Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Winchester Collectors Winchester 1905 35 cal.

Years ago I had a full set of self loaders from the 1903 which fired a proprietary 22 rimfire auto to the 1910 firing the .401 WSL. I sold them while going through a divorce. They are an interesting design but heavy and of modest power. The 1903 had a tubular magazine loaded through a port in the stock like the little browning autos. Of the bunch, I think the 351 SL was the most capable.

Remington's model 8 and later model 81 were contemporaries offering greater power than Winchester's early blowback design.

T.S.

TexasShooter,

While I agree with you on the Remington Model 8 & the 81, have you ever hunted with a Winchester Model 1910 in .401WSL??
Btw, I own 3 Remington rifles in .300SAV & one of those is a "late model" Model 8.
(That fat/blunt .406 caliber 250 grain bullet at about 2,000FPS is "A KILLER" & fully as deadly out to 150M on deer, black bear & feral hogs, as my .308WCF is.)
I would not fear to use it on elk or moose at "woods ranges", if I didn't have access to another rifle.
(Elmer Keith once described the exit wound from the 250 grain .401WSL as , "a large bloody rathole". = I find that the .401 bullet nearly always exits the far side of even BIG hogs. It leaves an easy to follow blood trail.)

yours, tex

Hi Tex, Nope, I never hunted with my .401. I'll rely on your experience. Curious, are you really getting 2,000 fps with your 250 grain loads?

Also, take a look at your Remington in 300 savage. Are you sure it's not a model 81?

Best regards, TexasShooter

PS - I'll take Elmer Keith's word on all things firearms.

TexasShooter,

YEP, presuming that my friend's chronograph (I've never owned one.) is anything near correct, I'm getting about 2000FPS with 250 grain "homebrewed" 250 grain GCCB, in front of 28 grains of IMR4227. - That's only 45FPS faster (W/O signs of over-pressure) than the old "Police use only" Remington-Peters load. - My carbine does fine with it but "Your mileage may vary."

As to my Model 8: Several "advanced collectors" have examined it & believe it to be one of the "hybrid" Model 8-81 "transitional models", that were "made-up from spare parts" & sold to LE & corrections agencies "at a deep discount" during The Great Depression.
(My rifle was bought by the Smith County Texas Sheriff's Department sometime before WWII. - NO sales document for it is known to exist in 2018. - It was "surplused-off in the 1960s & I bought it "well-used" & in serious need of refinishing from a LGS in Longview, TX about 30 years ago.)

Fyi, the Colt, Remington, S&W, Winchester & other gunmakers were "in sad shape" for sales in the depths of The Depression & some "downright peculiar" firearms were made up from parts & sold to police departments, make some cash "to keep the doors open".
(My "little brother" owns a "hybrid" 12 gauge pump-gun with 26" barrel that he had "lettered" & YEP it's "factory-correct" with the receiver/stock of a Winchester Model 12 & the entire front end of a Model 1897. = The shotgun was sold in 1934 to a Mississippi prison camp, i.e., for use by guards/"gun bulls" of the notorious MS "chain gangs". - The stock is crudely "hand-lettered": CRC-14, which I'd guess was the inventory number of "county road camp, gun # 14" but I may be 100% wrong about that.)

Note reference my "little brother", who is 5' 10" tall & weighs about 240 pounds of solid muscle, was once said to be, by a family friend: "He's only little when compared to a Buick."
(Everyone at the dinner table LOL at Rex's quip.).

yours, tex

Ha Ha Ha… Thanks for the great and fascinating information !!!!!!!! I'm almost wishing I would've kept my 401. But, my gun room is busting at the seams as it is.

T.S.

TexasShooter,

Well one thing is certain.= It will be a LONG time until anyone gets a chance at my Model 1910, as it is in my will to my 44YO daughter & she's already told her "quasi-mother" that she won't ever sell it because it is mine.
(I got the carbine out of the estate sale of one of my grandfather's boyhood chums, who as a boy I called, "Mr. C. - .He bought it in about 1911 or 1912, according to his ("Miss Em" passed away in 1986) widow Emily Ruth C__________..)

The group of 70-85YO men, who were my grandfather's friends, "took me under their wing" after my grandfather passed away when I was not quite 13YO. = My mother dismissed the group as "Daddy's play-fellows" & tried to ignore their existence.
(Mother was NOT amused when she found out that one of "the play-fellows", "Mr Bob" had given me most of a 1/2 pint fruit jar of white likker/moonshine to drink, saying "A full-growed man has to learn to handle his corn. - It's time you learned." - I was then not quite 2 months past my 15th birthday & just before Christmas in 1962.)

yours, tex

Great memories. My grandfather was a Texas game warden for 35 years in Colorado County. He was my role model and took me hunting and fishing from the time I was ten years old. He passed away in 1982 at 92 years of age. I still miss him. Here's a pic of us when I was a kid. He also coached our little league baseball team. As you can see, he would crumple his hats and wear them anyway. Those old timers never threw anything away. LOL

TexasShooter,

Great picture!

TexasShooter,

GREAT photo.

All of my grandfather's "play-fellows" were "promoted to Glory" long ago & I miss them still. = The last of them passed away while I was OCONUS with the Army in 2001 at age 102.
("Mr. Rex" had been a Lance Corporal, USMC & lost part of his right lung at the Battle of Belleau Wood on 08JUN1918 & once told me that he was "heartbroken" that the Marines didn't want him back for duty in The South Pacific during WWII.)

yours, tex

Thanks to both for the comments on the photo. I have several of me and my grandfather but that's my favorite. :-)

TexasShooter; All,

Men like your beloved grandfather, my grandfather & his boyhood chums are all GONE now & I fear that we will not ever see their like again. = More than 3/4 of my grandfather's friends (and who "put up with me", when I was a wet behind the ears kid) volunteered to serve in combat in WWI, WWII & in the Korean War.

They all believed that being a soldier, sailor, airman, marine was the DUTY of a MAN, when the USA badly needed such people in time of war or national emergency, to fight "The Hun" in 1918, to end the NAZI terror or to turn back the North Koreans/Red Chinese hordes, who were trying to conquer South Korea.

By the "standards" (IF one can call the current "popular opinions" of "modern society", "standards") of the 21st Century, there weren't "important people" at all. = Most of them were former "CCC boys", "dirt under the fingernails" small farmers, small contractors, carpenters, mechanics, shopkeepers, "sawmill trash", stockmen, roughnecks/tool pushers in "the oil patch", small/rural county lawmen, moonshiners, trappers, hound-men & other similar trades.
(One, "Pastor Jack", had been a Army Chaplain in WWI, was "gassed with mustard" & thereafter wasn't able to "hold a regular, fulltime job". - Nonetheless, by hunting/fishing, breeding/selling coonhounds & the VERY small "love offerings" that his little Missionary Baptist church could afford to pay a pastor, managed to keep a roof over the head of his wife & 4 kids.)

At 71YO, I remember all of "the play-fellows" as GIANTS. I see FEW men in 2018 who are their equal. - They were all HEROES, imo.

yours, tex

Tex, I agree 100% . Men back then were made of sterner stuff. I knew some growing up as well. I am 70 YO. I still come across some in the younger generations that have the right stuff but, they are few and far between. Americans as a whole, have had it too good for too long. Growing up under difficult conditions, as past generations have, endowed people with the strength to endure and a hunger to achieve. Sadly, I'm convinced the only way back is via another major calamity.

T.S.

TexasHotter,

Your grandfather & mine as well as their "fellows" were members of THE GREATEST GENERATION for sure.

Fwiw, my grandfather was turned down for military duty in both WWI (because he was in a "shortage & necessary to the war effort" occupation = Sawmill owner, who was providing lumber & heavy bridge timber to the Forces) & WWII (because of age = 67YO).
Nonetheless, he hurried to replace a local county constable (who had rushed to serve in the AEF) in WWI & served as the "temporary for the war plus 6 months" county sheriff (as a "dollar a year man") in WWII.

Btw, my grandfather said that during both WWI & WWII that with the vast majority of the men gone off to war that there wasn't much for our county's police/SD to do. = Our county by 90 days after Pearl Harbor was, "virtually all old men, women & younger children".
He also said in WWI & WWII that it was difficult to get his sawmill employees & the lumbermen, who provided logs to the mills, to understand that their normal work was VERY important to the war effort, as lumber was NEEDED critically..

yours, tex

I Second!!!!

LazyL0228,

Did you talk to your buddy about loading you some ammo?? - I cannot wait to hear how the little carbine does.

yours, tex

satx78247,

Yes he is working on it now sent over the info to him. He said should not be to hard of a job. But when done should be able to reload a few more times. He knows best. Maybe next weekend for sure. Also we were at a show in indy picked up a model 255 in 22 mag. in almost new shape. Have been shooting it love a lever!!!

later,fred

LazyL0228,

GOOD on 'ya.

You sound like you feel about levers as I do about pumps.

The sole LA that I would really like to own is a Model 95 Winchester rifled-musket (in fill military dress) in .30 Army, .30-03, .30-06, .303 British or even in 7.62x53mm Russian.

yours, tex

satx78247
Will keep a eye for one you never know.

later fred

LazyL0228,

THANKS Fred.

yours, tex

what he says in SPADES!!