Winchester Supreme. 17 April, 2001

Winchester is probably the best known name in the gun trade, in fact, it could be rightly called a household name. Even if your only experience of the name is of western films on TV, then you’ve probably seen John Wayne bag a few with his.

For rifle shooters Winchester have had a presence on the market since those early western times, though in this country they are far better known for their range of shotguns; most notably the 101 range. Unfortunately this range of guns was relatively short lived, that being from the early 70’s to the late mid 80’s. But while they were around they certainly made an impact, something that has transformed over the years to almost cult status amongst those that really appreciated them for what they were.

More recently in an attempt to revive the Winchester marque with the ill fated 1001, which was made in Italy and eventually withdrawn from sale.

Since then there has been no Winchester shotgun for which there is likely to be the greatest demand; namely an OU.

But that is about to change dramatically with the launch of the new model; the Supreme.

With the 101 range the supreme has quite an act to follow, but things have altered considerably at a corporate level as in the days of the 101 range Winchester were an independent company that employed the services of a company called Kodensha in Japan to produce the 101 series of guns. Unfortunately they went out of business in around 1987. Not long after that Winchester themselves became vulnerable and were taken over by Browning.

The initial attempted revival of a Winchester OU was made in conjunction with one of the Italian gun manufacturers and so as with the Winchester / Kodensha alliance there was the potential for a loss of control by the senior company, and for different reasons and possibly an element of bad luck again this happened.

But this time Browning own Winchester and they are using their own manufacturing plant to produce the gun in Belgium. And right from first appearances it can be seen that a great deal of thought and work has gone into the development of this gun. In fact Browning-Winchester have never produced a gun like it.

Although based on proven design principles I believe it is the most exciting new gun that I have seen for some time, simply because it is that; a completely new gun.

In essence I suppose this gun is largely the best bits from a combination of a Browning, a Beretta and a Winchester 101. I may not be thanked for stating so but that is the simple truth of it . However because of that the gun certainly on the face of it should be reliable and strong. This gun has been built to a price; one that offers exceptional value for money, but absolutely no compromise has been made in build quality of this gun.

The heart of any gun is its action. And up until now all guns Produced by the Belgian Plant have had full width front cross pins on which the barrels hinge. With the Supreme the more common European method of jointing on stub pins or trunnions held on the action wall is used. This make the action shallower, less bulky and ultimately lighter.

The locking is inspired by Beretta’s system of a u type bolt that from the outside appears as 2 pins that lock into corresponding holes on the breech face of the barrels.

The cocking levers are independent for each side of the gun and link up with firing system that is in the classic browning Winchester mould. The hammers are powered by coil spring that are captive on their guide rods, so making the hammers rebounding thus reducing striker drag.

The sears pivot down from the top of the action frame. And are in turn picked up by a selector rod and inertia block. The selection of barrels is determined by the safe which moves through   a gate as the browning Miroku system. And the second shot is picked up by the inertia of the first shot.

The action is finished quite plainly with no engraving with the exception of the decal Supreme sporting on each side, and underneath it has the same with the Winchester name and what looks like a cow pat engraved above it. Actually it is a semi broken clay, but to me clays engraved on guns never looks right - without exception!

For all the lack of engraving the action looks very well thanks to so thoughtful detonating or carving of its fences and sides.

The trigger is adjustable and is a smooth comfortable shape, but curiously only appears to be adjustable for two positions.

The safe is quite big and comfortable and moves very well with definite travel through the gate. Though I did find it perhaps a little too close to the back of the top lever when in the fire position; this though is only noticeable when pulling the safe back as there is a tendency to get your thumb that bit further onto the safe. Then again I do have bigger thumbs than most.

The barrels are built on the now virtually standard mono-block system, but this in it self is a departure for it is seldom seen coming out of Belgium.

The mono- block joint is very good and perhaps better finished than many that come out of Italy. The top rib tapers in width from the breech face out to the mono-block then is a uniform 10 mm to the muzzle. The lightly matted top rib is obviously ventilated though the side ribs are not. And the side ribs are open to just beyond the forend loop; presumably to keep the weight down.

Bore diameters are 18.8mm so what could be termed over-bored and finished to a very good standard. One feature worthy of note is that an abutment has been added to the bottom of the mono-block at the breech end, this locates in a corresponding slot in the bottom of the action and will strengthen the lock up of the action when closed. The chambers are 2 ¾ “ and the barrels are fitted with invector plus chokes. And swell at the muzzle has been kept to a minimum to preserve looks.

Extractors are directly spring loaded and work on the same principle as the Beretta. They have a look of great strength about them and more interestingly have good surface area around the rim of the cartridge so they should eject well.

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