need work, or at least the ones I bought. All 4 had cracked/ broken fore stocks, one was in three pieces. Most had buffer issues, one broken recoil spring, and various other issues. All got some degree of restoration and all now have fiberglassed forearms which will avoid any future problems. All are up and running correctly. I didn't shoot any of them when they came in since with all the issues it's doubtful any of the them worked since a couple appeared to never have been cleaned in 100 years.

 

In skipping the creek this year I spared a few hours at a LGS and scored the book. Inside were a bunch of letters back and forth between Henwood and a collector that I haven't had the time to go through yet, but I'm sure will be interesting.

All in all if you get a chance to shoot one, they are pretty neat guns for the time period. I was able to get new ammo for all of them, some in stock, some 3-4 week lead time.

 

IMG_7989.JPG

IMG_7990.JPG

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd bet these were worse than yours when I started (but feel free to post a few pics I'd love to see other other variations). Normally I just do mechanical restorations, but the condition on these were pretty low, so sometimes there's nothing to lose on restoring a $500 gun, which is about what I paid for each one. If they were military collector pieces I likely would have done the mechanicals and nothing else.

 

The seller was pretty non- negotiable on the book because I didn't buy the Smith and Wesson book he had with it ( a mistake in hindsight) so I had to pony up the full $79 vs. 2 for 150. I've seen two copies for sale in the last year. One was on ebay starting around 600, but later reduced and priced at 399 but sold at best offer. The other was on gunboards and IIRC sold for $250 quickly. There are 500 copies. It's a good book, but that's a lot of dough. Between that and Speckin's book there's a lot of good info, but neither offers much on working on them or details on parts or photos of internals which would be a great help.

 

I just shot what was commercially available from buffalo, Load X, and Reeds. They seem to offer one load only, so I had to stick with that. I haven't reloaded anything in years, due to time constraints, but will be ready at some point to get back into it. What is pictured is in .32 .35, .351, and .401. Generally if I can't get ammo commercially I tend to stay away from purchasing a gun. Looking for a source for 44 bulldog right now if anyone knows who's making it? HTH

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I shot the 1907 351 today. It's a lighter touch then the 401 but still packs a punch. Shot the same plate and it penetrated like the 401, but not as clean, probably because they were not FMJ bullets, but semi jacketed. After a couple rounds I decided to replace the recoil spring since it had a few light kinks and it's likely pretty old. Pictured on top is the 1905 custom (bubba's gun shop) two piece spring. Maybe the guy was a genius and a former engineer at CSRG utilizing two differ spring wire sizes, but I'm not taking any chances? Second is the 1907 spring that was in it, third is a new wolff 1907 spring. Felt recoil seemed a little lighter, but that's 97% subjective. The ejection pattern did change somewhat so there is some difference. With that big "pre-ban" magazine it really does pack a lot of firepower and is a compact package with more punch than an AR. Maybe I need to do some work on a double stack 30 round mag? LOL

 

As an aside, I put a 351 wolff spring in the 32 1905 since I am working under the assumption the bolt weight is predominant factor between all the guns. Still the same rod and two buffers even though the steel washer setup is different, I did measure it dry (no spring)so that the bolt hits the buffer before the back of the receiver. Hopefully this is of interest to at least three of us?

 

 

IMG_7992.JPG

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The 351 spring works well in the .32. Lighter, well balanced with very low recoil.

That looks like a nice bunch of guns.....need a better pic! I spy a 63 in there. I ended up with a minty one as part of a package with one of the other rifles. I was already a fan having owned two Browning semi's for a long time now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The picture was posted here a year ago, I just copied and pasted. Don't know why it came out small . Maybe I'll make another attempt .

I recently added a 1903 Winchester to the collection. Haven't posted it yet. Doesn't really fit into any forum.

Its a 112 years old and in nice shape.

Jim C

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Much better in that thread. Yours all look to be in 75%+ condition. If mine were like that I'd have left them alone. My 1907 is original finish on the gun, but the stocks were beat/ cracked. Sheesh, I forgot I picked up a model 100 fairly recently. I suppose this counts as a self loader. It's a deer rifle I've got to test fire one of these days. Not sure how big the weight would have to be to be a straight blowback, but it would probably weigh in close to a BAR? LOL.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...