Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Winchester Collectors The Win-A-Winchester Contest of 1962

Regular participants in this forum are pretty knowledgeable about obscure Winchester trivia, and I'm hoping they can supply a bit of 59-year-old information.

In 1962 Winchester began a marketing campaign based on a vintage photographic print they found in their files. The photo showed a row of nineteen badge-wearing lawmen, all of whom were carrying Winchester rifles -mostly M1895s- except for one hapless individual with a Krag carbine. The photo was spread over the front and back covers of the 1962 Winchester firearms catalog, accompanied with some cleverly-worded ad copy on the inside front cover.

The catch-phrase for the marketing campaign was "19 Texas Rangers, only 18 Winchesters - Why?".
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As part of their marketing strategy Winchester conducted a national contest based on this phrase. Rifles and shotguns were to be awarded as prizes for the best answers to their question of "Why?" . Ads featuring the photo appeared in various outdoor sports and firearms periodicals, accompanied by a small note announcing the contest. Here's a scanned image of the note:
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Since contest entry forms were available only at their dealers, Winchester obviously was trying to generate foot traffic through the stores. Winchester dealers were furnished with plastic pin-back buttons to wear to help publicize the contest:
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Customers interested in the contest were given 2-sided entry forms:
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Here is a link to a larger, more legible image of the form: Larger entry form.

Entries had to be postmarked by Dec 1, 1962, and were to be judged on neatness, aptness, and originality.

First prize in the contest was a $5000 duplicate of the Model 94 bearing serial number 2,500,000. (The rifle with that serial number had been presented in 1959 to President Eisenhower. It is now in the Cody Firearms Museum. Here's a link to an article about the Eisenhower rifle: Eisenhower Rifle Story .)

Here's an image of the Eisenhower M94, linked from that article:
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The marketing campaign started to falter in September 1962 when Arizona newspapers began publishing stories demonstrating that the men in the photo were in fact Arizona Rangers, not Texas Rangers. Winchester did their best to make amends for "stealing Arizona history" and published several apologies to the people of Arizona. At one point Winchester issued a statement noting it was their intention "to make public acknowledgement of our error ... probably when the prizes of the national contest built around the picture are awarded."

In 1963 a Winchester marketing executive was taken to Phoenix for a well-publicized mock trial. After the guilty verdict the executive was hauled to the statehouse lawn to be lynched. However, the governor of Arizona was present, and just in time he halted activities by granting an on-the-spot pardon.

Questions: Were any announcements published about the results of the contest? (For example, who won the $5000 rifle, what the winning entry said, how many entries were submitted, etc?)

Is it known where the contest's duplicate of the Eisenhower rifle is now located?

Many thanks for any answers, or for suggestions about possible sources of answers or related information?

Helpful comments are welcome.

--Bob

I actually just got a '62 win catalog the other day. That pic is the cover

My local hardware store ran a contest when the 1966 yellow boy commemerative was released. The price at the time was $125. Guess the number of jelly beans in a glass jar sitting in the store front window. My buddies older brother won that thing, tied with another guy. They decided to take $62.50 each and leave the rifle there.

Charlie

Actually this whole "contest" disinformation! The rifle actually won by Eisenhauer. Fair & square as only his astute Five Star military mind to quickly see the triple ruse! 1.Not Texas Rangers, Not Arizona Rangers... Military Rangers! 2. And the whole photo, actually reflecting a military saying of vital importance to any military planning and operations of any army worldwide! 3. In about anything the military does... THE SAYING: Always necessary to plan for the inevitable percentage of troops... who don't get the word. That Krag rifle equipped 'trooper', the exact point!

Best & Stay Safe!
John

John-
Thanks for your comment.

Jeff Cooper related an excellent tale about the problems of military mis-communitcation:

When the renowned John Paul [Jones], his ship afire and sinking, was called upon to surrender, he is said to have shouted back, "I have not begun to fight!" Whereupon a marine was heard to mutter, "There's always some clothpate as never gets the word."

(Clothpate is not a word, but "clodpate" has been slang since the 1600s for a dolt or a really stupid person. One suspects that an ignorant editor messed with Cooper's prose.)

There's probably an interesting story about the Krag-toting "lone ranger".

--Bob