Dillinger Gang’s Winchester 1907 Self-Loader: The Lebman Conversion

Hyman Lehman was a gunsmith in Texas who made a variant of firearms for some of the most notorious gangsters of the 1930s. One of his specialties was to take the Winchester Model 1907 Self-Loader and cut the barrel down, attach a Cutt’s Compensator, and a Thompson gun vertical front grip on a replacement metal handguard. Dillinger’s friend and compatriot Homer Van Meter was particularly fond of this sort of rifle.

When Dillinger was arrested in Tucson in January 1934, two of these rifles were among the guns taken from him. One was one display at the Tucson PD headquarters for many years, although it appears to have been taken down not long ago.

Incidentally, I would love to get a look at one or both of those examples – especially to see if they are actually converted to fully automatic. I was unable to get any response form inquires to the Tucson Police while filming this video, but if anyone from the department happens to see this video and can arrange something, please reach out to me at admin@!forgottenweapons.com ! A followup video on an original example would be excellent.

Anyway, a shop called Bull Creek Arms in Idaho produced a short run of 20 reproduction Lebman-style 1907s about 15 years ago and that is what we are looking at today. For more information on the original Winchester 1907SL, including its use in World War One, I suggest the C&Rsenal video on the subject: