Lever action

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Winchester Model 1873
rifle, one of the most famous lever-action firearms

A lever action is a type of

fully automatic, and/or burst mode
actions. A firearm using this operating mechanism is colloquially referred to as a levergun.

Most lever-action firearms are

Model 464
rifle.

History

Spencer-carbine M1865, .50 inch

In 1826, a lever-action revolver was capable of firing six shots in less than six seconds. It was produced in Italy by Cesar Rosaglio and patented in 1829.[1]

Colt-Burgess rifle

The first lever-action rifles on the market were likely the

cap and ball rifles, produced by the Patent Arms Mfg. Co. Paterson, N.J.-Colt's Patent
between 1837 and 1841. The ring lever was located in front of the trigger. This loading lever, when pulled, would index the cylinder to the next position and cock the internal hidden hammer.

Colt Paterson Ring Lever rifle

Multiple lever-action designs including the

Volcanic pistol were designed before the American Civil War, but the first significant designs were the Spencer repeating rifle and Henry rifle both created in 1860. The Spencer was a lever-operated rifle with a removable seven-round tube magazine designed by Christopher Spencer. Over 20,000 were made, and it was adopted by the United States and used during the American Civil War, which marked the first adoption of an infantry and cavalry rifle with a removable magazine by any country.[citation needed
] The early Spencer's rifle lever only served to unlock the action and chamber a new round; the hammer had to be cocked separately after chambering.

The

muzzle-loading
rifles. Henry also placed the magazine under the barrel rather than in the buttstock, an idea copied by most designers since.

Marlin 39A
receiver

John Marlin, founder of

Marlin 336 today. It also gave rise to the Model 1894
, which is still in production.

By the 1890s, lever actions had evolved into a form that would last for over a century. Both Marlin and Winchester released new model lever-action rifles in 1894. The Marlin rifle is still in production, whereas production of the Winchester 94 ceased in 2006. While externally similar, the Marlin and Winchester rifles are different internally. The Marlin has a single-stage lever action, while the Winchester has a double-stage lever. The double-stage action is easily seen when the Winchester's lever is operated, as the entire trigger group drops down to unlock the bolt which then moves rearward to eject the spent cartridge.

Savage Model 99 rifle

The fledgling

Savage Arms Company
became well known after the development of its popular hammerless Models 1895 and 1899 (which became the Model 99) lever-action sporting rifles. The Models 1895 and 1899 were produced from their introduction in 1899 until the expense of producing the rifle and declining interest in lever-action rifles resulted in dropping the Model 99 from production in 1998.

Sturm, Ruger & Co
introduced a number of new lever-action designs in the 1990s.

Use in warfare

The Henry Lever-Action was used in the

US Civil War and was used in the US until the Winchester Model 1866 rifle replaced it. The Spencer repeating rifle was also used in the US Civil War. Additionally, rifles using the lever-action design were used extensively during the 1930s by irregular forces in the Spanish Civil War. Typically, these were Winchesters or Winchester copies of Spanish manufacture. At least 9,000 Model 1895 rifles are known to have been provided by the Soviet Union in 1936 to the Spanish Republicans for use in the Spanish Civil War.[2] Both the Russian Empire and the United States adopted the Winchester Model 1895 as a military weapon.[3]

Shotguns

Winchester Model 1887
lever-action shotgun

Early attempts at repeating shotguns invariably centered around either bolt-action or lever-action designs, drawing obvious inspiration from the repeating rifles of the time. The earliest successful repeating shotgun was the lever-action

ADI Ltd. in Australia. Winchester continued to manufacture the .410 bore Winchester Model 1894
(Model 9410) from 2003 until 2006.

Australian firearm laws strictly control

Lever-action operation falls into a more lenient category, hence the recent popularity of lever-action in that country.[4]

Other applications

M1895 operating mechanism showing the lever in the forward (top) and rear (bottom) positions

A one-off example of lever-action reloading on automatic firearms is the M1895 Colt–Browning machine gun. This weapon had a swinging lever beneath its barrel that was actuated by a gas bleed in the barrel, unlocking the breech to reload. This unique operation gave the nickname "potato digger", as the lever swung each time the weapon fired and would dig into the ground if the weapon was not situated high enough on its mount.

The

lever-delayed blowback
operation with a complex internal system that functions with one lever on a roller to delay the action.

Cartridges

The cartridges for lever-action rifles have a wide variety of calibers, bullet shapes, and powder loads which fall into two categories: low-pressure cartridges with rounded bullets, and high-pressure cartridges with aerodynamic pointed ("spitzer") bullets.

Some lever-actions are not as strong as bolt action or semi-automatic rifle actions. The weaker actions utilize low- and medium-pressure cartridges, somewhat similar to high-powered pistol ammunition. To increase the bullet's energy at relatively low velocities, these often have larger, heavier bullets than other types of rifles. The most common cartridge is the

.32-40 Winchester, .35 Remington, .38-55 Winchester, .308 Marlin Express, and .300 Savage. There is some dispute about which of these cartridges can safely be used to hunt large game or large predators. Even in the largest calibers, the low velocities give these cartridges much lower energies than elephant gun cartridges with comparable calibers
. However, even the smallest cartridges fit lightweight, handy rifles that can be excellent for hunting small herbivores, pest control, and personal defense.

Some stronger, larger pistols (usually

revolvers
) also accept some of these cartridges, permitting the use of the same ammunition in both a pistol and rifle. The rifle's longer barrel and better accuracy permit higher velocities, longer ranges, and a wider selection of game.

Some of these cartridges (e.g. the

.45-70 Government (1873)) are developmental descendants of very early black powder metallic cartridges. When metallic cartridges and lever actions were first invented, very small, portable kits were developed for hand reloading and bullet molding (so-called "cowboy reloading kits"). These kits are still available for most low-pressure lever-action cartridges.[5]

Stronger lever-actions, such as the action of the Marlin Model 1894, can utilize high-pressure cartridges. Lever-action designs with strong, rotary locking bolts (such as the Browning BLR with seven locking lugs) safely use very high-powered cartridges like the .300 Winchester Magnum, .300 WSM, and 7 mm Remington Magnum. Tilting block designs such as the Savage Model 99 are also strong enough to handle much higher chamber pressures.

Many lever actions have a tubular magazine under the barrel. It's not uncommon to see extra ammunition stored in externally mounted "shell holder" racks (usually as "sidesaddle" on one side of the

buttstock) for quick on-field reloading. To operate safely, cartridges for these should have bullets with rounded tips, and some use rimfire primers rather than centerfire primers. The safety problem is that long-range aerodynamic supersonic bullets are pointed. In a tubular magazine, the points can accidentally fire centerfire cartridges. A related problem is that some pointed bullets have fragile tips, and can be damaged in a tubular magazine. Some lever actions such as the Savage Model 99 can be fed from either box or rotary magazines. The Winchester Model 1895 also uses a fixed box magazine, and was chambered for a variety of popular commercial and military rifle cartridges at the time. More recently, spitzer bullets with elastomeric tips have been developed.[6]

Lever-action shotguns such as the Winchester Model 1887 are chambered in 10 or 12 gauge

shotshells. Modern reproductions are chambered for 12 gauge smokeless shells, while the Winchester Model 9410 shotgun is available in .410 bore
.

Comparison to bolt-action rifles

Henry rifle, toggle-lock

While lever-action rifles have always been popular with hunters and sporting shooters, they have not been widely accepted by the military. Several reasons for that have been proposed.

One significant reason for this is that it is harder to fire from the prone position with a lever-action rifle than it is with a bolt-action with either a straight pull or rotating bolt.

While lever-action rifles generally possess a greater rate of fire than bolt-action rifles, that was not always a feature, since, until about the turn of the 20th century, most militaries were wary of it being too high, afraid that excessive round consumption would put a strain on logistics of the military industry.

Tubular magazines, similar to the one used on the first bolt-action rifle and used on hunting lever-action rifles to this day, are sometimes described as a problem: while a tubular magazine is indeed incompatible with pointed centerfire "spitzer" bullets developed in the 1890s (discounting recently invented elastomer-tipped ones) due to the point of each cartridge's projectile resting on the primer of the next cartridge in the magazine, lever-action rifles actually adapted for military use (such as the Winchester Model 1895, which saw service with the Russian Army in World War I) were fitted with a box magazine invented in the late 1870s.

Another explanation for the lack of widespread use of lever-action designs stems from the initial inability to fire high-pressure cartridges made possible by the invention of

John Moses Browning
, were capable of firing more powerful higher-pressure pistol and rifle cartridges.

In the end, the problem was economical. By the time these rifles became available in the late 19th century, militaries worldwide had put cheap bolt-action rifles into service and were unwilling to invest in producing more expensive lever-action rifles.

Due to the higher rate of fire and shorter overall length than most bolt-action rifles, lever-actions have remained popular to this day for sporting use, especially short- and medium-range hunting in forests, scrub, or bushland. Lever-action firearms have also been used in some quantity by prison guards in the United States, as well as by wildlife authorities in many parts of the world.

Many newer lever-action rifles are capable of shooting groups smaller than 1 minute of angle (MOA), making their accuracy equal to the accuracy of most modern bolt-action rifles.

Additionally, another advantage over typical

pump-action
shotguns, are frequently recommended as ambidextrous in sporting guidebooks.

See also

  • Antique guns
  • Rapid fire crossbow

References

  1. ^ "Antologia; giornale di scienze, lettere e arti". June 24, 1832 – via Google Books.
  2. .
  3. .
  4. ^ Salna, Karlis (4 March 2016). "Imports of Adler shotgun pouring into Australia". The New Daily. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
  5. ^ "The Best Portable Reloading Press". Reloader Addict. Retrieved 29 July 2017.
  6. ^ "Spitzer Bullets for .30-30 Reloaders: Boing, Boing, Boing!". Real Guns. Retrieved 29 July 2017.