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February 4, 2007
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It’s been mentioned that Winchester used the cut rifling method to rifle their barrels in the past. Then I believe they went to the button rifling method. If this is true does anyone know when this transition took place? Is this the method used today or has there been another change in barrel rifling by the company? RRM
May 23, 2009
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What little research I’ve done seems to indicate that most of what would be “collectible” Winchester used cut rifling. It seems button rifling wouldn’t have been in common use until the 1940s, so I would guess Winchester, if they used it would started using button rifling after WWII. Another type of rifling is cold hammer forged rifling. It appeared on the scene around the same time as button rifling.
I honestly have no idea if Winchester ever adopted button rifling or cold hammer forged rifling. But would imagine the more modern produced rifles could have used either type.
It appears today Browning uses both types depending on the model rifle they’re producing.
https://www.browning.com/news/tech-terms/rifling-types.html#:~:text=Button%20Rifling%20%E2%80%94%20This%20is%20a,forces%20rifling%20into%20the%20steel.
Sincerely,
Maverick
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March 12, 2008
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As I recall, they switched from from hook/cut rifling in the mid 50’s at which point they started using the broach process which cut all the grooves at the same time. I they started switching over to hammer forging in the 70’s after experimenting with it in the 50’s/60’s. This was done on a German GFM hammer forging machine. I don’t believe Winchester ever used the button process which swages the rifling as opposed to cutting it.
Steve
