{"id":1670,"date":"2021-07-27T14:48:37","date_gmt":"2021-07-27T18:48:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/?p=1670"},"modified":"2021-07-27T14:48:39","modified_gmt":"2021-07-27T18:48:39","slug":"a-lever-action-comeback-by-craig-boddington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/a-lever-action-comeback-by-craig-boddington\/","title":{"rendered":"A LEVER-ACTION COMEBACK? By Craig Boddington"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The collapse of Remington is a blow to the firearms industry, and to all shooters. A possible silver lining in a dark cloud: Marlin was a Remington holding, acquired by Ruger. Doesn\u2019t matter if you\u2019re a Ruger fan. Ruger has a long track record of good management\u2026and making sound firearms. Due to the changeover, Marlin firearms are not currently in production. This is a shame, but Marlin\u2019<\/a>s lever-actions will be back. I believe Ruger knew what they were doing and, at least at the start of the pandemic shortages, the all-American lever-action was making a significant comeback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Popularity of rifle actions has been periodic, to some extent based on existing technology. The first 30 years of self-contained metallic cartridges (1860-1890) was the age of the breech-loading single shot. Effective repeaters (Henry and Spencer) were used in the American Civil War, but until the 1880s no repeaters handled large-cased blackpowder cartridges, so were limited in range and power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Winchester
The classic Winchester M71 in .348 Winchester is one of Boddington\u2019s all-time favorites. The top-eject rifle is resistant to conventional scope mounting. This 1937 rifle has a 1950s accommodation, an offset Pachmayr side mount that, a half-century later, still works very well. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Early in the 20th<\/sup> Century, bolt-actions were catching on elsewhere, but American riflemen had other choices. Like the lever-action, the slide-action is primarily an American phenomenon. The \u201cpump gun\u201d persists as a popular shotgun action, but by 1910 slide-action rifles and early semi-autos competed with lever-guns.<\/a> The lever-action won, and was America\u2019s preferred repeating action from about 1890 until after WWII.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bolt-actions were uncommon in the U.S. before WWI. There were no successful commercial American bolt-actions until the Savage Model 20 (1920), quickly followed by Remington\u2019s<\/a> M30 series and the Winchester M54, which became the Model 70 in 1936. Winchester<\/a> and Marlin saw lever-action sales starting to fall through the 1930s, but it wasn\u2019t until after WWII that the bolt-action became dominant. All other action types remained available, but the bolt-action was America\u2019s favorite sporting rifle action from at least 1950 until 2000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In WWII, America abandoned the bolt-action Springfield in favor of the semiautomatic Garand. Back then, it was widely predicted that semiauto rifles would become dominant in the postwar era. Didn\u2019t happen, perhaps because the heavy Garand with its awkward eight-shot clip doesn\u2019t convert well into a sporting rifle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"An
An ugly (but tasty) California hog taken with a Mossberg 464 .30-30. The Mossberg lever-action is similar to the Winchester 1894, but with round bolt. All 464s eject to the top right, and are drilled and tapped for optical sights. The Aimpoint on this rifle greatly enhances versatility.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Its replacement, the M14 (civilian version: Springfield Armory<\/a>\u2019s M1A series) is a great rifle. However, the M14 it was America\u2019s general-issue service rifle for just a decade, not long enough to earn the charisma it deserves. It was the AR15 action that turned the tide\u2026but it didn\u2019t happen overnight. The AR15 (and similar) semiautomatic sporters didn\u2019t gain huge civilian popularity until the 1990s, a quarter-century after the M16 was adopted by the military.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the Modern Sporting Rifle (MSR) craze finally hit, it hit big-time. Almost suddenly, AR15s (and clones) were red-hot; at one point 90 firms were making them. I used M16-series rifles in the Marines for 30 years. I know and like the platform, and I have a couple. It\u2019s a great rifle, reliable and accurate. The MSR can be accessorized to your heart\u2019s content, but it has limitations. Action length and magazine box are finite, so there\u2019s only so much power that can be harnessed. You can\u2019t make an AR15 into a general-purpose elk rifle or a long-range target rifle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A bigger problem for me: Aside from accessories, I find them all too similar. Some guys probably do, but I can\u2019t imagine owning a bunch of MSRs! Maybe some folks agreed, maybe the pipeline was filled, perhaps the demand was satisfied. By 2020 sales of MSRs declined, and manufacturers fell away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the pandemic things were weird, with panic buying, low supplies, and high prices. It\u2019s hard to predict what the world will look like when normalcy returns, but in early 2020 (before the wheels came off), all companies that manufactured lever-actions reported excellent sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
A good Nebraska ten-pointer, taken with a Marlin 1894 in .44 Magnum. This late-production rifle is one of the slickest, smoothest lever-actions Boddington has owned, and accuracy is amazing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Winchester got a boost from the 125th<\/sup> anniversary of the Model 1894 (in 2019). Browning and Winchester<\/a> together continued to have sellouts of limited runs of classic lever-actions. Browning\u2019s BLR has never been a big seller, but it\u2019s steady. The BLR is the world\u2019s foremost \u201cmodern\u201d lever-action, chambered to high-pressure cartridges, able to handle sharp-pointed bullets, and suitable for conventional scope mounting. Mossberg\u2019s 464 lever-action .30-30 was exceeding projections, especially for the tricked-up \u201ctactical\u201d versions. Henry was selling all the lever-actions they could make.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marlin,<\/a> too, was at last doing well. The Remington acquisition included a plant move and massive loss of talent, with a long break in production. Finally, they were up and running, making good guns that were selling well. Their \u201cDark\u201d series 336 rifles were in huge demand, likewise their big 1895 .45-70s. I have a late-production Marlin Model 1894 .44 Magnum, stainless steel\/laminate stock. It is the smoothest, slickest lever-action I\u2019ve ever owned, and exceptionally accurate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Boddington
Boddington used his 1920 1899 Savage .250-3000 to drop this big boar. From the beginning, the Savage lever-action was adaptable to scope mounting, and its under-the-bolt magazine allowed spitzer bullets. This early Savage <\/a>was never drilled and tapped, so Boddington prefers to leave it \u201cas is\u201d and use the tang-mounted receiver sight.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

My guess is the next generation of Marlin<\/a> rifles\u2014under Ruger ownership\u2014will be just as good, and will provide more options to shooters discovering (and re-discovering) the lever-action. Me, I\u2019m kind of a nut on them. I have ARs in different cartridges, love them, can\u2019t imagine not having them\u2026but my lever-actions are a passion. I am not a collector, but I just counted up: Including obsolete and current models, I have lever-actions from six different manufacturers\u2026in eight centerfire cartridges, plus .22 rimfire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My point isn\u2019t to make a comparison, but the average lever-action probably isn\u2019t as accurate as the average MSR, and they share an important limitation: Like ARs, lever-actions have finite limits on cartridge size. Ultimately, this places limits on velocity, energy, and suitable uses\u2026with exceptions. The 1895 Winchester was chambered to .30-06, but not without rumors of pressure issues. Browning\u2019s BLR is thus the major exception, made in short and long action, and chambered to belted magnums and unbelted short magnums.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Boddington<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Several excellent (long-gone) lever-actions were able to handle the .308 Winchester family of cartridges: Sako Finnwolf, Savage 99, Winchester 88. Henry\u2019s Long Rider and the BLR still handle the .308, and the BLR goes much farther. This type of lever action, side-eject with box magazines, have two important advantages: They allow conventional scope mounting over the receiver, and can be used with spitzer (sharp-pointed) bullets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lever-action was developed with a tubular magazine long before spitzer bullets existed. Conventional sharp-pointed bullets cannot be used in a tube because of potential detonation under recoil. The requirement to use blunt-nosed bullets in tubular-magazine rifles has long been a performance limitation because of poor aerodynamics. To some extent, Arthur Savage got lucky; his lever-action used a rotary magazine under the bolt, but it wasn\u2019t initially designed because it allowed spitzer bullets!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Bison
Bison M94 Boone and Crockett: The golden age of lever-actions! This is a staged photo, possibly for Winchester promotion. It dates to late 19th\/early 20th Century, because the rifles are early Model 1894s (forgive the unsafe gun handling!), and by that time bison were almost gone<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Riflescopes didn\u2019t come into widespread use until after WWII, so few lever-actions included ease of scope mounting as a design criterion. Again, Arthur Savage got lucky; in the 1950s, the Savage 99 lever-action was the first production rifle to be drilled-and-tapped for scope mounts as standard! John Marlin also got lucky. Early on, his lever-actions evolved into side-eject, not to facilitate scope mounting, but because he thought it was better than Winchester\u2019s top-ejection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, Marlin and Savage<\/a> lever-actions were ready for the scope era, and the Savage 99 handled spitzer bullets from inception. Winchester engineers probably long understood the growing limitation of top-eject, tubular magazine rifles\u2026but didn\u2019t do anything about either. Finally, in 1982, they changed the Model 1894\u2019s top-ejection to \u201cAngle-Eject,\u201d allowing over-the-receiver scope mounting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The requirement to use blunt-nosed bullets in tubular-magazine rifles remained a performance limitation clear up until 2005, when Hornady<\/a> introduced their FTX (Flex-Tip-eXpanding) bullet with sharp but compressible polymer tip. Initially loaded in their LeveRevolution line (with proprietary propellants that increased velocity without raising pressure), the FTX bullet changed the game for tubular-magazine lever-actions. The most common lever-action cartridges are now included in the LeveRevolution line with FTX bullets, including .25-35 and my beloved .348 Winchester. As a companion, there\u2019s now also the MonoFlex homogenous-alloy bullet with flexible tip. In California, we must use unleaded bullets for all hunting. So, out there, I hunt with MonoFlex in .30-30 and .45-70\u2026but there isn\u2019t a MonoFlex .348 bullet\u2026yet!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"94
Like most Winchester lever-actions, the M94 was top-eject for its first 88 years of production, precluding over-the-receiver scope mounting. In 1982, finally, \u201cAngle-Eject\u201d was introduced, with most recent M94s drilled and tapped for scopes. Top, a late top-eject M94; bottom, a post-1982 Angle-Eject rifle.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Although not entirely fair, I think of the lever-action as a short to very medium-range platform. This is fine for me; I don\u2019t always need range. If I do, I use something else. My lever-actions are perfect for pig hunting, and just fine for most of my deer hunting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ll see what the post-pandemic world brings, but I believe the lever-action was enjoying a revival. So, the important question: Why? Nostalgia and tradition count to some of us, to others not at all. To those for whom they count, the lever-action is America: John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, the Gun That Won the West! More practically, the lever-action can be short, light, fast-handling, and fast to operate. Between the Winchester 1894 and Marlin 336 alone, there are more than ten million .30-30 lever-action rifles out there, millions of them in the deer woods every fall. Surely that many of us couldn\u2019t have been wrong?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The collapse of Remington is a blow to the firearms industry, and to all shooters. A possible silver lining in a dark cloud: Marlin was a Remington holding, acquired by Ruger. Doesn\u2019t matter if you\u2019re a Ruger fan. Ruger has a long track record of good management\u2026and making sound firearms. Due to the changeover, Marlin … Continue reading “A LEVER-ACTION COMEBACK? By Craig Boddington”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1672,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[101,21,35],"tags":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/2.jpg?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1670"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1670"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1682,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1670\/revisions\/1682"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}