This prototype Winchester shown off by Ian over at Forgotten Weapons dates from 1918, a time when John Browning was working on his .50 BMG round and the Germans had their own giant T-Gewehr 13mm Mauser rifle in the trenches of Western Europe with the aim of sniping early armored vehicles.
Via the Cody Museum
The now-99-year-old elephant gun was dubbed a “swivel rifle” by Winchester and looks about as steampunk as the most goggle-wearing fan of Jules Verne could imagine. Termed simply as a “bolt gun” in patent paperwork by inventor Edwin Pugsley, this space rifle is as funky as they came– but predated the Barrett .50 cal by almost a century.
