The Model 1866 is the first Winchester lever-action, courtesy of Oliver F. Winchester’s current-production Model 1866 Short Rifle. But the Boys in Blue were glad to spend the money. But the Henry could pour out the lead, and of the 8,000 or so that served in the Union Army, many were private purchase. 44 rimfire cartridge whose realistic maximum range was perhaps 150 yards. The Henry was not robust, nor was it very powerful. It was to the rifle musket as an M4 is to an ’03 Springfield. The Henry, which held 15 copper (later brass) cartridges in a tubular magazine, could be fired 24 times in 60 seconds. In the hands of a skilled soldier, a Springfield Rifle Musket could get off three rounds per minute. It arrived in time for the Civil War, and introduced the concept of fire superiority to the battlefield. Here are the greatest models from the lever’s Golden Age.Ī fine example of a vintage Henry Repeating Rifle, made in 1863. The best lever guns are neither gone nor forgotten. And if you want an original gun, scars and all, you need only look to that used-gun rack. Doug Turnbull has transformed them into an art form with his magnificent restorations. Lever-action guns can shoot at long range, drop elephants, and print minute-of-angle groups. Marlin offers no fewer than 10 variations of the Model 1895, or you can go to any number of custom shops who will build you a hot-rodded 1895 for a great deal of money. There is still no shortage of people to whom “deer rifle” means “lever action.”Ĭowboy Action Shooters are behind Winchester’s re-introduction of the Model 1873. Lever rifles took us from the era of the muzzleloader to the modern bolt-action. The time of the lever as the Number One Gun has passed.īut from 1861 to 1918-from the Civil War to World War I-we were a lever-action nation. The grandfathers who used them are afield in happier hunting grounds, and the grandkids who would have gotten them either don’t hunt or prefer something tactical. They are turning up by the scores in used-gun racks, their wooden stocks battered and once-blued steel worn silver. The Marlin 1895 is one of a handful of iconic lever guns from around the turn of the last century.

Winchester 1886 nickel steel barrel