{"id":85344,"date":"2018-02-27T11:28:42","date_gmt":"2018-02-27T16:28:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gunsamerica.com\/blog\/?p=85344"},"modified":"2025-12-22T13:18:53","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T19:18:53","slug":"winchester-1911sl-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/winchester-1911sl-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Engineering Around Genius: Winchester\u2019s Forgotten 1911 SL"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Engineering<\/a>Way back when,\u00a0\u201cA man\u2019s word was his bond.\u201d But, in 1901 the bond between two powerhouses in the firearms industry was broken.\u00a0 T.G. Bennet, President of Winchester, and John M. Browning (JMB) had come to an impasse over how JMB would be compensated for his latest creation: the Auto 5 shotgun.<\/p>\n

Perhaps it was T.G. Bennet\u2019s failure to foresee that the world\u2019s first reliable self-loading shotgun<\/a> would be a hit with Winchester consumers. Or maybe it was John Browning\u2019s demands for \u201croyalties\u201d on this gun, rather than selling it outright as he had done with every other gun for the previous 17 years. Either way, the two men parted company, JMB leaving with his prototype and all of its patents and Winchester without a self-loading shotgun.<\/p>\n

The Beginning<\/h2>\n
\"Engineering<\/a>

The Winchester 1911 SL (Self Loader)<\/p><\/div>\n

By 1902, Browning\u2019s self-described \u201cbest achievement\u201d is being produced by Fabrique Nationale in Belgium and by 1913 over 60,000 Auto 5\u2019s have been sold! Meanwhile, T.G. Bennet is barking at his engineers to create a shotgun to compete with the Auto 5!\u00a0 Now here is where it gets really interesting. Remember that I said the JMB left with all the patents? While Winchester did pay outright for Browning\u2019s gun designs, they also researched and filed all the design patents in JMB\u2019s name!\u00a0 Try building a lever gun<\/a> without a lever or a revolver without a\u00a0cylinder and you might get an idea of what Winchester engineers were facing trying work around JMB\u2019s patents!<\/p>\n

\"Engineering

Winchester 1911 SL Long Action compared to the Auto 5<\/p><\/div>\n

One of the design elements that did make it into the Winchester 1911 SL\u00a0 (and several other shotguns, rifles, and even pistols) is its \u201cLong Recoil\u201d system.\u00a0 In operation the barrel and bolt lock together under recoil as they move rearward, compressing a recoil spring until stopped by the receiver.<\/p>\n

At this point, the bolt remains in place as the barrel returns forward. While most guns with which we are familiar extract the hull from the chamber, in this set-up the chamber moves away from the hull. An ejector is fixed to the barrel extension and as the barrel moves forward the ejector makes contact with the hull\u2019s rim driving it from the gun.\u00a0 If the gun is empty the bolt will remain locked to the rear, if a fresh shell is released from the magazine tube it will trip the bolt allowing it to move forward powered by the action spring, thus chambering that shell.<\/p>\n

Some Oddities<\/h2>\n

If we look at the gun as a stand-alone piece, the Winchester 1911 SL is an odd character. If you were to hand one to someone unfamiliar with it, one of the first comments would be, \u201cHow do I check the chamber?\u201d or \u201cWhere is the bolt handle?\u201d The answers are, \u201cWith some level of difficulty,\u201d and \u201cIt doesn\u2019t have one!\u201d<\/p>\n

To work around the bolt handle patent, the barrel is wrapped with a knurled section a few inches back from the muzzle. Being very careful to have the muzzle pointed in a safe direction, one pulls back on the barrel some 3\u201d in order to cycle the bolt fully to the rear.\u00a0 This \u201cfeature\u201d has been called a \u201cwidow-maker\u201d as it is rumored that some halfwit discharged the gun while cycling the barrel to the rear with the butt of the gun on the ground and the muzzle pointed at his face. Personally, I don\u2019t believe it (or maybe I do if half the dopes on the internet actually own guns).<\/p>\n

\"Engineering

Top: Browing Auto 5\u00a0 \u00a0 Bottom: Winchester 1911 SL<\/p><\/div>\n

Another oddity is the front sight. Now, on just about every shotgun I have handled a bead is present unless it is a dedicated slug or 3-gun unit where a rifle sight may be present. However, the funky looking appendage on the front of the 1911 SL is nearly magic.\u00a0 From about any angle it looks out of place, but when sighting down the gun as if to fire\u2026a bead front sight appears!<\/p>\n

Take-Down Guns<\/h2>\n

\u201cTake-down\u201d guns are not a new thing as witnessed in this 100-year-old gun.\u00a0 That lone screw at the rear of the receiver? Yup, depress that screw\u2019s lock button and spin \u2018er out and pop!\u00a0 Off come the buttstock and trigger assembly, fire control and all!\u00a0 Ok, that is kinda cool, but how about the fact that you can fully load the magazine and chamber a round and then pop the gun into 2 pieces?\u00a0 Couple that with the ability to shorten the barrel to flush with the end of the magazine tube without impairing reliability and you have me picturing this gun being used in a crime novel.\u00a0 I know that my buddy Clay Martin could weave this into another really cool book!<\/p>\n

Now, if the only two weird features were the funny front sight, and charging the gun by grabbing and \u201ccycling\u201d the barrel, the gun would be ok. But the biggest JMB patent item that Winchester engineers could not get around led to the demise of the 1911 SL after a few short years of production.<\/p>\n

Browning’s Patent<\/h2>\n
\"Engineering

Winchester 1911 SL Buffer vs. Friction Brake of the A5<\/p><\/div>\n

Browning\u2019s patent on the Long Recoil Action \u201cFriction-Brake\u201d and Winchester\u2019s awkward substitute for that vital element had the 1911 SL on life support from the get go!\u00a0 Take a look at the photos and you will see the heart of the Auto 5 and the band-aid on the 1911 SL.\u00a0 Present on the Auto 5 is a little bronze ring with its beveled edges and a barrel hangar and washer with corresponding internal bevels.\u00a0 As all that mass of the barrel breech block moves rearward under recoil those \u201cbevels\u201d constrict the friction brake around the magazine tube. The friction brake dragging on the magazine tube slows the works down a bit and that greatly reduces the impact of a couple of pounds of reciprocating weight banging into the receiver! It was that simple and elegant design that kept the Auto 5 humming along while the 1911 SL beat itself and its owners into submission.<\/p>\n

<\/h2>\n

Recoil<\/h2>\n
\"Engineering

The Winchester 1911 SL had to use a laminate stock because the conventional stocks would splinter and crack!<\/p><\/div>\n

Winchester tried to mitigate the pounding of “man and machine\u201d by employing a pair of fiber buffers between the incoming barrel \u201cbattering ram\u201d and the face of the receiver.\u00a0 I imagine it was better than nothing, but not enough to save the gun. In fact, one of the cool \u201cfeatures\u201d of the 1911 SL needed to combat the beastly recoil was the first commercial use of a wood laminate in the buttstock! Why? Because the conventional stocks would splinter and crack!\u00a0 Necessity is the mother of invention. Another notable unhealthy design element on the 1911 SL was the action spring \u201crunning free\u201d inside the wood buttstock rather than captured in a steel tube as on the Auto 5.\u00a0 I can tell you the resulting wood shavings don\u2019t work so well as a lubricant.<\/p>\n

\"Engineering

The Winchester\u00a01911 SL’s action spring \u201crunning free\u201d inside the wood buttstock rather than captured in a steel tube as on the Auto 5.<\/p><\/div>\n

So after 14 of years and fewer than 83,000 Winchester 1911SLs produced (including some beautiful Trap Models<\/a>), the buying public had had enough. While the Browning Auto5 and JMB\u2019s brilliant Long Recoil Action soldier on for better than 6 decades, Winchester\u2019s efforts to engineer around genius was dropped into the dustbin of history.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t help but wonder about the outcome if T.G. and JMB\u00a0 had worked things out. If JMB got his deal? If Winchester had built the Auto 5? Certainly, both men would have been all the richer, but Browning would never have seen his name engraved on the side of his Best Achievement.\u00a0 As a collector of many JMB designs (including several Auto 5\u2019s) I am pleased that Browning\u2019s name is emblazoned where it belongs.<\/p>\n

For more information about Winchester firearms<\/a>, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

***Check out GunsAmerica for a Winchester 1911 SL<\/a>.***<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Way back when, \u201cA man\u2019s word was his bond.\u201d But in 1901 the bond between two powerhouses in the firearms industry was broken.\u00a0 T.G. Bennet, President of Winchester, and John M. Browning had come to an impasse over how JMB would be compensated for his latest creation: the Auto 5 shotgun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":82,"featured_media":89000,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_specdata_upc":"","_specdata_placement":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,694,864,38],"tags":[132,102,1032,1046,628,610,287,746],"featured":[],"hunt365":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-85344","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gunsamerica-authors","8":"category-gun-reviews","9":"category-semi-auto-shotguns","10":"category-gun-reviews-shotguns","11":"tag-buzz","12":"tag-feature-articles","13":"tag-gun-review","14":"tag-historic-guns","15":"tag-shotgun","16":"tag-reviews-shotguns","17":"tag-winchester","18":"tag-winchester-ammunition"},"yoast_head":"\nEngineering Around Genius: Winchester\u2019s Forgotten 1911 SL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If we look at the gun as a stand-alone piece, the Winchester 1911SL is an odd character. If you were to hand one to someone unfamiliar with it, one of the first comments would be, \u201cHow do I check the chamber?\u201d or \u201cWhere is the bolt handle?\u201d The answers are, \u201cWith some level of difficulty,\u201d and \u201cIt doesn\u2019t have one!\u201d\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/winchester-1911sl-review\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Engineering Around Genius: Winchester\u2019s Forgotten 1911 SL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Way back when, \u201cA man\u2019s word was his bond.\u201d But in 1901 the bond between two powerhouses in the firearms industry was broken.\u00a0 T.G. Bennet, President of Winchester, and John M. 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He loves to share his extensive knowledge of guns and his competitive shooting experience (which spans several decades) and runs the entire gamut of the shooting sports. Patrick has earned numerous first-place finishes at major matches in 12 U.S. states and Canadian provinces, including two Gold Medals at the Pan American Shotgun Championship in 2013. He has mastered several shooting disciplines, from NRA Bullseye and Metallic Silhouette to the world of Practical Shooting. Patrick is also a member of the NRA 2600 Club and was ranked in the USPSA\u2019s top twenty early in his shooting career. Patrick\u2019s deep-seated interest in firearms has led him well beyond the basics of routine maintenance into gunsmithing and competition tuning. Mr. Kelley is also a respected and prolific outdoor communicator. His articles on shooting and firearms, as well as his photography, have been published in Shooting Illustrated, Outdoor Life, 3-Gun Nation, USPSA Front Sight and most recently GunsAmerica. His YouTube channel features instructional and exhibition shooting videos, as well as his very own \u201cOut of the Box to the Match\u201d gun reviews. This very popular format has Patrick shooting guns for the very first time at shooting competitions around the Pacific Northwest.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.youtube.com\\\/user\\\/MultigunVideo?feature=mhum\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/patrick.e.kelley\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/gunsamerica.com\\\/digest\\\/author\\\/patrick-kelley\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Engineering Around Genius: Winchester\u2019s Forgotten 1911 SL","description":"If we look at the gun as a stand-alone piece, the Winchester 1911SL is an odd character. 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