From the Vault: Winchester Model 63

The history behind Winchester's slim, trim, maneuverable, and SO good-looking Model 63 semi-auto rifle in .22 LR is tied to the evolution of rimfire ammunition in the early 1900s. If you wanted to offer an autoloading .22 in those days, you had a problem: the available .22 rimfire ammo still used black powder as its propellant - NOT a good in an autoloader! So in order to release their Model 1903 (later shortened to just Model 03), Winchester developed the smokeless powder .22 Winchester Automatic cartridge. The Model 1903 and .22 Win Auto round were quite successful, until a few years later standard .22 rimfire ammo became available with smokeless powder, and other autoloading .22 rifles flooded the market. So in 1933, Winchester came out with the Model 63, a Model 1903 chambered for smokeless .22 Long Rifle ammo. All Model 63s were takedown rifles, so Keith takes down his to show us its inner workings. He tells us the history of his gun and how he restored it while retaining the "patina" of a well-used but not abused old rifle. (Tip: don't burn your initials into your rifle's forend with a wood-burning tool!) The Model 63 stayed in production until 1958, when it was quietly phased out. It had become too expensive to produce, and more modern autoloading .22 rimfire rifles had supplanted it.