Winchester-Hotchkiss Model 1879

About the Winchester-Hotchkiss Model 1879

The Winchester-Hotchkiss Model 1879 was Winchester Repeating Arms Company's first bolt-action rifle, built under license from designer Benjamin B. Hotchkiss whose patents Winchester acquired in 1877. Its defining feature is a tubular magazine housed in the buttstock rather than under the barrel, fed past a magazine cutoff that allowed single-shot use. Chambered in .45-70 Government, it was the first bolt-action repeating rifle adopted by a major military, seeing limited US Army and Navy service through three successive models (1879, 1880, and the definitive 1883).

The Winchester-Hotchkiss was Winchester's very first bolt-action rifle and, with its magazine tube buried in the buttstock, the first bolt-action repeater ever adopted by a major military.

Winchester-Hotchkiss Model 1879 specifications

The First Model's one-piece stock was prone to cracking; the Model 1883 fixed this with a two-piece stock and exposed central receiver. Roughly 11,000 were exported to China.