GUN | Teddy’s Favorite

The .405 caliber Winchester was developed for the Model 1895 Winchester in 1904. Firing a 300-grain bullet at the original velocity of 2,200 feet per second, it’s the most powerful rimmed cartridge ever developed for a lever-action rifle. It was also Teddy Roosevelt’s weapon of choice on his treks across Africa and through the Amazon.

The Model 1895 was designed by John Browning and was Winchester’s first lever action, which allowed a number of rounds to be fired in a short time. With the advance of smokeless powder and spitzer bullets it became impractical to have tubular mag under the barrel, so Browning designed a stack magazine for the 1895 that allowed high powered rounds to be stacked in columns.

When released, the Model ’95 was not particularly popular. With its thin buttstock and (by today’s standards) too much drop at heel, the ’95 in .405 kicked like an angry mule, and the cartridge wasn’t nearly as versatile as other ’95 chamberings–.30-40 Krag, .35 WCF, .30-03, .30-06.

The .405 did gain notoriety and popular appeal when it became Theodore Roosevelt’s famed “lion medicine” (keep in mind that lions were simply considered “pests” in those days). Both Teddy and his son, Kermit, used the model 1895s in .405 on their epic safari in 1909-1910 and again on their exploration in Brazil in 1915 to find the source of the Amazon. Roosevelt took many black rhinos and cape buffalo with the .405. As was usually the case, Roosevelt was on the front edge of a trend, and for the next several decades the Winchester .405 was the standard issue for Americans traveling to Africa. The Brits had their doubles and Americans had the .405.

One partucularly colorful chapter of the glory days of the “Roosevelt .405” involves Charles Cottar. Cottar, the notorious Oklahoma lawman–turned African big game hunter, was one of the few Americans to achieve Great White Hunter status in Africa. As Craig Boddington recalls for Guns and Ammo in 2005:

“When Cottar returned to the States to fetch his family to Africa, he obtained a .405 and stuck with it to the end. Literally. In those days black rhino were common. Truculent and nearly blind, it’s no great trick to get a black rhino to charge–just give him a whiff of your scent. This made them great subjects for early filming, although it was a bit hard on the rhinos: Film until the last moment, then shoot the rhino. Cottar had stopped many rhino charges during a long career, with and without a camera, but one day in 1940 he let the camera grind a bit too long before picking up his .405. He killed the rhino, but it ran over him and crushed his femoral artery. He died a few minutes later.”

Winchester released the Roosevelt 150th Model 1890 Custom and High Grade in 2008 to commemorate 150 years since Roosevelt’s birth. The favorite of TR, as he preferred to be called, is still a favorite of hunters today.