A very popular firearm of half a century ago, the Winchester Model 190 is a tube-fed, semiautomatic, .22 rimfire rifle that is no longer in production. It was manufactured from 1967 to 1980 in New Haven, Connecticut. Altogether 2,171,263 of the rifles were made, including the 290 version which had a Monte Carlo stock. I am not sure if this number includes the models that were sold by Sears as the Ted Williams Model 3T.
The Model 190 has a 20-inch barrel, a cross-bolt safety at the front of the trigger guard, and a two-part beech stock.
The barrel of the rifle that I tested is stamped to indicate that the rifle is chambered for .22L and .22LR. Many owners indicate that the rifle will also reliably cycle .22 Shorts if kept clean enough.
Although generally not quite as accurate as some more modern production rifles, the Model 190 is more than accurate enough for pest control, small game hunting, and similar tasks. It is also great for training, and is fun to shoot.
At the time of this writing, a dozen used Model 190s were available for “Buy Now” at Gunbroker.com for prices ranging from $149.99 to $375.73 each.
A rifle chambered in .22LR is a great addition to any gun safe. If you don’t have a rifle in .22LR yet and run across a Model 190 in good condition and at a good price, it could be a useful purchase.
Background
The rifle that I tested was purchased by my Father back in the 1970s. After my Father passed away, my Mother entrusted the rifle to my Son. I am currently storing the rifle for my Son while he is deployed overseas with the military.
Description
My Dad’s Model 190 came equipped with the Weaver Marksman 4X scope that still graces the top of its aluminum receiver. The base of the scope rings fit into grooves that are milled into the sides of that receiver. The length of pull (LOP) is 13.5 inches. That is about as typical an LOP as one is likely to find on a rifle, and indicates that the rifle was not intentionally shortened to make it more attractive as a first firearm for young shooters.
The bolt does not automatically stay open after the last shot is fired. Instead, the cocking handle is pulled back and pressed inward so that a pin at the end of the handle seats in a hole in the interior of the receiver next to the bolt. The tubular magazine is not as easy to load or change as a detachable box magazine. On the other hand, it does allow for a wider variety of ammo to be used, since it can accommodate both .22L and .22LR, and even reportedly .22S.
The exploded diagrams and parts lists at Numrich Gun Parts show that the Model 190 used many parts in common with the Model 15 lever action carbine. That was pretty clever on the part of the designers at Winchester.
I ran across an anecdote online about the Model 190. One gunsmith reported that his co-worker’s wife had smashed that co-worker’s Model 190 against a tree in a fit of rage. The co-worker gathered the pieces and brought them to the gunsmith. The gunsmith glued the stock back together, straightened the stock bolt, replaced missing springs, and reassembled the rifle. The repaired rifle functioned perfectly. Based on the description of the repairs to the rifle, it would seem that the buttstock and associated parts were the primary parts that were damaged by the impact with the tree. A damaged receiver or barrel would have been harder to repair. I am not sure if the marriage was repaired, or how well it functioned after this incident.
Range Session
It was a beautiful, sunny day in late summer. The temperature was 78 degrees Fahrenheit. There was almost no wind.
I took the Model 190 out to the improvised range behind my pole barn. I set up a target stand in front of the backstop, and a table 25 yards away. I put a lead sled on the table, and set the rifle in the lead sled.
I began by loading three rounds of Federal 38-grain copper-plated hollow point into the tubular magazine. Those shots grouped about 2.5 inches high and 3 inches to the right of the point of aim.
I adjusted the scope, and fired several more 3-shot groups, adjusting the scope after each group. The scope required a little finesse to zero effectively since the adjustment screws were not designed to produce any helpful clicks to correspond to how far they were being turned. So I began with quarter turns, and then turned back 1/8th turns, and then tried to estimate 1/16th turns, and so forth until the groups were finally zeroed.
The groups with the Federal 38 grain ammo ranged in size from 0.53 to 1.34 inches in size, with an average of 0.98 inches.
I also fired 3 shot groups using Browning 40 grain LRN, MAXXTech 40 grain LRN, and Federal AutoMatch 40 grain LRN ammos. Those groups ranged in size from 0.53 inches for the Browning ammo to 0.91 for the Federal 40 grain ammo, with the MAXXTech ammo in the middle at 0.78 inches. So the rifle seemed to like 40 grain ammo more than the 38 grain ammo.
The accuracy of the rifle with any of the ammos that I tested meets my standard for pest control, which is 3-shot-groups averaging smaller than 1 inch at 25 yards.
I then took the rifle inside and cleaned it using OGRE Manufacturing EnviroClean FA Cleaner and BreakFree CLP. The cleaning process was quite simple and straightforward.
Winchester will provide a manual for the Model 190 upon request. There are also pdfs of the manual or disassembly instructions available online.
Winchester History
The story of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company begins with Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson, who would later gain fame as the founders of the Smith and Wesson Revolver Company. Those two gentlemen acquired the rights to the “Volition Repeating Rifle” that had been produced by Robbins & Lawrence of Windsor, Vermont. They also convinced the shop foreman from the Robbins & Lawrence company to enter their employ. That shop foreman was named Benjamin Tyler Henry.
Misters Smith and Wesson eventually incorporated their company as the Volcanic Repeating Arms Company in 1855. Clothing manufacturer Oliver Winchester was the major investor in the new company.
By the end of 1856, the new company had became insolvent. Oliver Winchester and John Davies then bought out the other investors, and in 1857 reorganized as the New Haven Arms Company. Misters Smith and Wesson were no longer a part of the reorganized company, but Benjamin Henry was. Henry subsequently designed a self-contained metallic rimfire cartridge, the .44 Henry, and designed a dramatically modified Volcanic rifle to fire it. That firearm was the famous Henry rifle of 1860. The new rifle was an economic success.
Over the course of time, Benjamin Henry began to feel that he was not being adequately compensated for his work on the new design. He attempted a hostile takeover of the New Haven Arms Company. As a result, Oliver Winchester reorganized the company yet again as the Winchester Repeating Arms Company and substantially modified the design of the Henry rifle. The result was the even more famous 1866 Winchester. That rifle was followed a few years later by the still even more famous 1873 Winchester of cowboy movie fame.
Oliver Winchester died in 1880. A few years later in 1883, legendary firearms designer John Moses Browning began a collaboration with the Winchester company that resulted in a large number of innovative designs, including the Browning Automatic Rifle and the Browning .50 Caliber Machine Gun.
The company expanded greatly during World War I, but then struggled with the return to a peacetime economy. With the coming of the Great Depression, the company went into receivership in 1931, and was acquired by the Western Cartridge Company.
Shortly before the beginning of World War II, Winchester employees designed the M1 Carbine, which became the most produced American small arm of that war.
In the post-war world, Winchester tried to cope with rising labor costs by turning to less-labor-intensive designs. These designs were considered to be inferior those that had come before. As a result, later Winchesters are not considered as prestigious as the pre-1964 models.
A protracted strike in 1979-1980 convinced Winchester to sell the New Haven plant to an employee group, and to license the production of many of their designs to the new company, the U.S. Repeating Arms Company. That company became insolvent by 1989, and was sold to Herstal Group. The New Haven plant was finally closed in 2006 after 140 years of production. Winchester subsequently entered into a license agreement for the production of its firearms with the Browning Arms Company.
Conclusions
The Winchester Model 190 is a relic of my youth. It is a versatile and reliable little rimfire rifle that is accurate enough for pest control, small game hunting, and training. It is also fun to shoot.
The Weaver Marksman 4X scope is nothing to brag about, but it does work better than iron sights with my aging eyes.
Disclaimer
OGRE Manufacturing provided a sample of their EnviroClean FA Cleaner for a previous review in SurvivalBlog. I did not receive any other financial or other inducement to mention any vendor, product, or service in this article.