A friend loaned me an original September 1924 National Sportsman magazine. Upon opening the cover page, lo and behold!!!! ... an advertisement for the Winchester Model 53!! The entire magazine was in black and white except for the inside and outside of the front and back cover, which was colour. The first Winchester Model 53 was serialized on June 18, 1924 with a total of 40 serialized by the end of that first month. By the beginning of September, when this National Sportsman issue came out, a total of just 661 Model 53 rifles had been serialized. Since that was the very first step in building a rifle, the actual number completed may have been slightly less. I think we can safely say that this advertisement was the very first official layout design for advertising the Model 53.
The big question in my mind is, what month did Winchester start running this ad in the National Sportsman? Chances are, with a total production of no more than 661 rifles by September, this was the first month they started advertising and shipping. However, if anyone here has earlier copies from 1924, I would be very grateful if you could check to see if this advert appeared before the September issue.
Production ran from June 1924 to June 1930, with a small clean up run done in March 1932. Total production of the Model 53 was only 15,000, so it is rare to find one today, especially here in Canada. I've only seen three Canadian Model 53's over the past 10 years. I have one of them, a very nice high condition 32-20. I've brought two more up into Canada from the USA and have since sold both of them, so there are at least five Model 53's in Canada. They were popular in the USA and Australia, but almost unheard of here in Canada. I figure it was because of the bigger game, requiring bigger cartridges.
The big question in my mind is, what month did Winchester start running this ad in the National Sportsman? Chances are, with a total production of no more than 661 rifles by September, this was the first month they started advertising and shipping. However, if anyone here has earlier copies from 1924, I would be very grateful if you could check to see if this advert appeared before the September issue.
Production ran from June 1924 to June 1930, with a small clean up run done in March 1932. Total production of the Model 53 was only 15,000, so it is rare to find one today, especially here in Canada. I've only seen three Canadian Model 53's over the past 10 years. I have one of them, a very nice high condition 32-20. I've brought two more up into Canada from the USA and have since sold both of them, so there are at least five Model 53's in Canada. They were popular in the USA and Australia, but almost unheard of here in Canada. I figure it was because of the bigger game, requiring bigger cartridges.
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