I have an FN, (Fabrique Nationale) Mauser in .270 made in Belgium in the early 50's. Win. has no business infringing on that wonderfull actions name.
Oh dear! As a Brit and so outside of this potential argument, I reckon you've likely kicked a hornets nest over here. Millions of Americans much more likely reckon that these foreign interlopers ruined the fine Winchester reputation rather than the other way around.
The truth of the matter is that the FN Joe thinks of no longer exists and hasn't for many, many years. It became FNH (FN-Herstal) and is a multinational that combines many countries' former arms manufacturers, and it has been for many years, operating plants around the world. FNH-USA was created to tap into the huge US market with a locally based operation, and this was in effect essential to pick up US Department of Defence contracts which FNH-USA has done in a big way. Many of the US Army and USMC's primary weapons are FNH designed and manufactured in-country by FNH-USA. It also undertakes major refurbishment and modernisation work on US military weapons including (I think) its .50BMG calibre M2 heavy machineguns.
So far as Winchester goes, my take on this - and I stand to be corrected by Winchester aficionados - is that the rifle manufacturing part, by now called the US Repeating Arms Corporation, was an outfit that had fallen on hard times and whose reputation based on its long and excellent past based on the Winchester name was much better than it deserved at the time FNH-USA bought it. I also understand that FNH-USA couldn't buy the famous name, only the right to use it. The famous Winchester, now USRAC, New haven plant was a shadow of its former self and had been starved of investment and up to date machinery for many years at the time of the purchase.
At some point not too long after buying 'Winchester' / US Repeating Arms Corp., FNH-USA announced that all production would cease at New Haven and any models retained, or subsequently introduced, would be manufactured in its plants elsewhere including a new one to be set up in the US South. This didn't do much for the morale of the New haven workforce or improve an already mixed product quality.
Many Winchester 70 models made in the final year or two of New haven operation were frankly poor. I had a 70 'Stealth' in .243WSSM that was not a great advert for the company. The FN SPR rifles - of which I also own one from that period with a fantastic McMillan A5 stock as OEM - were a very different matter. They used selected M70 WSM receiver bodies with a one-off 308 bolt-face pre-64 type bolt, the bought-in McMillan stock, a barrel which came from another FNH-USA factory and the barrelled actions were assembled and checked in a special workshop within the New Haven plant that only made SPRs. I read that the marriage of the barrelled actions and stocks plus the bedding work was done elsewhere even before the New Haven closure. Manufacture of the SPR was transferred to FNH-USA's new and modern facility after the New Haven closure and continues to this day.
Why did FNH-USA call the SPR an FN rather than a 'Winchester'. I'd speculate that was partly because FNH-USA's reputation was much higher than USRAC / Winchester's at that time, but perhaps more pertinently that the rifle in its various versions and packages was marketed to potential military and law enforcement buyers and with the company's growing presence in the US military supply business, the FN name fitted the bill neatly.
While I was unimpressed by my 70 Stealth, the SPR from the same period was and is a stunningly good rifle. I still have it, since fitted out with a Jewell trigger and rebarreled with a 5R Bartlein to .260 Rem, and it is a really good shooting - and nice to shoot - rifle. I've no experience of other Winchester brand rifles that have since been introduced, but I'd expect them to be much better quality than the late New Haven examples.
