Bret4207
At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
I read recently in, IIRC, one of Whelens books that at one point Winchester and Colt came to an agreement that Winchester wouldn't make revolvers and Colt wouldn't make rifles. Not sure how accurate that was, but Colt didn't do much with rifles after a point and Winchester gave up on revolvers way back.1. Winchester was not going to build a rifle with another company's name on the cartridge.
2. Rim diameter was so small on the early cases, the extractor would not reliable extract the fired case, especially when dirty.
3. With the 44 WCF already in carbine and revolver, they didn't see much need for another pair.
IMHO