doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Model 50

Thanks King and Researcher. It looks like an easy fix. I forwarded the information on to my son.

My son liked the gun when he used it in the past and his wife enjoys shooting with him so I figured one or both of them would enjoy shooting it (particularly his wife with the M50's soft recoil).

Steve

I owned a Model 50, and was pleased with it.

My opinion is that its demise was caused by the advent of gas-operated semi-autos, which reduced recoil and were more reliable.
The Model 50 was a neat design, but at the wrong time.

gold40

I didn't know Carbine but met his wife when I lived in Fayetteville. I had friends who knew him well. He was something of a mechanical genius and tinkered steel into highly complex shapes that were costly to cut. That expense was what got Winchester into other designs. I agree with Jim Carmichael that the Model 50 was the most beautiful automatic. It was also the fastest until recent designs surpassed it.
I shot one occasionally and have to agree the rear balance is an acquired taste, but specifically directed at shooting quail. Removing the recoil chamber from the stock and using a slightly longer barrel can work around that problem with custom loads.
My dearest friend who taught me the ways of quail, used a Model 50 like the sword of death. I was never slow, but he could kill three quail in the time I pulled the trigger twice.
Good days, good dogs, and a great gun.

Steve

I own examples of the Winchester Auto Shotguns from the 1911 WSL to the Super-X 1, with the exception of the 1400. The SX-1 in my opinion is the only great Auto Loader Winchester produced. The 50 isn't bad, just different and the similar 59 is great on flushing game, in my opinion.

I have a 12 and 20'Model 50 and I like mine. I have heard rumors that Bennelli and now Berreta had to pay royalties to Winchester for the Montefeltro Bolt, related to the Model 50 floating chamber.

Recoil was so soft that, showing-off holding it one handed like a pistol, I tried to hit clays in the back-40 but not skilled and strong enough to do it.

Winchester and John Browning had a working relationship where Winchester bought all of Browning's designs, whether put into production or not. John Browning wanted to change that relationship with the A5 and Winchester said no. It goes both ways with John Browning not being entirely blameless.

The Benelli action has no similarity or relation to the Win 50 at all.

The Benelli is a modern day Sjogren shotgun. See Butler 'The American Shotgun' pp142.

Too bad the 50 was such a dud. They only sold about 200,000 of them (ibid). That's 6 for every Model 21, and they did that in about 5 years time.

The 59's cracked receivers frequently. The aluminum alloy frames we take for granted today took some development. Eventually engineers figured out how to stress the guns properly by putting steel and recoil buffers where needed on subsequent auto designs, notably the Italians. The 59 was a transition piece.

The 50 was a brilliant design in concept. The actual execution was only fair, but the guns sold well and were well liked.

I still shoot mine regularly.

By the way, the Model 11 was the way it was because Browning owned the patent on the 'operating handle' concept. If the Model 11 design is inherently unsafe is a matter of opinion. You can't fix stupid.

The Patent examiner must have thought the Montefeltro inertia bolt had some relation to Carbine Williams inertia lock, as he cited the Williams patent in the Benelli US patent application.

That was probably the start of the rumor, likely a false one.

I always thought the inertia lock started with the Win 97 and was the major improvement over the 93. JMB at it again.

Inertia is certainly at play in all these mechanisms, the designers harness that principle to provide necessary unlocking delay.

Fascinating subject. Many smart guys.

I bought a Model 50 20 gauge skeet gun with VR from a friend a couple of years ago.
If you like braking targets and don't like recoil, it's a perfect gun.
Although I haven't shot it a great deal, but I've never had any mechanical issues with it.
My friend, who collected Model 50's said that the aluminum receiver guns were good for 15,000 rounds and then the receiver would crack. Mine's steel.