I had heard of it, but never actually seen one. No, I didn't buy it. This shotgun, instead of an action charging handle, has a knurled section of the barrel that you grasp and pull back on to chamber a round or clear a stoppage. (Good luck with that after you've fired a shot.) Since this requires a great deal of effort, sometimes users would brace the butt on the ground to cycle it, which leaves the gun in a position to blow their heads off. The shotgun had signage on it saying "Widowmaker" and that it would only be sold with a signed waiver.

Cool find, I've never seen one in person. Forgotten Weapons did a segment on them that was pretty interesting. What a horrible design.

Ah yes, the Widowmaker. What a lovely design...IIRC, Winchester designed it like that because John Browning had already patented a charging handle for the long recoil system for a competitor, and using the barrel directly to cock the gun was a way to get around that. Probably thought they were being pretty smart until the first fudd jammed the stock into the dirt, pushed down, and blew his head off !

It was in (at a casual glance) near-pristine condition. Maybe it was only used once?

I'm not sure what value this thing would have, unless for a Winchester collector who just has to have one of every model made, no matter how bad. Or just likes oddities. Getting to see unusual items like this are why I like going to gun shows.

A little about that shotgun. New to me.



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^^^ Interesting to see how both work. The principle is the same, but the executions are quite different.

Winchester told JMB to kick rocks with his auto loading shotgun after buying dozens of patents the previous few decades. So he went to FN, that left Winchester behind the 8 ball and they came up with this loser design. File this one under Great executive decisions in history.

sold a couple a few years ago from a collection, not in great shape but not really a beater either,

they went cheap, most folks don't know what they are


incidently, the collection was maybe 2 hrs (or 3) east of the OP