#Lever-action

Right now its fall across the US where the leaves are changing colors, hunting seasons are beginning, and people are mongering over all foods infused with pumpkin spice. As many of us head out into the woods for the various hunting seasons, we at TFB wanted to propose a question to you with some potential answers. What is the BEST backwoods gun?

At SHOT Show 2018, Henry Repeating Arms put on auction their One-Millionth H001 Lever-Action ever produced as part of a much larger charity effort. At whatever price the gavel would eventually fall on, all of the proceeds would go to the Hunting Heritage Trust. The annual event of the SHOT Show Auction has drawn some very large bids before, but Henry was about to set a tremendous record this year.

My pre-Freedom Group Marlin 1894 in .44 magnum is a super reliable, quick handling meat getter when it comes to wild boar.  It is lightning quick out of a scabbard, slings and carries easily, and is overall a handy  and dependable tool on the ranch , in my truck, or out in the wilderness.  That being said, it had one serious shortcoming from the factory:  the standard lever was far too small.  I could only fit two of my fingers in the loop if I was wearing gloves of any sort.  Ungloved, it was still like jamming 11 rounds into a 10 round magazine.  Being that my 1894 is a firearm in pretty constant hunting/utility rotation, I decided to rectify the situation by swapping out the lever.

In January, just before the 2017 SHOT Show, I got the opportunity to travel to Cody Wyoming to visit the Cody Firearms Museum at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, to see some of their rare firearms and bring photos of them to our readers.

Artist Constantine Zlatez and Kostadin Ilov, a computer scientist at UC Berkeley, put a decommissioned lever-action rifle to good use, dispensing candy for all to enjoy. They use plastic capsules similar in shape to ammo. Probably .30-30 Winchester.

Recently, custom-lever action rifles have piqued my interest. Steel and wood is a refreshing change from a steady diet of polymer and aluminum. Besides, every red-blooded American should have a reliable lever action in their stable.

When it comes to quality lever guns, Rusty S. is TFB’s resident expert-in-charge. Even so, I’ve drooled over the creations at Grizzly Custom Guns for too long to keep quiet. A mix of fine wood and steel on a classic rifle can put visions of high plains, pine trees an snow covered mountains into anyone’s head.

We live in a world today that is completely inundated with AR-15 pattern rifles. In 2016, for just five Benjamins – sometimes even less! – you can purchase your very own fantactical black rifle and rely on it to work when you need to and shoot where you mean to. I won’t try to say otherwise: The AR-15 series is a great design, and it deserves its place at the center of the US civilian market.

Henry Repeating Arms began in 1996, their name being an homage to Benjamin T. Henry, who designed the original 1860 lever action repeating rifle.  While they do not have a connection to the original New Haven Arms Company, they do make quality rifles at a quality price, and as their motto says, they are “Made in America or not at all!”  Recently, they were kind enough to send me their Henry Big Boy Silver in .45 Colt.  I was very enthused to receive the rifle for testing, as I have been trying to get into SASS shooting, and my current rifle that fit the requirements for SASS fires rather expensive ammo in comparison to the .45 Colt, and it would be nice to take only one caliber to the matches.

I am an avid user of lever-actions.  I routinely carry them while on long hikes, and have used them to good effect while hunting in short to mid range situations where I know quick shots and follow ups will be necessary.  I have also used the .45-70 for a number of years for hunting and bear protection purposes in both lever action and falling block guns.  The .45-70 is an interesting cartridge.  Over 140 years old (its inception was in 1873 as a replacement for .50-70), it is still used widely in many commercial rifles, and ammunition is not difficult to source in the USA. The cartridge is also still issued and used militarily in blank form for line launchers used by the navy and coast guard!  While it has quite a lot of drop and is susceptible to wind deviation due to low velocities, I have used it to devastating effect on thick skinned, heavy-boned game, and it still can deliver one-shot kills to all North American big game within 200 yards.  I was therefore enthused when I heard I would be receiving a Henry H010 “Steel” rifle Chambered in .45-70 for testing.

Lever-action rifles are fantastic guns whether you’re interested in a walk down Wild West memory lane, looking for a new hunting rifle, or just want a good gun for target practice. Of course, they can also be harder to outfit when it comes to after-market parts, especially optics. If you’re interested in mounting a scope on your lever-action rifle there’s something new from Skinner Sights, LLC, that just might make your life a little easier: the Skinner Express lever-action scope base.

What was the first intermediate cartridge? Who designed it, and why? How did the concept evolve? These are all good questions deserving of thorough, thoughtful answers. Sadly, to give a comprehensive history of the intermediate cartridge concept would require a project nearly as long and laborious as my ongoing research project on the Lightweight Rifle program of the 1940s and ’50s, so I won’t do that. Instead, I’d like to take just a brief dip into the long history of the intermediate cartridge, enough to hopefully give my readers an idea of how the concept evolved.

Henry Repeating Arms recently released their version of a Mare’s Leg chambered in .22 Magnum. What’s a Mare’s Leg you ask? It’s essentially a lever-action rifle with the barrel and stock chopped off. It was made popular by Steve McQueen’s character in the TV show Wanted: Dead or Alive. Woody Harrelson’s character also used one in the movie Zombieland.

The story of modern British small arms is one of cleverness and perseverance, but mostly of seemingly continual obsolescence. Like the later Lee design, the Martini-Henry is yet another entry into the book of British rifles that were relatively quickly obsolesced by foreign developments, but which – in typical British fashion – soldiered on regardless.