Winchester '07 .351 rifle

I've got a thing for the old classic semi-auto rifles used by Law Enforcement back in the day for "high risk" arrests. The Remington 8 and 81, as well as the Winchester '07, were used by State, Local, and Federal Officers to take on John Dillinger, Lester Gillis ("Baby-face Nelson"), and Bonnie and Clyde.


I believe the French used the 1907 in limited quantities during WWI. It shoots a .351 Winchester Self Loading round. Mine is in pretty good shape and a kick to shoot.

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France purchased both the Winchester Model 1907 in 351 WSL and the Winchester Model 1910 in 401 WSL calibers. France also manufactured both 401 and 351 WSL cartridges (example headstamp: ART.W. 351 2 16 EOP)

France also order the Model 1907 with a bayonet and some orders in 1917 were full auto from Winchester. American gangsters were also known to convert these Model 1907 rifles to full auto with a Cutts installed on the muzzle.
Police catalogs still listed the Model 1907 police model with bayonet in 1939 and large magazine.

After WW1, France necked down the Winchester 351 cartridge to 8mm creating the 8mm Ribeyrolle to test in a new self loading rifle

I had one years ago that I converted to 9mm by running a chamber ream into the 351 chamber, used a modified P38 mag for a feed device. I had to lighten up the slide but it worked fine...

We used to find the long mags around shows here, very big money though.

My younger son visited over July 4th weekend and we hit the range. Shot some of the lesser fired rifles, including the 1907 Winchester. Because of some initial problems sighting in a Garand, (unnoticed loose front sight), we ended up with limited time to shoot some of the other rifles, including the '07.

I also found a source for a limited quantity of .351 WSL loaded ammunition.

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My son shot this 3 round group at 50 yards with the PCI ammo. It seemed to shoot about as well as the Buffalo Arms ammo. Noted that the trigger was heavy with a lot of creep.

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Love seeing old rifles like these run. It seems like a lot of people forget about the early commercial self loaders, favoring military developments but these are cool too, if rare in my part of the country. It actually makes me wonder about old hunting laws - here in PA we unfortunately can't use any manner of semi-automatic rifle, so I wonder what states did when guns like these came out. Did they also at one point restrict repeating rifles too?

Thanks, cipher...it was a great way to spend the 4th