Winchester Model 59

About the Winchester Model 59

The Winchester Model 59 is an American 12-gauge semi-automatic shotgun produced by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company from 1959 to 1965. A refinement of the earlier Model 50, it is best known for its lightweight 'Win-Lite' barrel, formed by winding hundreds of miles of glass fiber around a thin steel liner, paired with a lightweight aluminum alloy receiver. Rather than the recoiling barrel used in many short-recoil designs, the Model 59 uses a static barrel with a floating chamber patented by David Marshall Williams that moves rearward roughly 0.1 inches on firing to cycle the bolt. It was also among the first shotguns offered with screw-in Versalite choke tubes.

The Model 59's Win-Lite barrel was built from roughly 500 miles of glass fiber wound, fused and bonded around a thin steel liner, an unusual composite construction for its era. Its floating-chamber short-recoil action was based on patents by David Marshall Williams, the self-taught gun designer whose story inspired the film 'Carbine Williams'.

Winchester Model 59 specifications

Despite its innovative fiberglass barrel and early screw-in choke system, the Model 59 was not a commercial success and was discontinued in 1965. Chambered for 2 3/4-inch shells.