Pigeon Grade Winchester 1911 SL

[hoohaa310]

I have recently acquired a Pigeon Grade Winchester 1911SL with hard case. Serial Number is 43000 range. I'm hoping I can find a little more information here. I have read the only Winchester book I have, and there's a whole two pages (mosty taken up by photographs of field grade models) totalling only about 200 words. What I'm hoping is for all my fellows that have any Winchester book from any era by any author to either upload the specific page or at least a synopsis of the information therein. I am posting from my phone I will upload pictures of the shotgun when I am able.


What I'm most interested in is how many pigeon grade shotguns were produced (if any such record even exists).


Thank you in advance

 

[rcmodel]

All I can tell you for sure is, the Win 1911 was known, with good cause, as the "Widow Maker".

At the time, John Browning had all the bases covered on the semi-auto shotgun bolt operating handle with his A5 patents.

So Winchester got around that miner detail by making you jump up & down on the knurled barrel to load or unload it.

Lots of folks met an early grave while the barrel was pointed at their head or chest while trying to load or unload it.

Here is an on-line book that may help:
http://books.google.com/books?id=T-...nchester 1911 shotgun factory records&f=false

For the history from records, you would need to contact the Cody Museum in Wyoming and pay for a factory record search and letter.
http://www.bbhc.org/explore/firearms/firearms-records/

rc

 

[hoohaa310]

Thank you very much!

 

[gpb]

I can't provide any help on how many Pigeon Grade 1911SL were produced. However, I can relate my experiences with a 1911SL.

Years ago I owned a Winchester 1911SL. I have mixed emotions concerning that model gun. As RC stated it was known as “Widow Make”. This was due to its’ quirky design that lacked a bolt handle and required cocking by grasping the barrel and pushing the barrel onto the receiver to cock and pickup a shell. As RC stated a lot of people came to grief when loading the gun. This was especially a problem when clearing a jam by leaning over the barrel and pushing to clear a stuck shell. Stuck shotgun shells were more common in the days of paper shells. Get them wet and they will swell and jam. Plastic shells are not as bad, although Winchester seems to have developed the “Universal” line of plastic shells that seem to jam in many guns. I don’t know if that was done out of nostalgia on Winchesters part for the good old days.

Getting back to why I have mixed emotions on the 1911SL. The gun fit me well and had a nice balance for me (your mileage may vary). I used to use it occasionally for skeet. It was a fun gun to shoot. I loaded the lowest powered loads that would function the gun out of respect for its age. However, I always kept in mind the design flaw when I used it, and I never loaned the gun out to anyone. I found it a fun gun but certainly not one of Winchesters better efforts as far as durability, function, or safety. If you use it be very careful and don’t use cheap shells and keep the them low powered and low pressure, also if it were mine I would never loan it to anyone, it's just too risky.