351 winchester, got one?

Bobby Ironsights

Bobby Ironsights

CGN frequent flyer
EE Expired
Rating - 100%
17   0   0
Location
Thunder Bay ON Canada
351montage002.jpg



A little while ago, while hanging with my cousin who was working the gunshop counter at my local, we got to talking about old and obsolete cartridges that used to be popular, and I'd like to think I held my own, but he pulled out a rifle, in a cartridge I hadn't seen before. I thought Jimmy was joking at first! .351? He wanted about 450 or so for it, IIRC.

He says the .351 winchester self loading rifle was the most popular law enforcement and correctional services rifle of it's time, and after reading about it, I can understand why. I didn't think of it again until I saw it in a movie, and did a bit more reading.

It seems like it's the sturmgewehr of it's time, if a little heavy for its size. Too bad it died out, anybody got one here? Like to do a range report?
 
Got one - have a 401 WSL too. If you have a lathe, it's easy to make brass from 357 maximum brass. Bullets need to be sized to about 0.352" - 38 bullets can be sized down. Mine loves full, or near full cases of H4227 with all bullet weights.
 
I own one inherited from my father he used to break it down and put it in his knapsack he did a lot of prospecting and hunting in northern B.C. Every time I go to a gun show I try to pick ammo for it.I only have the five round mags not the ten.
 
I had one but bulged the barrel by loading with too slow a powder. I didn't have any loading statistics for it and had it functioning with I think green dot then thought that I would try using a slower powder and work up so that hopefully I would get higher velocities without reaching dangerous chamber pressures.
Bad choice; sort of a pop, a pause then Kapow with lots of flash at the breach. I didn't clue in that there was a slug stuck in the barrel so fired another shot with the faster powder and now had 2 stuck in the barrel. The gun is recoil operated so with slow powders the breach starts opening before the bulk of the charge fires. Pressure drops, a pause then the bulk of the powder fires while the breach is 3/4 open and there is very little effective pressure on the slug

cheers mooncoon
 
The Winchester Model 1907 Self Loader .351 started out as the Model 1905 Sel Loading Rifle available in .32 and .35 Winchester Self Loading cartridges.In 1907 the rifle was upgraded to the .351 Self Loading cartridge and called the Model 1907.In 1910 the rifle was upgraded again to handle the .401 Winchester Self Loading cartridge and called the Model 1910 Winchester Self Loading rifle.

For the most part the upgrades were to made the rifle larger to handle the larger cartridges.The Model 1905,1907 and 1910 Winchester rifles used a blow back design so the only way to get them to use larger cartridges was to increase the size weight of the blow back design.

Of the three the Model 1907 was the most successful.None of the three Winchester Self Loading Rifles did all that great in sales.Mostly due to the Remington Model 8 Auto Loader that used more powerful cartriges than the Winchesters.
 
I have two of the 1907 in 351 and make my own ammo. Start loads for 357 work good and 357 bullets. I load with 357 Lee die set. At 50 yards I can get 2" groups. With my eyes that is good for open iron.I will be trying 125 gr JHP this summer in a load.
 
Garndfather's Deer gun

1905 .35 Winchester Self Loading. I've only shot it once, and still have a box of original Winchester .35 WSL.
Beautiful wood on it, five round magazine.
DSC06456-1.jpg

DSC06445.jpg


Happy New Year to All!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom