POTD: The Winchester-Hotchkiss 1879 – Winchester Goes Bolt Action

Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Here we have Winchester doing the last thing you’d expect Winchester to do. This is the Winchester-Hotchkiss 1879 First Model, a bolt-action rifle from the company that owned the lever-action world. The Army wanted single-shots and never warmed to Winchester’s lever guns for service, so Winchester picked up Benjamin Hotchkiss’s bolt design hoping to finally land a military contract.

It worked, sort of. The .45-70 Hotchkiss became the first centerfire bolt-action repeater adopted by any major military; the Navy took it as the M1879 (Winchester-Hotchkiss 1879), with the Army and some state militias following. The oddest feature is where it stashes its ammo: five rounds stacked in a tube running through the buttstock, Spencer-style, instead of below the barrel or in a box.

This First Model had a real flaw, though. The magazine cutoff lever sat up above the trigger guard, and cutting that much wood out of the wrist left the stocks prone to cracking, a problem that drove two later redesigns. The cutoff itself was an ammo-conservation gadget the brass loved; that idea hung around all the way to the British SMLE of WWI. As the period Chief of Ordnance put it, there was prejudice against the bolt and its “awkward handle” that time might overcome. He had no idea how right he’d turn out to be.

Most of our POTDs utilize images from our friends at Rock Island Auction Company, the premier firearms auction in the United States. Take some time to browse their current auctions – who knows, maybe you’ll find a piece of history to take home!

“Winchester-Hotchkiss First Model 1879 Bolt Action Saddle Ring Carbine.” Rock Island Auction, www.rockislandauction.com/detail/5032/934/winchesterhotchkiss-first-model-1879-bolt-action-carbine. Accessed 25 June 2026.

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