POTD: Winchester Winder Musket – Why the Army Wanted a 22

Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Here we have a Winchester Model 1885 Low Wall Winder musket in 22 Short, and you might be scratching your head at government acceptance marks on a rimfire single shot. I was too at first.

The idea came from Colonel C.B. Winder of Ohio, who pushed hard for a training rifle with the size and heft of a service rifle that shot cheap rimfire ammo. The logic is simple. You can teach a recruit sight picture, trigger control and shooting positions just as well with a 22 as with a 30-06, and you can do it on an indoor range for pennies a shot. Winchester answered with a musket version of the Browning-designed 1885 single shot, first offered around 1905. The “Winder” name was never official. It just stuck.

The Ordnance marks on this one come down to World War I. The Army suddenly had to turn a flood of civilians into riflemen, and a 22 trainer saved full power ammo and range space for later stages. Ordnance picked up just shy of 11,500 of these in 1918 and 1919 for troop training, and the flaming bomb stamp is simply the government accepting the rifle.

After the war, plenty of them went to NRA clubs through the DCM and kept teaching people to shoot for years. The Winder was eventually replaced by the 1922 bolt action trainer, which made more sense for teaching Springfield manipulation. I personally imagine a lot of doughboys fired their very first shots through one of these.

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!

“WWI Era U.S. Winchester Model 1885 Low Wall Winder Musket.” Rock Island Auction, www.rockislandauction.com/detail/5035/132/wwi-era-us-winchester-model-1885-low-wall-winder-musket. Accessed 29 Oct. 2026.

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