POTD: Winchester 1886 in 50-100-450 – Lever Gun Heavyweight

Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Here we have a deluxe Winchester Model 1886, and the headline is what it shoots: the 50-100-450, the heaviest hitting black powder round Winchester ever put in a lever gun.

The name gives you the recipe. That’s a 50 caliber bore, 100 grains of black powder and a 450 grain bullet. Its sibling, the 50-110 Express, used the same case with a much lighter 300 grain bullet over 110 grains of powder. Same brass, two personalities. One was a flatter shooting express load and the other was a heavy thumper for animals that bite back. Winchester treated them as two different chamberings and gave them different rifling twists, 1 in 60 for the 50-110 and 1 in 54 to stabilize the longer 450 grain slug.

Not many people bit. Winchester shipped only about 331 Model 1886s chambered for 50-100-450 between 1894 and 1913. A lot of them went to England and from there out to Africa and India, which tells you exactly who wanted one. It sat in the same class as Britain’s 500 express rifles of the black powder era, just in a lever gun instead of a single shot or double.

Once smokeless powder took over, the big black powder express rounds faded out. The 50-110 case lived on though, since Winchester used it as the parent for the 348 WCF in the Model 71. If you ask me, that’s not a bad legacy for a cartridge most shooters have never seen in person.

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!

“Special Order Winchester Deluxe Model 1886 Rifle in .50-100-450.” Rock Island Auction, www.rockislandauction.com/detail/5035/2/special-order-winchester-deluxe-model-1886-rifle-in-50100450. Accessed 29 Oct. 2026.

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