Channel: Brownells, Inc.

Category: Sports

Tags: open bolt.22 long rifleautomatic ejectioniraqveteran8888learn.22 rifles of the 1950shistorywinchestermodel 55single-shot automaticforgotten weaponsgun collector.22 shortsingle shot rifle.22 longbrownells from the vault

Description: Let's dial the wayback machine to 1958 and check out the Winchester Model 55 single-shot automatic .22 rimfire rifle. Yep, you read that right: "single-shot automatic." It's Brownells Gun Tech™ Keith Ford's rifle, and he explains what the Model 55 is all about. To operate it, you pull back the charging handle on the right-hand side of the receiver and insert a .22 Short, Long, or Long Rifle round into the loading port. As you do so, the safety pops on. When you're ready to take the shot, disengage the safety via the tang slider, fire the round, and the spent shell is ejected down from the underside of the receiver through a port in the stock, while the bolt locks back and the firing pin resets. (The 55 fires from an open bolt, by the way.) Then load another round, rinse, and repeat. So you see, the Model 55 IS a single-shot automatic (ejecting) rifle! It's a nicely compact, clean-lined little gun that helped a lot of kids get into the shooting sports in the late 1950s and early '60s. About 47,000 Model 55s were manufactured before production ended in 1961 - and Winchester hasn't made anything like it since. Note: There was another Winchester "Model 55", a version of the Model 1894 lever action produced from 1924 through 1932.