Has Winchester made ammo for the Army in the past?

[hypnotrader]

Just curious is this is a new thing or if they have done it in the past.

Olin Winchester, Inc., East Alton, Ill., was awarded a firm-fixed-price, option eligible, non-multi-year contract modification (P00029) in the amount of $11,676,796 with a cumulative maximum value of $136,598,412 in exercise of their option to procure: 10,380,720 each A059 (5.56mm M855 cartridges in 10-round clips), 2,337,600 each A062 (5.56mm M855 cartridges linked), 3,200 each A064 (5.56mm M855 and M 856 cartridges and tracers linked 4 to 1) and 3,186,200 each A55 (Caliber .50 M17 cartridges linked). Performance location will be East Alton, Ill., with funding from fiscal 2011-2013 Other Procurement accounts. This contract was a competitive acquisition via the web with two bids received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command – Rock Island Arsenal, Rock Island, Ill. is the contracting activity (W52P1J-11-C-0038).

 

[longknife12]

Yup, WCC head stamps have been around for years!
Dan

 

[shootist2121]

They have done it off and on for decades..they even ran the Lake City Arsenal at times(now ATK is) Its all a bidding war.. The low bid gets the contract. I'm not sure what you point is.

Be Safe

 

[medalguy]

Guess he's just asking a question. There are no dumb questions, just dumb answers. If you don't know something, ask.

Yes Winchester has been making ammo for the government since way back. I'm really not sure when they first started but they were supplying ammo in the 20's I know. Probably WW I also.

 

[pendennis]

I've got a few hundred .30-06 cases from the early "50's marked "WRA" - Winchester Repeating Arms.

They also manufacturer ammo which is marked "WCC", two-digit year code, and the NATO star. I don't think it's "military grade", as the cases have a bit more capacity than "LC"-marked cases; but it's been cheap, and shoots very accurately.

 

[Tommygunn]

I may be wrong but I have always thought WCC stood for "Western Cartridge Corporation."

 

[The Bushmaster]

Yup...Tommygun. Yer correct. But WCC owns Winchester Repeating Arms. All are owned by Olin Corp.

 

[ExTank]

Yes Winchester has been making ammo for the government since way back. I'm really not sure when they first started but they were supplying ammo in the 20's I know. Probably WW I also.

+1

OLIN (Winchester) started as a powder and explosives company just after the Civil War, supplying powder/explosives to rock quarries throughout southern Illinois and Missouri. They geared up to cartridge manufacturing just before WWI ("right place, right time" so to speak).

OLIN Winchester (and other business units, too) is one of our local customers, and they still have some of the original buildings from the 1800's on-site.

A real neat place to see in operation up-close-and-personal. Don't want to say more, as they are a valued customer and some confidentiality stuff may apply.

 

[MattShlock]

I have seen WWI Win. military (probably have a few rounds) and I have a can of non-corrosive Win. .30-06 from the 50's as well as a box of blemished milsurp Win. 5.56 x 45mm that failed inspection...

 

[Old Fuff]

And as a side note:

According to Olin/Winchester's CEO at the present time commercial backorders exceed all of that placed by the U.S. armed services and law enforcement combined.

 

[Tommygunn]

Yup...Tommygun. Yer correct. But WCC owns Winchester Repeating Arms. All are owned by Olin Corp.

Okay .... I had a long forgotten memory of Winchester owning Western...or Western owning Winchester ...or something like that. I recall also seeing "Olin" on boxes of Winchester ammo.
I actually own a couple of books that detail the history of Winchester but it's been A LONG TIME since I refered to them.

 

[oneounceload]

But WCC owns Winchester Repeating Arms.

Just for clarification for others, this is the ammo side of the Winchester name, FN Herstal owns the Winchester gun property

 

[VA27]

Oops! Forgot to hit the quote button for Old Fluff...

Makes sense. The population of the US is about 317 million. Only about 2 million of those are active duty or reserve military. Your average hobby shooter probably shoots more rounds on a weekend than your average troop does in a year.

 

[Delford]

At Academy the other day one of the choices for 00 buck was the brown box mil.spec version from Olin. It was $.50 more than the others so I picked up Federal. My 870 sits ready by my bedside.