Forgotten Weapons – Winchester Thumb Trigger Rifle
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
RIA has some lovely old rifles shotguns in their catalog.
Great, I have been a fan of Ian “Gun Jesus” McCollum for years. There are almost no politics on his site, just history and discussion of the technology as in this video. https://www.forgottenweapons.com/ and https://www.northeastshooters.com/xen/threads/gun-jesus-posters.371295/
I dunno about this thing…other than for people with some type of disability in their trigger finger it strikes me as horribly unsafe. Once loaded and cocked there is no safety, and the usual “keep your finger off the trigger until you’re ready to shoot” doesn’t even apply. I’m guessing that the center of balance for the thing is probably muzzle-forward, but there is still going to be a natural tendency for people to pick it up by the stock right on top of the trigger resulting in an unanticipated “bang”. With no safety you’d have to carry it in the woods (say, for squirrel hunting) either with the striker not cocked (be sure not to bash it around then), or unloaded, and there doesn’t even appear to be a good ramp built into the feed area so loading is going to be very slow and awkward.
It’s interesting but since he didn’t perform a range test I’m left curious as to how accurate it is. I’m also guessing that with the metallurgy of that era it probably would not handle high-velocity .22 ammo, and you’d be limited to shorts or “standard” (low) velocity .22 LR which is pretty spendy. I had a Marlin 39 made in 1926 in which you couldn’t shoot high-velocity .22 since it tended to cause the bolt to break. I donated it to a museum since I didn’t want to stock “standard” low-velocity ammo for it.
The first rifle I ever shot was my grandfather’s old single-shot bolt action, which also had a pull-back type striker arrangement, but it was a standard type with a trigger. For an ancient old .22 it was extremely accurate (squirrel’s head at 25 yards), and it taught good shooting (sight alignment, sight picture, move the trigger back without disturbing the first two).
Ian usually has separate videos of him shooting the weapon. Sometimes though, it’s the property of a museum or individual who doesn’t want it shot. For other good sites see Bloke on the Range https://www.youtube.com/c/BlokeontheRange/videos and The Royal Armouries https://www.youtube.com/user/RoyalArmouries – especially Jonathan, the Curator of Firearms (They also have pre-gunpowder weapons and armour)
Cool!