In December, 1980, the Company's Board of Directors authorized the restructuring of the Winchester Group. This restructuring allowed Olin to better focus more of the company's resources on Winchester's sporting and defense ammunition business.

With this restructuring, Winchester's U.S. sporting arms business, which had been part of the company for nearly half a century, was set up as a freestanding operation. In July, 1981, it was sold to the U.S. Repeating Arms Company in New Haven, Connecticut, which now produces Winchester brand rifles and shotguns under license from Olin Corporation.