winchester 1911SL
This weekend, at a flea market, I saw a Winchester 1911SL 12 gauge for sale {too over priced}. One guy looking at it mentioned that back in the 90's, Winchester offered to exchange them for a shotgun of your choice, because of the reputation they got and being called the "widow maker". {if you know how you had to load and cock them, you would understand the name.} Do any of you old-timers remember this exchange program and if so, is it still in effect??
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The exchange program I heard about wasn't for the 1911 but it's successor the 1940. Winchester only made them for a year before the war. Had so many problems with them gave folks 1912's to get them off the market, so I been told. Over the years I have only seen a couple of 1940's, both owned by the same guy. He didn't have any luck getting rid of them, even though the were quite a rare Winchester. 0 -
There was never an exchange program for the Model 1911.
Winchester did offer a psuedo exhange for the Model 1893 (back in the late 1890s) for the Model 1897. Any owner of a Model 1893 could send it is for a new Model 1897 free of charge.
The term "Widow Maker" is an undeserved name for the Model 1911. Admittedly, the Model 1911 was a poorly conceived design, and was Winchester's attempt to correct the mistake they made when they refused to pay John M. Browning for his brilliant design and patent for the Auto-5. The Model 1911 was never unsafe to load & cock, nor was it unsafe in any other fashion. The true problem with them was the recoil buffer was prone to failure, especially if anything but low pressure loads were used. Winchester produced more than 80,000 of them from 1911 to 1925.0
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