The Winchester Hotchkiss was a bolt-action repeating rifle patented by
Benjamin B. Hotchkiss in 1876 and produced by the
Winchester Repeating Arms Company
The Winchester Repeating Arms Company was a prominent American manufacturer of repeating firearms and ammunition. The firm was established in 1866 by Oliver Winchester and was located in New Haven, Connecticut. The firm went into receivership ...
and
Springfield Armory
The Springfield Armory, more formally known as the United States Armory and Arsenal at Springfield located in the city of Springfield, Massachusetts, was the primary center for the manufacture of United States military firearms from 1777 until ...
from 1878. The Hotchkiss, like most early bolt-actions, had a single rear locking lug integral with the bolt handle, but was unique in feeding multiple rounds from a tubular buttstock magazine similar to the
Spencer rifle. The
.45-70 Hotchkiss was acquired in limited numbers by the US Navy as the M1879, and (in a slightly modified version) by the US Army and several state militias as the M1883, making it the first center-fire bolt-action repeater to be adopted by any major military (the distinction of first bolt-action repeating rifle to be issued in great numbers as a standard military arm was the Swiss
Vetterli 1869, which utilized very large rim-fire metallic cartridges).
United States military history
A joint production program was undertaken after the Winchester design passed
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...
Ordnance Department
The United States Army Ordnance Corps, formerly the United States Army Ordnance Department, is a sustainment branch of the United States Army, headquartered at Fort Lee, Virginia. The broad mission of the Ordnance Corps is to supply Army comb ...
tests in 1878. Springfield Armory was to assemble rifles from Winchester actions and hardware with barrels and stocks manufactured at the armory. Sights, cleaning rods, and stock hardware were nearly identical to contemporary production for the single-shot "trapdoor"
Springfield Model 1873. The Army ordered 513 Hotchkiss First Model Rifles for infantry units stationed on the western frontier including Texas and
Fort Abraham Lincoln
Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park is a North Dakota state park located south of Mandan, North Dakota, United States. The park is home to the replica Mandan On-A-Slant Indian Village and reconstructed military buildings including the Custer House. ...
in the
Dakota Territory
The Territory of Dakota was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until November 2, 1889, when the final extent of the reduced territory was split and admitted to the Union as the states of N ...
. The first large delivery of contract material from Winchester to Springfield, in June 1879, included 498 sets of rifle parts, and two complete "pattern" arms assembled (actually converted from commercial muskets) at New Haven by Winchester using Springfield parts, in the reverse scenario. Serial numbers of the two assembled rifles were 101 (in a private collection) and 162 (in the Springfield Armory Museum). Springfield subsequently modified 501 of these rifles to First Model and Second Model Carbines for testing by cavalry units. Carbines have a shorter barrel and stock, and the rear sight is marked HC for Hotchkiss Carbine. The
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
ordered 1,474 First Model Rifles with barrels rather than the barrels on Army rifles.
[Canfield, Bruce N. ''19th Century Military Winchesters'' March 2001 '']American Rifleman
''American Rifleman'' is a United States-based monthly shooting and firearms interest publication, owned by the National Rifle Association (NRA). It is the 33rd-most-widely-distributed consumer magazine and the NRA's primary magazine. The magazi ...
'' pp.38-40
Hotchkiss First Model Rifles are identified by the circular knob safety and magazine cutoff on the right side of the stock. The knob weakened the stock and was replaced by two levers atop the receiver on Hotchkiss Second Model Rifles. The Navy purchased 999 Second Model Rifles in 1880 and 1881; and Springfield Armory converted most of the Army First Model Rifles to Second Model Carbines. A few rifles were manufactured for the Army with two piece stocks variously identified as the Model of 1883 or Third Model Hotchkiss Rifles. Army Hotchkiss rifles were withdrawn from service after the Springfield Model 1873 was judged superior to the Hotchkiss in 1883 field trials; but the Navy rifles remained in service until replaced by the
M1895 Lee Navy
The M1895 Lee Navy was a straight-pull, cam-action magazine rifle adopted in limited numbers by the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps in 1895 as a first-line infantry rifle.Walter, John, ''The Rifle Story: An Illustrated History from 1776 to the Presen ...
.
[
]
Other production
The Chinese Empire
The earliest known written records of the history of China date from as early as 1250 BC, from the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BC), during the reign of king Wu Ding. Ancient historical texts such as the ''Book of Documents'' (early chapter ...
purchased 15,000 Winchester-Hotchkiss rifles in 1881. In the 1880s, Costa Rica purchased a small quantity of Winchester-Hotchkisss M1880 rifles and carbines chambered in 43 Spanish. Winchester also produced a civilian sporting version of the Hotchkiss, likewise in caliber .45-70 Government, until 1899.
1884 Winchester catalog lists an option to chamber the M1883 in ".40-65 Hotchkiss" cartridge (which may or may not be .40-65 Winchester introduced in 1887), but it's not clear if this variant was ever actually produced.[https://books.google.com/books?id=T-Irz4qHwsQC&pg=PA24]
References
External links
{{Winchester_Cartridges_Firearms
Winchester Repeating Arms Company firearms
Bolt-action rifles of the United States
Guns of the American West