Introduced in 1925 the model 54 was Winchesters first commercial bolt action sporting rifle offered to the masses, though bolt action rifles were offered by Winchester as early as 1882 with there 45-70 chambered Hotchkiss rifles. A majority of those rifles some 84,000 were in military style muskets and carbines ,sporting configurations on the other hand were not as popular with shooters at the time preferring Winchesters line of lever actions instead.

There were also sporting versions of there Lee Navy but only 1,700 were made in sporting variation partly due to its light 6mm caliber.

T.C. Johnson work for Winchester from 1885 until his death in 1934 and came up with some of Winchsters most iconic designs, the model 12 and 21 most respectively along with the line of 1903-1910 style of semi auto rifles. He also designed the Model 51 Imperial in 1918 only 24 were manufactured and then were shot down by short sited Winchester executives. It was offered in solid and take down form and calibers 30-06 Springfield and 35 Newton and a new 27 caliber… 270 WCF.

Drilled and tapped for telescopic sights and highly finished and based on there p-14 and M1917 action I don’t see why this was shot down, it looks to me to be a very robust and well thought out design.

Johnson would design the Winchester model 54 on a Mauser 98 action with 2 stage military trigger, one of its criticized features along with the single piece stamped trigger guard and Mauser type 3 position wing safety making it hard to mount a scope without modifying the bolt despite these drawbacks sales were good until the great depression

Calibers for the model 54 were 30-06 Springfield ,30-30 win ,7×57 Mauser ,7.65x53mm Argentine ,9x57mm Mauser ,250Savage ,22Hornet, 220Swift ,257Roberts…aaand the new 270 Winchester liked by a certain fellow with the last name of O’ Connor! You also could get your model 54 chambered in 25-35 win, 32 win special and 35 Whelen on special order. A model 54 carbine chambered in 35 Whelen would be a fantastic little brush gun!

Winchesters various offerings in the model 54!

My model 54 Winchester carbine was manufactured in 1935 and is chambered in the time tested 30-06 Springfield it came with a standard buckhorn sight which I promptly replaced with a period correct Lyman 48w sight which I prefer .Though no deer have fallen to the little carbine yet I am confident the little guy will get the job done when called upon, the carbine length rifle is ideal for slipping and maneuvering around the NC thickets come deer season!

The load I’ve chosen for the little guy is a 220 grain Hornady Interlock running 2,300 out of the 20 inch barrel with 54 grain of IMR 4831. I took to the shooting range today in this 100 degree heat…(yeah I know)…can’t wait until fall! anyway I went to test out my loads in off hand positions.

The first group I shot was in the sitting position, went to prone and got better groups and found out the gun was a little high (this is at 50 yards) and had to adjust the Lyman sight as you can see a little too much the second time but the third group was right where I wanted the little guy! Not bad for off hand!