I have this gun in my family for more than 50 years probably, but now I have to take care of it, and I have no knowledge about Guns, all I know this is from WW1 and is called Winchester Model 07 , this has been taken good care of and shoots nicely!
So if anyone has some knowledge about this, like is it something rare or what would be the valuation if I decide to sell it, any kind of help would be appreciated!
Re: Need Help For this Old Semi Automatic Rifle
Posted: Mon Nov 04, 2024 11:09 pm
by timmy
I wrote up a little piece on the Winchester self loading rifles, which includes the Model 07, some time ago. You may find it interesting:
If you would like to see a video on the Model 07 in WW1 service, check out this video:
Othias, in this video, is not presenting the typical youtube gun video of "I can pull the trigger and the gun goes bang" type of rubbish. He really gets into the history of these guns, and the details around their development and use.
He has another video on the Winchester Model 10, a very similar rifle, but chambered in 401 Winchester SL, rather than 351 Winchester SL, here:
As you can see from the piece that I wrote, Winchester designers were sorely limited by the company management's stupid decision to discard John Browning, and had to make the best of their situation when navigating the patent issues. As far as a rifle goes, these guns were not equal to the Browning-designed semiatuomatic rifles sold by Remington, the Models 08 and 81. The Model 81, in fact, chambered in 300 Savage, would be a reasonable hunting arm today for deer-sized game. There was a huge penalty in using the blowback principle in the Winchester Self Loaders, but the locking breach of the Remington designed by Browning allowed more powerful bottleneck cartridges with greater flexibility of loads.
Decades ago, when I was young and foolish (as opposed to now being old and foolish), there were quite a number of Winchester Self Loaders on the used gun racks where I lived. The drawbacks of the design and lack of ammunition made me pass on them, as they were then quite cheap to buy. Now I appreciate the beautiful bluing Winchester used, and the precise wood to metal fit. They were wonderfully made, and I wish that I had bought one. Custom loading companies to make ammunition for them now, but it is very expensive. Unless one is a tycoon, the only way to shoot one of these is to be a reloader and bullet caster.
I have this gun in my family for more than 50 years probably, but now I have to take care of it, and I have no knowledge about Guns, all I know this is from WW1 and is called Winchester Model 07 , this has been taken good care of and shoots nicely!
So if anyone has some knowledge about this, like is it something rare or what would be the valuation if I decide to sell it, any kind of help would be appreciated!
This is Winchester in .351 or .401 caliber, both ammo not available in India. It will go for below 20k. Not the kind of news you wanted to hear but sadly thats the reality.