Winchester-Browning Alliance Part 3 – Winchester’s “Sour Grapes”

By Logan Metesh

Utah -(Ammoland.com)- As was mentioned in Part 2, the success of John Moses Browning’s Auto-5 shotgun as produced by Fabrique Nationale did not sit well with T. G. Bennett at Winchester.

Browning’s absence at Winchester had garnered enough attention and questions that the company had obviously grown tired of repeating the same thing, over and over, each time someone new asked what had happened between the two parties.

So, on August 21, 1903, Winchester released a public letter explaining – in their own way – what had happened between the two parties. It may or may not have been seen as such at the time, but through the benefit of more than a century of hindsight, that document has become known as the “Winchester ‘Sour Grapes’ Letter.”

In the letter signed “Winchester Repeating Arms Co.” and on letterhead noting Bennett as president at the top, it was explained that for years, they had “bought everything which [Browning] invented which had merit, whether we used it or not.” By 1902, however, Browning “had become …Read the Rest

Source:: AmmoLand