The Sh*tbox Winchester Shotgun Folks Called ‘The Widowmaker’

Today, shooters take for granted the ease with which a semi-automatic shotgun operates. The concept has been around since the tail end of the 1800s, and it’s been nearly perfected as we approach the end of the first quarter of the 21st century. With the overall design firmly rooted in 125 years of history, it’s easy to forget how tumultuous — and deadly — the early years of semi-auto shotguns really were. Nowhere is this more prevalent than the tale of the rise and fall of one Winchester shotgun — the Model 1911 SL.

Winchester Model 1911 — Winchester’s Model 1911 SL gained the nickname “Widowmaker” because of its barrel knurling used to operate the bolt manually. *Lauritz Auctions*

John M. Browning created the first successful semi-auto shotgun, the Auto-5, but he didn’t bring it to market until his longtime relationship with Winchester ended over a royalty dispute for that very shotgun. The gun was then made by Browning’s own company and under license by FN and Remington.

Winchester was missing out on a new segment of the shotgun market, and they tried to counter with the Model 1911 SL semi-auto shotgun to compete. But without Browning in the drafting room, they created a dangerous and ultimately doomed Winchester shotgun with a legacy that will only land it in the meanest kind of Top 10 lists.

winchester shotgun — Note the checkering on the middle of the barrel. It’s there because you actually have to grab the barrel and push it down to work the action. *Wikimedia Commons*

Here’s how Winchester screwed the pooch by trying to one-up John Browning and created a shotgun nicknamed “The Widowmaker,” which is never good.

Breaking Up With Browning

The decades-long business relationship between John Moses Browning and Winchester had been fruitful and profitable for both parties. The relationship resulted in lever guns galore, and even a couple of shotgun designs. But eventually, all good things must come to an end.

After creating the first successful pump action shotty for the company, which they allowed him to do after forcing him to design the M1887 lever action shotgun, Browning developed the world’s first auto-loading (semi-automatic) shotgun. Naturally, he offered it to Winchester first, with a big ask attached.

Instead of a flat fee for the rights to manufacture his design, Browning wanted royalties for every one of his semi-auto shotguns that Winchester sold. If you saw Air, the movie about Nike’s development deal for the Air Jordan, you’ll get it.

John Browning — The man, the myth, the legend. John Moses Browning, photographed with his Auto-5 shotgun. *Wikipedia*

Winchester’s president, Thomas Bennett, balked at Browning’s request for a bigger slice of the financial pie, and in 1902, Browning and Winchester parted ways on less-than-favorable terms.

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Birth of a Legend

Browning had a few hiccups along the way (including Remington’s head honcho dying of a heart attack while Browning waited in the lobby to meet with him about the shotgun). Still, he eventually found a home for his gun overseas.

Building on his relationship with FN (Fabrique Nationale), Browning reached an agreement with the Belgian company to manufacture his semi-auto design. The Auto-5 was born, and the world was introduced to reliable, semi-automatic shotguns.

In short order, U.S. companies were granted licenses to manufacture the design as the Remington Model 11 and Savage Model 720.

The Winchester Shotgun Tries to Play Catch-Up

The success of the Auto-5 design was immediately apparent, and Winchester was left with egg on its face. For the first time in decades, Winchester was on the sidelines, forced to sit and watch while other companies sold a brand-new design like hotcakes to a hungry hobo.

Winchester knew it had to get in on the new semi-auto shotgun craze, and they had to do it fast.

The company turned to Thomas Crossley Johnson, a gifted engineer, and asked him to create the now-iconic Winchester Model 12 shotgun. Johnson tried to put a Winchester spin on Browning’s Auto-5 design, but that was easier said than done.

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Patented Protection and the Winchester Shotgun

The one thing Browning knew better than gun design was how important it was to protect his plans with patents. Over his lifetime, he held 128 individual patents on 80 different firearms. The Auto-5 was no exception.

One of Browning’s patents covered the brass friction rings the Auto-5 used to mitigate recoil, so Johnson used a fibrous material instead of metal. Unfortunately, the rings wore out over time, leading to heavier recoil.

winchester shotgun patent — To successfully patent the Model 1911, it had to be significantly different from the Auto-5. *Google Patents*

While certainly an issue, the friction rings were by no means the most significant problem the Winchester shotgun faced.

The charging handle, connected to the bolt and allowing shooters to cycle the gun by hand, is an essential part of semi-auto shotgun designs. It’s hard to imagine a semi-auto shotgun without one, but that wasn’t the case when Johnson set to work on his Winchester shotgun.

At the time, the charging handle was specifically protected by a patent Browning had filed in 1898. This meant that it could only be legally used on guns made by FN, Remington, and Savage. Johnson’s Winchester shotgun needed a different way to manually unlock the bolt from the barrel.

A Simple Solution…

Since the Auto-5 works on the principle of long recoil, the entire barrel moves to the rear when the bolt is unlocked and cycled. This means the user could simply grab the barrel and push it backward by hand. It also means that a bolt-mounted charging handle isn’t essential.

So, the solution seemed simple: add knurling to a section of the barrel between the forend and muzzle, which would allow the shooter to get a good grip and cycle the action by hand. Easy peasy, right?

That’s what Johnson thought, and with that, the Winchester Model 1911 SL (for self-loading) was born and brought to market.

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… With Awkward Issues…

A button on the Winchester shotgun’s receiver can lock the bolt to the rear after it is shot. However, if you don’t remember, you’ll need to open it up manually with the knurling on the barrel. If the gun has been shot quite a lot and the barrel is hot, it becomes highly uncomfortable — if not impossible — without proper hand protection.

If you have long arms, the easiest way to operate the gun is to grab it with one hand, rest the butt on your thigh or keep it on your shoulder, point the barrel in a safe direction, and grab the knurled section with the other hand to cycle the action (see the video below).

It works, but with some drawbacks.

First, it doesn’t work if your arms aren’t long enough. Beyond that, the positioning is awkward, and it can be hard to get enough leverage to pull the barrel back in this position, especially if the gun is less than perfectly clean and oiled.

Some shooters opted for a different approach, which earned the gun its unfortunate nickname.

… and Deadly Consequences

Despite what you might think, “Widowmaker” isn’t a cool nickname. If something earns that moniker, it’s probably bad — and not in the 1980s’ bad-to-the-bone totally rad way, either.

The Winchester Model 1911 SL earned the epithet like a legit villain.

The physically easiest way to operate the bolt on the Model 1911 SL is to put the butt on the ground, grab the knurled barrel, and push down, essentially mortaring the firearm. However, that puts the shooter in a seriously compromising position — with his head and upper body directly over the barrel.

There is a correct way to use the Model 1911 Winchester shotgun without potentially blowing your face off, but if your arms aren’t long enough or the action is dirty, it can be tough to do.

Anyone who knows anything about gun safety understands that is a major no-no, and anyone with any sense would never have tried to do it. But…when people get frustrated, they can get real dumb real fast. Also, imagine having to do this in a blind.

If there is a live round stuck in the barrel — which was a very real possibility in the era of paper-hulled shotshell — then the energy generated by forcing the barrel and bolt back manually was sometimes enough for the gun to slamfire.

By doing so, the shooter would have effectively removed themself from the gene pool.

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21st Century Winchester Shotgun Incidents

Even though the Winchester Model 1911 SL has been out of production for almost 100 years, it’s still causing injuries to less-than-careful people in the 21st century.

Police officers in Oklahoma confiscated one such Winchester shotgun from a convicted felon during a domestic dispute call in December 2005. Back at the Pittsburg County Jail, three officers received minor injuries — two in the face and one in the legs — when they tried to clear the gun, and it discharged, blowing a hole in the floor. A jailer/dispatcher was also injured.

The officers admitted the gun differed from any they had dealt with before. Thankfully, the results were not fatal.

Laying the Model 1911 SL to Rest

Unsurprisingly, sales of the Model 1911 SL never took off as Winchester had hoped. No matter how hard they tried to point out the gun’s “good points,” “distinctive and exclusive features,” and even its “strength and safety,” overcoming the Widowmaker nickname proved impossible.

The shotgun was dropped from the product line in 1925, but that means this death trap was produced for more than 14 years! In that time, nearly 83,000 we made. That might sound like a lot, but it really wasn’t.

The Auto-5, on the other hand, became one of the best-selling semi-auto shotguns of all time, with more than 3,000,000 made between 1902 and 1998.

Winchester still makes shotguns, but thankfully Browning’s patent has long since expired, enabling the company, and others, to make much safer semi-autos today.