First M1 Rifle sent to Winchester

[cplstevennorton]

Ok I read a little more. It looks like the 500 educational order was placed in April 1939. Then Ordnance started to look for a company to do a contract of 65,000 by July 1939. WRA and Remington both submitted bids. WRA won, and then was awarded a finalized contract for the 65,000 on 9/20/39.

There is a little bit a discrepancy as I see some of the first WRA rifles were delivered in Dec 1940, instead of my Jan 1941 above. But it say the 500 Educational order wasn't completed till Jan 1941.

But regardless, they never geared up to produce anything but the Gas port it looks like.

Information

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[Bruce Canfield]

Winchester never intended to manufacture the M1 Rifle in anything but gas port configuration. The bulk of the Winchester documentation cited in my book came from the personal files of Edwin Pugsley that I was fortunate to acquire a number of years ago. It is clear that Mr. Pugsley and the WRA engineering staff was not fond of the M1 rifle and was ambivalent about accepting the Educational Order in the first place. The Olins who owned Western Cartridge Company (which had previously acquired Winchester) was very cautious about the Educational Order as well but gave Pugsley the go-ahead to accept the contract. There was a lot of tension and animosity between Springfield Armory and Winchester during the course of production but the "greater good" prevailed as both entities shared a common goal.

[RCS]

Attachment 102953Here is a photo of a Winchester from my collection, it was purchased from the CMP Auction in 2011 as a receiver. The serial number was stamped on Wednesday, Jan 15, 1941. Some collectors think that the Educational Order rifles were serial numbered 100,001 thru 100,500 but it did not happen that way because of spoilage and receivers pulled from production to be reworked.Attachment 102952