The Perfect Lever Gun
Winchester 1886
Resolved: The Winchester Model 1894, being a near-perfect combination of rifle and cartridge, is the gold standard by which all succeeding lever-action rifles must be judged. Now that that’s established, let’s take a close look at this most popular of lever guns, the gun known for decades as “America’s Rifle.”
The Forerunners
In 1886, John Browning gave Winchester the first in what would prove a near-immortal line of lever guns in the Model 1886 Winchester. This was the first of Browning’s locking-block lever guns, and was a powerhouse, shooting mostly proprietary rounds up to and including the bison-stopping .50-110 Winchester. This was a big, heavy gun, weighing in at nine pounds empty. The 1886 was a great gun, powerful, but not handy.
Winchester 1892
In 1892, the combination of Browning and Winchester did it again, this time with the light, handy, pistol-caliber Model 1892 carbine. The ’92 was much smaller than the 1886, weighing in at just over six pounds; it was everything the 1886 was not, light, fast and handy; it was not one thing the 1886 was, that being powerful. Intended as a companion piece to a revolver, it was like the earlier 1866 and 1873 Winchesters, chambered for the popular revolver cartridges of the day, including the .38WCF and .44WCF.
Having bracketed the market, Winchester finally hit the hot spot by splitting the difference; that difference was the Model 1894.
The New Carbine
One of the criteria for a gold standard firearm is, as we’ve discussed in earlier installments, that perfect mating of gun and cartridge. Smith & Wesson achieved this with the .44 Special and the Triple Lock; Colt and John Browning did so with the 1911 pistol and the .45ACP. Winchester hit the ten-ring in the second year of the 1894’s production, when improved metallurgy enabled them to bring the rifle out in the new smokeless-powder .30 Winchester Centerfire (WCF), better known today as the .30-30.
The Great Model 94
The trienta-trienta was an immediate hit. The round is still popular today, from the Canal Zone to the Yukon. It regularly punches out of its weight class; many a Yukon moose has fallen to the round. It’s said that more whitetail deer have fallen to this cartridge than to all others combined, and while I have yet to see hard evidence of this claim, I don’t find it at all unlikely.
But a big reason that the .30WCF was a hit was because of the first rifle it was chambered in. The Model 94 combined the light weight of the 92 at a bit under seven pounds, with a more powerful, smokeless-powder cartridge. Sales immediately took off. In 1927, the one-millionth Model 94 was presented to President Calvin Coolidge (his verbal response is unknown), the one-and-a-half millionth to President Truman in 1948 and, in 1953, the two-millionth example was presented to President Eisenhower. Over seven million rifles have been built in all, making it the most successful centerfire sporting rifle ever made. Nowadays one might argue that the Tacticool craze has resulted in more AR-pattern rifles than this being made, but I would maintain that this is a family of rifles rather than a single model; the Winchester 94 still, therefore, holds that top spot as far as I’m aware.
Over the years the 94 was offered in a variety of conformations – and a variety of cartridges besides the .30-30. Rounds chambered in the great old rifle included:
- .25-35 Winchester
- 7-30 Waters
.30-30 Winchester- .307 Winchester
- .32 Winchester Special
- .32-40 Winchester
- .356 Winchester
- .38-55 Winchester
- .375 Winchester
- .450 Marlin
- .357 Magnum
- .44 Remington Magnum
- .444 Marlin
- .45 Long Colt
- .410 bore
The .30WCF, of course, outsold the others; it may well have outsold all the others combined.
A variety of barrel lengths were offered, in both round and octagon contours, from 16” to 26”. Pistol-grip stocks and premium woods were available, as were half-magazine and take-down versions. If Winchester could physically make it, it was available for special order, and you can still find one-of-a-kind variants for sale on the various online auction sites.
Besides the variations of the Model 94 itself, Winchester also produced two other models on the Model 94 action:
- The Model 55. This pistol-grip, rather upscale rifle sported a 24” barrel and a half-magazine. The Model 55 was sold from 1924 to 1932.
- The Model 64. In 1933, Winchester replaced the model 55 with the Model 64, which was available with 20, 24 and 26” barrels, a checkered pistol-grip stock and a half-magazine. Production of the Model 64 ended in 1957.
In 1964, the same year that saw a reorganization of Winchester’s manufacturing practices, also saw Winchester making a deal with Sears-Roebuck to produce the new, somewhat cheapened Model 94 as the Ted Williams Model 100, which deal continued until 1980; I can remember examining Model 100s in Sears stores as a youth, and even in my teens I remember not being impressed with the fit and finish of this store-brand gun.
The Model 1894 Winchester and the .30WCF cartridge have gone beyond the standard of the perfect mating of gun and cartridge. This rifle and its most popular chambering have made such a perfect combination, with such lasting impact on the shooting world, that “Model 94 Winchester” and “.30-30” have damned near become synonyms. I can only think of one other combination that has achieved this status, that being “.45ACP” and “Colt/Browning 1911.”
Success, of course, attracts competition; let’s look at some of that next.
The Competition
Colt Lightning
It’s important to note that the measure of a rifle is in the quality of its competition. The Winchester lever guns inspired quite a bit of competition, some of it excellent, some… not.
In 1885, Colt, best known then for the legendary Colt Single Action Army, quietly dropped production of the 1883 Colt-Burgess lever gun, which was only chambered for the .44WCF (.44-40) cartridge. When they dropped their only lever gun, Colt supposedly entered into a gentleman’s agreement with Winchester, stating that in return for their dropping the Burgess rifle, Winchester would forgo their plans for producing revolvers. While the folks at Colt were true to their apocryphal word where lever guns were concerned, that didn’t preclude them from introducing the slide-action Colt Lightning in 1884, again in the .44WCF cartridge. The Lightning was later also offered in the .38WCF (.38-40) and .32-20 Winchester; a small frame, “gallery” version was made in .22 Short and .22 Long Rifle, while 1887 saw the introduction of a large-frame Lightning chambered for the .38-56-255, .40-60-260, .45-60-300, .45-85-285, and .50-95-300 Express rounds. The large frame guns were dropped from production in 1894, and the rimfire and pistol-caliber versions in 1904, never having achieved much popularity despite being well-made, reliable guns; in all versions, only a few more than 100,000 guns were made.
I had a 1901 standard-frame Lightning for a while, chambered for the .38WCF. I picked it up in an Iowa hardware store for $300 in the days before online auctions, when one could still find great prices in odd locations. The gun was not in good shape; the magazine tube was hopelessly bent and rusted, and the barrel was pitted, although the action was tight and functioned well. I cleaned up the barrel as best I could and had a gunsmith friend find and install a replacement magazine. The gun functioned fine, but the shot-out barrel was hopeless; the gun would put most of its rounds into a paper plate at 25 yards, but no more than that. About then, the Cowboy Action craze was hitting the Mountain West in a big way, and I ended up selling that old Lightning to a shooter for a cool $1,100; he proposed to reline the barrel to .45 Colt, thus making himself an unusual carbine to go with his first-generation Colt Model P. I dumped that money into the purchase of my Model 25-5 Smith & Wesson sixgun, and never looked back.
While there were many others, the prime competitor for the Winchester 94 has its origins in the year before the 94 was introduced. In 1893, Marlin Firearms brought out the Model 1893 lever gun, which later was revised into the Model 36 and later still, the great Model 336.
Marlin 36
The 336 rises very near to gold standard territory itself. The design philosophy is clearly different; the Marlin uses a heavier receiver with a solid top and a side-eject port, although it loads through a gate in the receiver into a tubular magazine like the Model 94. The Marlin is a tad heavier, but the solid-top receiver made the gun slowly grow in popularity over the decades as optical sights became more ubiquitous.
Full disclosure: My own .30-30 is one of these, a Marlin 336 I bought around 1980. While I don’t hunt with it much anymore in the Mountain West (although it’s awfully handy to carry around in the cab of the pickup) I’ve had the thing for so long, and it shoots so quickly and well, that I haven’t been able to bring myself to part with it.
By the early Eighties, Marlin’s 336 ranked second to the Model 94 as the best-selling American centerfire sporting rifle ever made, with over 3.5 million guns sold.
Then, 1964
By the time 1964 rolled around, Winchester was facing some financial crunches. The manufacturing costs required to produce guns of the quality desired were rising, to the point that the company was actually losing money on some flagship pieces like the Model 70 bolt gun. So, some economizing was carried out.
The Model 94, like other Winchester greats like the Model 70 and the Model 12 pump shotgun, suffered from these changes. The receivers were machined rather than forged and milled; the shell lifter went from a forged part to a stamped one. Solid pins were replaced with rolled pins, walnut stocks on some guns were replaced with hardwood, and fir and finish overall suffered.
This damaged Winchester’s reputation. Even today, pre-64 Winchesters command a premium price. By the end of the 20th century, as we have seen in previous installments, Marlin surpassed Winchester as the #1 seller of lever guns, in no small part because of the changes made in post-1964 production.
In 1982, Winchester sought to revive the Model 94’s flagging fortunes by adopting to one of the strengths of the primary competition. One of the Marlin 336’s strengths was its solid-top receiver, which made scope mounting fast and easy. Winchester responded with the Model 94 “Angle Eject” models, which used a cutout on the right side of the receiver to lower the angle of ejected cartridges, making it possible to mount a scope low and centered over the bore, but still requiring the use of an awkward side mount.
Because of these things, and also because of several corporate restructurings, Winchester’s great Model 94 languished. The acquisition by FN Herstal resulted in some return to the old way of manufacturing, which also turned the new versions of the Model 94 from America’s Rifle to more of a carriage trade piece. But the new Model 94s retained the Angle Eject and added a tang-mounted safety; for good and ever, it seemed, the rugged, simple, original Model 94 was gone.
Today
Today, Winchester again offers the Model 94 in its later Angle Eject configuration, in a variety of calibers (including the great old .30WCF and the .32 WS) at a substantial price. The new guns continued the tang-mounted safety, an annoying piece of pettifoggery that is utterly unnecessary on a gun with an external hammer; but such is the price of doing business in the firearms world today.
Fortunately, the well over seven million 1894s produced means that there are plenty of pre-64 originals out there. If a shooter is what you’re after, you can probably find a refinished gun or one with some wear for around $500. If you’re looking for an in-box original collectible from before that landmark year, be prepared to put some zeroes on the check.
But if you’re after whitetails in the woods, you could hardly find a finer rifle for the purpose; light, handy, fast into action, fast on follow-up shots, with plenty of accuracy and power for deer-sized game in the normal ranges one finds in woods and farm fields in the eastern United States. This world-beating combination of rifle and cartridge – the Model 1894 Winchester and the .30WCF cartridge – changed the world of lever guns forever, and that heavy influence still holds today, easily qualifying the (pre-64) Model 94 as the gold standard of lever-action rifles.
I gotta tell you Animal, your level of knowledge on this subject is just impressive.
Riddle me this – with side loading gates for lever guns perfected well over a century ago, why are most of the darn lever guns in the store still front-loading?
Because Henry is doing a good job getting it’s product into stores?
It’s all right, but I always drop it when a bad guy drops a better one.
Well, that chicken turned out well.
These euphemisms….
Turned that chicken out in AZ, and it brought back that sweet Old Man Candy money.
Another great article, Animal. You hit 2 of my faves in one article. I’ve given 2 94’s away, a pre-64, first gun I ever bought, age 14. My money and my dad went with me to the pawn shop to insure I didn’t get hustled (too much). $40, 1952. Gave it to my son about 15-20 years ago. A second one, a late model, with the cheap wood work, nice but a little on average side, like my first girl friend. Gave that one to my bee partner, he’s shot several deer with it.
Somewhere in the midst I got a 336, fell in love all over again. A lot of deer met their doom , gave it to my youngest g’daughter this fall (but I used it a day before she got here, all it took). Now I’m out of 30-30s but still can find something down at the river where the canoe tipped over but have to try another style. Doesn’t matter… Thanks for the trip down Nostalgia Lane.
Does it make anyone else mad that we have a holiday celebrating presidents or am I just being a big libertarian crackpot again?
Is that what it’s for? I just accept the day off from work.
I don’t get a day off from work. I don’t work for the government or a bank.
If you don’t get the day off, it’s not really a holiday for you.
Holidays = days when I can’t get information from the government or do any banking.
So, a day that ends in Y.
No, you’re correct.
And worse it is in fucking the middle of winter. Lets make holidays great again and put them during a mild season.
Well I live in Texas where it’s 72 degrees and sunny today, but I don’t object to a holiday in general during the winter. Just name it Fuck Communism Day or something.
This is why we should have let the south secede, then you could celebrate Jefferson Davis day in February.
Why Southern Weather Makes No Sense
One president’s day is an improvement over two presidential birthdays (Washington and Lincoln).
Washington’s Day
I disagree. It’sworse IMHO because we give up celebrating a good President (Washington) but we also give up celebrating a guy who really kicked the power of the Federal Government into overdrive (Lincoln) in exchange for celebrating all of them, which means Wilson, FDR and LBJ as well!
I always assumed it was meant to celebrate just the two, not all of them.
I shall call it Calvin Coolidge day from now on.
I celebrate Zachary Taylor and Martin VanBuren. One for his awesome muttonchops and the other because he looks a little like a town drunk.
Fun fact, I’m related to Zack, the grimmest of all presidents.
I don’t much about Zachary Taylor except that he has two trendy millennial white kid names.
His house is in town, just off Broadway. It’s been converted into apartments, but has some sort of historical marker plaque on it.
I celebrate Calvin Coolidge’s birthday every year.
Dave Smith is the Nick Gillespie of debate moderators.
An interesting debate about free trade and Trump’s tariffs. Sadly Gene Epstein spends too much time pretending (?) he has TDS.
Trump’s tariffs are pretty stupid, but does the party currently nominating Bernie Sanders get to complain about them?
I say no.
I am not so sure they’re stupid. If you view the end state as a reduction of trade barriers on both sides, which is Trump’s stated goal, then things get a bit murkier. But I would come down on the anti-tariff side since the ends don’t justify the means.
The history of that working is minimal at best.
Trump’s tariffs are pretty stupid, but does the party currently nominating Bernie Sanders get to complain about them?
I say no.
That opinion is worth stating twice, I’d say.
I agree. However one feels about tariffs–reflexively I’m against them in a broad sense, although I’m willing to keep an open mind on a case-by-case basis–if you’re promoting heroin use as a wholesome, healthy pastime you can’t really talk shit about people smoking cigars.
Trump is using tariffs as a negotiation tactic. Also, tariffs are essentially a tax so it is amusing to see the party that wants to tax you into poverty complaining about them.
Except every Democrat was pro-protectionist in the last presidential election. Although Hillary was probably lying because it polled well.
hmm
Because the NRA is killing black children in Chicago…
Spike Lee responded to the spate of shootings that have now left 10 kids wounded across the city this weekend.
“This is not something that’s new,” Lee told reporters following his speech at St. Sabina in Gresham. “I think that we gotta take down the [National Rifle Association].
“We have more guns than any other country on God’s planet, and we’re all getting tired,” added Lee, whose 2015 film “Chi-Raq” delved into Chicago’s culture of gangs and violence.
“we’re all getting tired”
Yes we are… of you and your fellow travelers’ tedious bullshit.
Maybe taking down the drug gangs would be a more apt thing to do unless the Bloods and the Crips are busy joining the NRA now.
Spike Lee thinks the Bloods and Crips are lifetime NRA members.
Thanks, Animal!
Probably a stupid question, but is there a reason they maintained the exposed hammer all these years?
Can you say crab angle?
“Wait, we made it down? I was so drunk I thought we were flying sideways.”
High pucker factor there.
But well done!
I was clenching in my desk chair.
Better triple check the wheels and rubber after that landing.
?
Airbus makes a hoverjet?
I’ve experienced one of those as a passenger. It was not a pleasant experience.
I’ve experienced it in a Cessna Centurion. It was actually like a thrill ride.
Once we were taxiing, of course.
I once was sitting just in front of the wing. When landing I could see down the length of the runway. After landing the pilot came on and said the cross winds were at the limit for the aircraft.
The Model 94
I have one in .30-30. Neat gun. I mean I used to have one before I tried to transport all my firearms down the James in a paddle boat during a thunderstorm. Damn thing capsized and went down with all
handsarms.Went to Office Depot and Michael’s craft store (location is important, IMO). Saw 2 Trump 2020 stickers in the space ot maybe 20 cars. I come out 10 minutes later, both those cars are gone as are about half the cars, but there’s ANOTHER Trump 2020 sticker.
Landslide.
Defiant reaction to impeachment fiasco? If he can maintain enthusiasm and if there’s no major economic meltdown, I’d say chances are good you’re correct.
My view is, if I’m seeing Trump stickers on mommy crossovers at Michael’s, that’s saying SOMETHING. I don’t know what, but that’s what I think.
I’ve not seen any signs or stickers for any dem candidate this year. It’s even more anaemic than when shrillary was running.
I have seen overt signs of Trump support when I get outside the capital district.
I have seen one Bernie sticker.
On a Subaru.
*lights SF signal*
I’ve seen leftover Bernie 2016 stickers, but no 2020 stickers.
This was 2020.
Huh, I’ve also seen one Bernie 2020 sticker, also on a Subaru. In north Jersey.
I saw a Klobochar sticker on a Subaru (naturally) next to a Resist! and a Persist! sticker. This was at the Gun/boat/RV/outdoor show this weekend
Lots of pro-Trump yard decorations. Almost all of them impressively cringeworthy. While I don’t indulge in anti-yokeltarianism, I can understand those who do.
I have seen lots of Democrat signs, but this is New Hampshire.
I saw a Trump recently, but I think it might have been in Massachusetts.
Trump sign. Proofread.
I saw a Tulsi 2020 billboard as I was moving to SC on October 1.
I havent seen anything else since and the primary is 12 days away.
Based on that, Tulsi pulls the giant upset in SC, shocking the world!
Driving through SC in November, I saw a bunch of Tulsi billboards.
They’re all in my next door neighbor’s yard. Every single dem candidate has a sign. I’m half tempted to put out a Trump 2020 sign just to piss him off, but he’s already turned in one neighbor to the cops for having icky firearms.
My husband and I were having the “to yard-sign or not to yard-sign” discussion during lunch. I don’t want to be a coward, but also not interested in inviting trouble.
https://preview.redd.it/u6d1orm2kmsz.jpg?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=291543ac8300e1449bcde4268a1b496a8c702fad
In other words, there are no differences among any of them, and “Anyone But Trump.”
Literally there is an “Anyone but Trump” sign
Can you sneak a Trump sign into his yard? See how long he notices.
This is the third election cycle in a row that the union folks in the shop have been really, really quiet.
Apparently, working class white people that put up photos of their kids in uniforms aren’t excited about the democratic ticket.
Which reminds me. There’s a Ford plant just down the road from me. I have no reason to go past there, but your mention of the unions reminded me.
Trump drives massive turnout in primaries despite token opposition
Democrats seem torn between ringing the alarm bells, and trying to explain it away.
Landslide
I’m not seeing any landslides in the near to mid-term. The two parties are increasingly entrenched, and the “undecided voters” who would have to move en masse to one party or the other are just too few in number.
Even in 2008, Obama didn’t beat McCain by a landslide (defined as a 10% margin of victory), and you probably had more non-Dems voting for a Dem in that election than you are likely to see for a good while. Obama’s margin in 2012 was even smaller. This is going by popular vote, not the electoral college; I’m not sure how I would define a landslide in electoral college terms.
he’s already turned in one neighbor to the cops for having icky firearms
Thus showing one of the secondary effects, much desired by its supporters, of red flag laws.
I’d say California, Texas, or New York flipping would qualify as an electoral college landslide.
I’m not sure how I would define a landslide in electoral college terms.
Reagan 1984.
That is the extreme version, but when you eyeball it and dont see sections for both candidates, that is an electoral landslide.
Looking at some historic maps, I would go with +200 ECs as the absolute minimum to be considered a landslide. Under that 1996 and 1992 were landslides, so maybe that is too close.
Plus 300 might be the number. That would be 1998, 1984, 1980, 1972, 1964, 1956, 1952.
Also 44, 40, 36, 32, 28.
That is a lot, maybe +300 is too low a standard also.
+500 is 1984, 1972, and 1936
+400 adds on 1980, 1964, 1932
So somewhere in there.
+500 is 1984
I forgot that Ronnie did that well.
Nixon over McGovern 1972
Electoral vote — Nixon: 520 — McGovern: 17
States carried — Nixon: 49 — McGovern: 1 + DC
Popular vote — Nixon: 60.7% — McGovern: 37.5%
Over seven million rifles have been built in all, making it the most successful centerfire sporting rifle ever made.
Holy crap. Thanks for the lesson Animal.
Very good article Animal. It’s very timely as well. I Just shot own win 30/30 pre 1940’s 94 yesterday. I have to clean it tonight thoroughly. I also have a 1896 marlin 93 which is a bit too Old for me to fire without concerns.
I have learned a lot about these rifles recently. I thank you for The inspiration.
Correlation does NOT mean Causality
That kitty is gonna be impossible to live with, now.
Doesn’t open for me, Mr Tundra. Tundra? knock, knock, Tundra?
/Holds hands around eyes, looks through the tinted window
Linky no worky.
Speaking of “kitty impossible to live with,” New Kitty has figured out that even if TP can’t be unrolled, it can be clawed. DAMN good thing he’s cute & affectionate.
https://twitter.com/bioluisinho/status/1224404802693668864
Thanks, Leap.
Congrats on fooling the people at the range!
LOL
Another reason why we can hope Mojeaux’s landslide theory is correct.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/02/criminalizing_dissent.html
Call me a Trumptard all you want, but I don’t see him encouraging shit like this. He could do more to stop it by cutting fed funds to shitholes like this, but at least he won’t throw gasoline on the fire.
The left has devolved into utter tyranny.
Build a wall around the U and let them starve to death inside.
They hide behind claims of “feeling unsafe”, when in fact it is they that are the aggressors.
They have more in common with the Nazis than anyone they accuse of being one.
They have more in common with the Nazis than anyone they accuse of being one.
Everyone knows that real Nazis like deregulation, freedom of speech and private firearms ownership.
They’re all totalitarians, particularly that fucking hypocrite of the highest order, Roger Waters.
This type of thing scares the shit out of me because I’ve got a college age son. He keeps to himself but he does not buy into the progressive agenda at all.
Looks like grounds for a lawsuit followed by a substantial payout followed by no one learning a fucking thing.
Christ what an asshole. What gets me though, why do people want to go to these institutions? I would not spend one fucking red cent at a University that tolerated that sort of behavior from a grad student with teaching duties.
Most people don’t believe this crap is going-on until it happens to them. Related example, it’s taken years for the general pop to begin to believe that public schools are failing, and of course, their schools are fine.
The campus tours spend more on the lazy river and chance to study abroad than they do on the chance to get railroaded by a Bias Response Team or subjected to a witch hunt. But I think people are starting to learn.
*clicks link*
Oh JFC
No shit. I wonder why my tuition keeps going up?
Not universally true, but true enough. I’ve told the story before, but we were touring CSU and the young lady proudly told us that the school had seven diversity offices. Seven. Diversity. Offices.
Hard pass.
I told Spawn 2 that if she wants to go to a school that shuts anyone down, she’s on her own.
Something inmates something asylum…
Doesn’t explain why kids keep applying & parents keep paying, unless they still see a “prestigious” name and naively think the kid will get a good education and/or make valuable connections.
RED FLAG RED FLAG RED FLAG
Scary if true.
I’m gonna repost this during Afternoon Lynx, but it’s just too hilarious to wait until then.
https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2020/02/16/adult-film-shot-at-santa-monica-public-library-during-business-hours-sparks-outrage/
The Bee is kind of over the top these days.
whoop wrong place.
Which is also the thing I would say if I was caught filming in the library.
“…if I was caught ‘acting’ in the library…
Disgusting…I hope they didn’t disrupt Drag Queen Story Hour.
*golf clap*
Was on that site for the articles I’m sure.
I don’t know if I’m more annoyed by that McLaughlin lady or the reporter who keeps calling local apparatchiks city leaders.
Hmmm. This may require further research. For journalistic purposes of course.
BTW – if you are reading this thinking “This is nice, but what if the author of this fine piece found a way to include some dinosaurs and aliens and shit” please click this link and grab Animal’s book. Its like this, but also has dinosaurs and aliens and shit.
Tundra turned me onto it last month and its a lot of fun.
🙂
But not the sequel…?
Now, now – these things take time, and it’s worth waiting for a work that will meet the author’s exacting standards.
::foot starts tapping more rapidly::
Fun fact: John Moses Browning was a genius. He had an uncanny ability to visualize efficient and elegant solutions to difficult mechanical problems. One result of this is the beautiful Winchester 94 action, which as we’ve seen, lowers the floor of the receiver to create more room to feed a longer cartridge. A side effect of this is that the lever has two distinct points of resistance: right at the beginning when the lever unlocks the bolt, and again after about 30 degrees, when the lever pulls the floor of the receiver down.
Now, if you are not a genius, you will want to examine the action to get a feel for the elegance of John Moses Browning’s design. You will want to do this by holding the rifle up so the top of the action is at eye level. You will then unlock the action by pulling the lever, which will make the weight of the rifle pull against the action and then open it some more. It will build up some velocity because it’s moving against very little resistance, you having unlocked the action. It will continue going until it’s opened that lever 30 degrees, at which time it will start to meet resistance as the lever begins to do its second job and pull out the floor of the receiver.
You, again, not being a genius, will be holding the weight of the rifle up by your off-hand on the handguard, which is way above your head, since you’re looking at the receiver. You, not being a genius, will be holding it kind of loosely with that hand, because why would you need to squeeze down? You’ve handled lever actions, which you, not being a genius, think are all more or less alike. You, not being a genius, will thus be very surprised when the momentum of the falling rifle meets the resistance of the second action of the lever. This, due to the merciless laws of physics approximated by the genius Newton, will make the rifle pivot around the lever in your main hand, which will pull the handguard out of your off-hand and neatly chop the front sight of the rifle directly into your forehead. And those fucking front sights are sharp.
When you do this, and you will, not being a genius, try not to drop the rifle on the ground and fuck up its finish, genius.
Did this happen to a friend of a friend?
A real genius
LOL
Thanks Animal. I want one of those guns.
In other news, my copy of Virtue Signal arrived today.
At some point, I expect Gun Jesus’s book to show up.
In New Paw Patrol Episode, Pups Round Up Commies Around Adventure Bay
From the sidebar:
https://babylonbee.com/news/wildly-popular-libertarian-candidate-polling-in-single-digits
Paging Mojeaux…
https://babylonbee.com/news/woman-convinced-amish-romance-novels-totally-not-porn
Damn, they are good.
You have no idea how popular those Amish romances are. Harlequin has a whole line called “Inspired” that is all Christian/Judeo (sometimes they have Jewish characters) (occasionally) (rarely) (but they do).
Lots and lots and lots of people like “sweet” romances, which MAYBE MIGHT have a passionate kiss, but probably just a sweet peck on the lips. I don’t think even fade-to-black is allowed unless the characters are already married and even then, I’m not sure.
Most authors sneer at these, but hey, they sell like wildfire.
No A2M, snowballing action then?
Conversion from Amish to Mennonite?! That’s a buggy too far man!
Or do you mean snowball fights between the sects?
Hot and steamy sects
O.F.F.S.
::facepalm, headdesk::
These clowns have gone extreme on every single policy position. Heaven help us when they get back in power.
Outrageous.
The House Financial Services Committee threatened that this was coming when they paraded all the top bankers to the hill last year.
It makes sense if your primary goal is the nationalization of the finance system.
My employer is state-chartered and went to private deposit insurance last year, so we can just about tell the Federal regulators to pound sand…but not quite, I believe. For now.
My bank’s CAMELS score is so high you need your toes to count it.
You are such a dromedary queen…
Yikes! Do they lend to folks with two-digit credit scores and four-digit debt-to-income ratios?
I suspect not, which is how they get a high score based on “a series of metrics that solely assess the financial health of banking institutions”.
Going to woke-based metrics will provide a useful score, as well. Provided you take it as the inverse of a bank you want to do business with.
I was taking CnS’s “you need your toes to count it” to mean the score was high numerically, not “high” on the 1=Best/5=Worst scale.
I believe you are quite correct in your “inverse of a bank you want to do business with” conclusion.
I was just shooting for a camel toe joke.
If they want to be diverse and inclusive, why are they using such a racially insensitive acronym?
Maybe if they go to a new CAMEL-Total
ppression Eradication metric . . .
O, FFS
Maybe if they go to a new CAMEL-Total Oppression Eradication metric
I am getting 10 or more emails a day from the Biden campaign. I am a registered Republican (cause I haven’t changed it since the last time I caucused for Ron).
The caucuses are over. Why the fuck is Biden’s campaign emailing people in Iowa.
He’s trying to find some help from Corn Pop.
Corn Pop has been dead for like 6 years now.
He wants you to vote again.
Or Cockle again or whatever it is you people do.
He can’t. He is neither dead nor an illegal.
Vote early. Vote often.
Because the Biden Campaign is that well run they can waste money sending emails to you.
If you move after one primary but before your new state’s primary, can you vote in both?
Why let moving stop you? Just show up in another state and vote.
Re: the cutaway drawings:
What an elegant piece of machinery.
Yeah, I’ve always wanted one.
Go get the beer, Brett.
You’ve earned it, particularly with that musical history lesson.
*watches for the third time*
LOL.
Juuuuuuuuust a bit outside.
I’ll see myself out.
Sorry about the lack of replies, folks. I really do read them all, but today Mrs. A and I just now got back from the airport after an excursion over the long weekend. More on that later.
My prize possesion firearm is an 1894 chambered in .30-30. It’s not a pre 64 (but it is pre lawyer safety), but then, if it were I wouldn’t have it. Gender Traitor got it for me one Christmas, found it in a local shop. The shopkeeper commented that it was so nice that, if he had realized he had it, he’d have bought it himself. Geriatric eyes and bifocals conspire to keep it home more often than it deserves, since an 8 inch paper plate is pretty much a rumor without an optic these days. Reason why/how come fer I love it: When I was a kid, my dad had the Winchester advertising account. They sent him a Model 12 shotgun and an 1894 replica pump airgun that shot, get this, cork balls. No accuracy beyond about 15 feet and you couldn’t even piss off a cat with it. But that did it, After that I didn’t want no steenking Red Ryder. It was a real-deal 1894 in 30-30 or bust. I came close a few times, almost settling for a pistol caliber or a 336 (they were mighty tempting). So, it took about 50 years but I finally got one. I need to go out and make my shoulder hurt.