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In addition to serving as a mandrel for winding the glass fiber, the steel liner also later protected the fiberglass from the intense heat of the burning powder and the abrasion of the shotgun pellets. Remember, this was before shells were loaded with plastic shot cups, which is today the norm. As an added bonus the steel liner also contained the interrupted threads for attaching the barrel to the receiver!

This photo demonstrates the spatial relationship of the floating chamber to the barrel and the receiver.

In fiberglass boats and car bodies, the glass fibers are randomly arranged. This results in the fiberglass being of equal strength and – unfortunately – equal weakness in all directions. However, on the Win-Lite barrel (as Winchester called it) the strength was maximized circumferentially where it was needed the most. This resulted in a barrel with almost twice the hoop strength of a conventional steel barrel but with only about half the weight! As an added bonus, in the unlikely event of catastrophic failure, the circumferentially wound glass fibers restricted fragmentation. Factory testing revealed that when the barrels were deliberately blown up, they would split lengthwise without fragmenting. This gradually released the contained pressure.