POTD: Experimental Winchester 1887 in .50-170 – Here Comes The Boom?
Sam.S 10.06.21
Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Okay, I have to get this out of the way, I kind of deceived you. The actual gun in the photo is of a Chiappa Firearms slug gun. I wanted to use the look of it as an idea or concept of something really interesting I found out the other day while working on today’s Curious Relics. As stated in the title, Winchester dabbled with the idea of chambering a Model 1887 in a behemoth cartridge called .50-170. This was a very short-lived thing and I could not find much information on it beyond that three examples are said to have been made, but no one knows what happened to them. The .50-170 cartridge itself would look very similar to a Martini-Henry cartridge in that it has a wide diameter base with a rim and then it gets drastically necked down to accompany the rifle bullet. This bullet is said to have been 700 to 900 grains! That is absolutely wild! The barrels on the experimental 1887 rifles were said to have been smooth bore and then rifled for the last six inches.
1887 Lever-Action Trophy Hunter Shotgun (Matte Blue) 12GA/22″Bbl. (n.d.). https://www.chiappafirearms.com/. photograph. Retrieved October 5, 2021, from https://www.chiappafirearms.com/product.php?id=136%3F&l=7.
