Nice pieces Zeb. I have four WSLs, one 1905 which I don’t shoot, I can’t be bothered reloading the 32WSL, I do shoot both of my 1907s, one is a police version that had the receiver D/T so I put a vintage weaver scope on it, since the other 1907 with the iron sights was tough on my eyes. Once I get the W13 from Don, I’ll let you know how close I come to losing an eye, lol. I didn’t think the recoil on the 1907 was that bad, but I do shoot the 1910 on occasion. It’s all about whether I want to reload and chase cases, over the range. 
The other issue is, I have to inspect my buffers again, so I have to get into them and take a look. Replacement buffers are next to impossible to find anymore. I’ll have to take a pic.

SG

Maybe what we should look for are WWI surplus brass catcher socks. The French air corps bought some 1907s to arm the GIB — guy in back — to bust observation balloons. Of course, French aviators being French aviators, it was only a matter of time before they started going after the Red Baron with their self-loaders. And vice versa. 

I don’t know whether Winchester devised the cloth brass catchers or the French did.  It wasn’t to save money. A 351 case could do evil things to a wooden propeller if their paths crossed. Those old biplanes weren’t terribly fast but were capable of impressive aerobatics and in a high G diving turn could intercept its own ejected brass. A suddenly unbalanced prop, spinning at full throttle, could tear the engine from its mounts unless throttled back very quickly. 

A handy significant other, if suitably bribed, could probably run such a sock up by hand or sewing machine or even knit one, once shown an image of one. 

I don’t know about the 32 or 35 WSL but a hunting partner borrowed my 07 to terminate an aggressive nutria that was contesting our presence near “his” pond, while I watched. A single 180 grain factory soft point solved the problem but I saw the empty brass sail off  to land a good thirty feet away in tall broom grass. Never found it. 

I think the violent ejection is a direct consequence of the unlocked breech design shared by all the Winchester self-loaders.  The breechbolt takes the full rearward thrust of the case head and loads almost all of the generated kinetic energy into the big cylinder of lead in the forearm. The recoil spring at full extension exerts relatively little forward pressure on the bolt in the closed position.  Once the inertia of the lead cylinder is overcome, the whole mass starts to accelerate rearward and reaches considerable velocity in the centerfire models.  The extraction and ejection sequence occurs well before the recoil spring is fully compressed, so the extractor and ejector are grabbing, snatching and throwing the empty case with nearly the full stored energy of the heavy lead cylinder. As springs weaken and buffers deteriorate with age and use, the cycle becomes more violent.

Mr. Johnson’s idea of balancing the opposing forces by inertia and opposing spring pressure work well enough to control the forces generated by a .22 rimfire cartridge, but the mechanism just doesn’t scale up well enough to handle even really powerful pistol cartridges, not to mention the limitation a reasonable maximum weapon weight imposes. It becomes more and more difficult to select springs, weights, and buffers of proper specification to simultaneously  prevent premature breech opening, assure reliable feeding/extraction/ejection, and keep the bolt from peening or cracking the receiver. 

The same is true of unlocked breech automatic pistols. Like many of us, I’ve owned several Walther PPK and PPK/S pistols, including a somewhat mysterious PP Super that fired the 9mm x 18mm Ultra cartridge designed originally for Goering’s Luftwaffe. I’m not notably sensitive to handgun recoil, up to, say, the 44 magnum in reasonable quantities, but I think the little blowback PPK, designed for the .32 ACP, in.380 is nasty to shoot and the PP Super, designed to be the most powerful 9mm usable in an unlocked breech pistol, downright unpleasant. It spit a little gas from the breech sometimes. By comparison, a diminutive, locked breech SIG P365 and 1150fs +P is soothing.  

Old JMB, aided by Winchester’s own patent lawyers, caused the company a lot of grief. The inability of senior management to bear making their top salesman rich has been the downfall of more than a few promising businesses. 

One trick I learned with HK94 (I may or may not have owned) was to place an empty trash can on the bench beside me, open end to the angry ejection port and an old bath towel rolled up to prevent the cases from rolling out. 

Mike

Steve, That’s a fine and diverse set of self-loaders.  Counting from the image’s left,  number 3 looks like the 1907 with the replaced forearm. However, the only way I can spot it is the shape and angle of the half-pistol grip and absence of sling swivels. I’m surprised to see the hooked operating rod tip. Down here, I’ve only seen those on very late production 07s, along with no latch on the takedown screw head and the wider magazine release lever. Your woodwork is good. 

Almost every used Browning Auto-Five and Winchester self loader I’ve ever bought has come with a hairline crack running longitudinally through some portion of the forearm. I learned to repair them with clear, slow-set epoxy resin glue and spot refinish with varnish on an artist brush. 

Then I took in — as part of a fee — a very clean 20 gauge Miroku Auto-Five, 28″ vent rib full choke, square knob. First Japanese production I’d seen up close. No forearm crack, albeit the gun had been shot little. When I removed the forearm I saw it been factory reinforced with a plastic half cylinder fitted and glued transversely to match the contour of the inletting. New to me. 

The next cracked forearm was the deluxe 1907, which was very tricky because of the Style H forearm checkering. Fortunately the colorful Walnut camouflaged the glue line pretty well and I was able to bring the grooves though the epoxy with a curved tip file. And then I tried a new trick. I soaked several cleaning patches in epoxy and smoothed them into the bottom of the forearm along the crack line. Once fully cured, they served as a permanent clamp to insure the crack would never reopen. 

You’ve got me beat on the “mature fatherhood” thing. My first child, a son, showed up when I was 37 and there were times I wished I were younger. My maternal grandpa, an amazingly vigorous man born before the Civil War, was widowed at 45, married my grandmother when he was 49 and she 26.  They produced two daughters when he was 58 and 60, the latter being my mother. Grandpa died during the Great Depression so I never knew him. I wasn’t born until a few days after the Normandy Invasion. 

I can’t imagine dealing with newborns at 58, much less 60. Could they be covered by Medicare?

Zebulon said
Steve, That’s a fine and diverse set of self-loaders.  Counting from the image’s left,  number 3 looks like the 1907 with the replaced forearm. However, the only way I can spot it is the shape and angle of the half-pistol grip and absence of sling swivels. I’m surprised to see the hooked operating rod tip. Down here, I’ve only seen those on very late production 07s, along with no latch on the takedown screw head and the wider magazine release lever. Your woodwork is good.

You’ve got me beat on the “mature fatherhood” thing. My first child, a son, showed up when I was 37 and there were times I wished I were younger. My maternal grandpa, an amazingly vigorous man born before the Civil War, was widowed at 45, married my grandmother when he was 49 and she 26.  They produced two daughters when he was 58 and 60, the latter being my mother. Grandpa died during the Great Depression so I never knew him. I wasn’t born until a few days after the Normandy Invasion. 

I can’t imagine dealing with newborns at 58, much less 60. Could they be covered by Medicare?

  

Good eye Zeb, I added the “police” operating button, as I was having trouble pushing the round one. I have the original saved along with all the old wood. Some of those forearms I have have multiple long cracks and the wood seemed thin to begin with, on top of that it’s also dried, so the replacement work seemed a better option.

The one 1907 seems to throw brass all at 2 o’clock at about 8 feet, I have to check the other ones, I don’t remember. I am going to bring the scoped one next time I’m at my sons in NC, we hunt on his property, he’s also a cop down there. He’s my oldest at 37.

Zeb, your reference wouldn’t open but I looked it up otherwise.  Interesting choice for a poem and interesting that he wrote it!  Snicker indeed!  I will be doing good if the Cadillac doesn’t throw me out the back.  Tim