Winchester Lever-Action Rifles

Several inventors and gunmakers noted Flobert’s ingenious idea with interest and one, an obsessive New York City amateur engineer by the name of Walter Hunt (1796–1859), decided to take the Frenchman’s idea a stage further. In 1848 Hunt patented a bullet/cartridge called the Rocket Ball, which used a Minié-type bullet, conical with a deep hollow base, packed with gunpowder, and with a percussion cap fitted into the base. Hunt was not primarily a firearms designer (he patented the safety pin, which he thought of little use and sold the patent for $400, about $10,000/£6,400 in today’s money). What he produced was an awkwardly balanced but tolerably efficient breech-loading repeating rifle, known as the Volition, that chambered his new ammunition in a tubular magazine. Hunt used a novel system for loading and cocking the gun, with a forward trigger ring that lowered a carrier inside the receiver, permitting a bullet to be fed onto it from the under-barrel magazine. Pulling on a second ring raised the carrier, chambered the bullet and cocked the action. It was cumbersome and fairly slow to use, with bullets often jamming as they were extracted, but it did have the rare ability to shoot as fast as the lever action could be cycled, assuming the ammunition worked, which it frequently didn’t. It was not entirely surprising that these newly created Volition rifles did not sell well; at this point, his idea might simply have vanished from history but for the fact that the patent rights had been assigned to Hunt’s backer, a businessman named George Arrowsmith who, wanting to cover his losses, had promptly sold them to a railroad tycoon, Courtlandt Palmer (1800–74), for the then considerable sum of $100,000 ($3.1 million/£1.9 million today).

An early Jennings rifle with Horace Smith improvements, patented in August 1851. The genesis of the later rifles can be glimpsed here, with the tubular magazine and ring cocking mechanism. (Roy Jinks)

Palmer knew another, rather more talented, gun designer called Lewis Jennings who was intrigued by the Hunt design; Jennings realized very quickly that the low power of the Rocket Ball was the most serious shortcoming in promoting the other advantages of the new repeating long-arm, for the feeble energy it produced was roughly half that of a modern .22 Long Rifle cartridge. It was useful perhaps for dispatching mice, but that was about all it was capable of. So Richard S. Lawrence (1817–72), an innovative gunmaker and half of the successful Robbins and Lawrence gunmaking concern, commenced to improve the rifle. By the end of 1849, Lawrence had redesigned and patented his own version of the gun. Its first incarnation was that of a conventional single-shot, breech-loading design using a standard percussion nipple, but the second and third patterns Jennings made were far more advanced.

He fitted a 20-shot tubular magazine underneath the barrel and although still retaining the percussion ignition, he modified it to use an automatic-feed primer strip of “pill” pattern not unlike today’s modern toy cap guns. It still used the distinctive ring lever-action to load and cock the mechanism, which operated a horizontally sliding breech-block that extracted the cartridge then chambered it. Unlike Hunt’s design, which relied on a clumsy two-ring operating system, Jennings’ weapon was able to combine the extraction and loading into one fluid motion utilizing a single ring, or lever. The entire rifle weighed 9lb and had a 34in barrel. More crucially, Jennings abandoned the Rocket Ball, and came up with his own .54-caliber self-contained cartridge, a far more potent although still relatively underpowered bullet compared to that used in a muzzle-loading rifle.

The story now becomes a little convoluted, for neither Jennings nor Palmer had the ability to fund the manufacture of the rifles in quantity, and they were forced to seek help from a company prepared to make a relatively mechanically complex rifle. There was no shortage of gunmakers – at the time there were 300 registered companies producing firearms in Vermont alone – but the majority were manufacturing simple muzzle-loaders, and the Jennings rifle was anything but simple. It required a manufacturer with considerable expertise and a workforce with the relevant skills. They approached an established gunmaking firm in Windsor, Vermont, named Robbins, Kendall, & Lawrence, who had achieved some prominence in 1844 when in the face of much opposition from other contractors, they bid for and won a contract for 10,000 Government rifles, despite having no prior mass-production experience. They developed new methods of production and assembly using machine tools that resulted in all parts being interchangeable, combining rapid assembly with great precision. When they couldn’t obtain the machinery they wanted, they designed and built it themselves. Indeed, so advanced were their methods that many of their machines were copied, and a few are still in use today. They were the ideal partners for Jennings and Palmer, and an order for 5,000 was placed by Courtlandt Palmer. Sadly, the rifle proved to be a commercial failure, for several reasons. It was an unattractive design that did not appeal to buyers, and to load and fire one required the shooter to go through a complex series of movements, which were not instinctive. Nevertheless, there were converts. A Jennings was tested by the staff of American International Magazine, who reported its operation in some detail in their issue of January 1, 1852:

The percussion mechanism and later-type loading lever can clearly be seen on this Jennings. Because of the many problems associated with the original design some Jennings, such as this one, were converted to simple muzzle-loaders. (NRA Museums, NRAmuseums.com)

Fill the magazine, on the top of the breech, with percussion pills or primings, and the tube, under the barrel, with the hollow cartridges containing gunpowder. Of these cartridges the tube will hold twenty-four. Place the forefinger in the ring which forms the end of the lever, e, and the thumb on the hammer, elevating the muzzle sufficiently to let the cartridge nearest the breech slip, by its gravity, into the carrier d; swing the lever forward, and raise the hammer which moves the breech-pin back, and the carrier up, placing the cartridge into the barrel, by which motion a percussion priming is taken from the magazine by means of the priming-rack, revolving the pinion which forms the bottom of the magazine, and it also throws up the toggle, behind the breech-pin, thus placing the piece in the condition to be discharged by a simple upward pressure of the finger in the ring. After the discharge release the pressure and repeat the process.

Despite the Jennings rifle’s complexity, the magazine rather liked it – or at least the lever-action concept – and this attitude was echoed in later tests by other publications. But the reality was that the complex mechanism required meticulous care and suffered from a series of minor mechanical failures; despite using an uprated bullet, the Jennings self-contained design simply could not hold sufficient charge to enable it to be a practical hunting or self-defense rifle. It was in production from 1850 to 1852; only about 1,000 were made. While the rifle itself was not a success, the concept had begun to establish itself as something that was attainable and potentially practical, if only the problems could be ironed out. Of particular interest to this story was the fact that the foreman at the Windsor factory during this period was an engineer named Benjamin Tyler Henry.

The 1849 patent for the original Jennings design. The close proximity of the cartridges in the magazine, which would cause problems later on, and the extremely complex toggle mechanism can clearly be seen. (Author)

The demise of the Jennings rifle did not result in the abandonment of the repeating-rifle concept, however. In 1850 Palmer had hired another engineer, Horace Smith (1808–93), to supervise the production and improve on the action of the Jennings rifle, but even his intervention was not enough to save the design. Nevertheless, Smith’s involvement was crucial to the future of the concept, for he simplified the mechanism, enabling the rifle to be loaded and cocked by just using a single trigger ring. Smith had a long pedigree of working on complex firearms and the Jennings fueled his idea for producing a repeating revolver based on the design. It is also probable that while working for Robbins and Lawrence, he first met Daniel B. Wesson (1825–1906). Daniel had an established gunmaking business with his brother Edwin (1811–49) in Massachusetts, and Daniel Wesson and Horace Smith struck an immediate friendship that resulted in a partnership in 1852. Both men recognized the potential of the Jennings design, but there were some major hurdles to overcome if it was to become commercially viable. Refining the mechanism was really just a matter of time and experiment and it was not a difficult process. Indeed, Smith had already worked out a means by which the whole operation could be simplified into one fluid movement. More difficulty lay in finding some form of ammunition that was powerful enough to be practical in a long-arm, but it was almost impossible to find a self-contained cartridge that would work. After a solid year of work, the company was dangerously close to failure and they turned again to a familiar name, Courtlandt Palmer. Fortunately, he had faith in the concept and refinanced the project, enabling the team to continue work on the rifles. In 1852 they produced a very workmanlike and modern-looking .50-caliber rifle and it is from this that all subsequent later Winchester models were derived, although that was still a considerable time away.

An extremely rare example of the .50-caliber Smith and Wesson lever-action rifle, dated c.1852. It chambered the improved Wesson cartridge, which unlike the primitive Volcanic, used a copper cartridge case. At a quick glance it could easily be mistaken for a Henry, although it pre-dates the first model by eight years. (Roy Jinks)

The Volcanic rifle used an improved mechanism with tubular magazine that was loaded from the front. The basic mechanical function relied on a toggle link with a vertically sliding cartridge carrier, which acted in the same manner as the platform in a box magazine, the magazine having an internal spring. The spring had to be manually pushed forward when loading; when released it exerted pressure on the nose of the foremost cartridge, forcing it and any others in the magazine rearward and exerting a constant pressure on them to ensure they were always correctly positioned for loading. Should the spring fail then the cartridge would slide uselessly to and fro in the magazine tube, making reloading impossible unless the rifle was held vertically. The breech-bolt slid longitudinally within the receiver and was locked and unlocked by the toggle link attached to an under-lever. The carrier in the closed position lay flat behind the magazine tube; when the under-lever was pushed forward the toggle link folded up and pulled the bolt to the rear, which in turn pushed the hammer rearward into the full-cock position. When the shooter pulled the lever rearward it straightened the toggle and pushed the bolt forward, which then pushed the cartridge off the carrier platform and into the chamber. The last action of closing the lever enabled the now empty carrier to be pulled down where the magazine spring pushed another cartridge onto it in readiness.

Although as a verbal explanation it appears complex, mechanically this was actually a relatively simple system. The difficulty was in ensuring it functioned reliably, and in this Smith and Wesson were hampered by the failure of the available metallic cartridges to work properly. In desperation, they turned to the original Rocket Ball concept, and patented a bullet that contained a powder charge and held in a metal cup, a percussion cap and cork base washer. Patented in January 1856, the bullet proved considerably more powerful and reliable than the Flobert pattern, but it was still underpowered for a rifle. Nevertheless, it was the best solution then available. Rapid firing created clouds of smoke and sparks from the muzzle, resembling a small volcano erupting, and inevitably this resulted in the sobriquet “Volcanic.” The gun worked tolerably well, although misfires still caused problems. In order to facilitate sales, Smith and Wesson formed the Volcanic Repeating Arms Company in June 1855; in an early example of astute marketing, the new guns were offered to dozens of popular magazines for testing. Generally, they were well received. Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, one of the largest-selling magazines of its day, positively enthused about the rifle, bordering on the ecstatic about the Volcanic cartridge, stating in its issue of October 9, 1858:

An advertisement for the Volcanic Repeating Firearms Company. It shows the uncomplicated but weak toggle mechanism quite clearly, as well as the patented “loaded ball” ammunition contained in the magazine. It remained fundamentally unchanged until John Browning began work to strengthen the action. (Author)

A .31-caliber Smith & Wesson Volcanic pocket pistol, illustrating the double-ring loading lever. (NRA Museums, NRAmuseums.com)

It combines every quality requisite in such a weapon, with many advantages which no similar invention has yet succeeded in attaining. Thirty shots can be fired in less than one minute – a really marvellous rapidity in which it far outdoes the best revolving firearms yet produced. Its ammunition has the advantage of compactness, lightness and of being water-proof. The entire charge consists … a bullet of the Minié pattern, in which both the charge and priming are contained, and of which sixty weigh only one pound. What an improvement on the heavy cartridge or powder flask that it has hither been necessary to carry! The balls may be soaked in water with perfect impunity, and can be kept any length of time in any climate without losing their explosive force.

However, both Smith and Wesson had considerably more experience working on pistols than long-arms and they knew that in reality their improved bullet design was only suitable for use in a pistol. Despite the time spent trying to perfect the rifles, Smith and Wesson continued to work on their pistol designs, and they miniaturized the lever-action. By February 1854 they had produced and patented two Volcanic pistols, one in .41 caliber and a smaller-framed variant in .31 caliber. The ammunition was still a major stumbling block, though, and both men knew that some form of reliable, self-contained metallic cartridge was needed to permit efficient functioning of the pistols. So, in August 1854 Smith and Wesson patented their own design of self-contained metallic cartridge, which had a powder charge contained in a copper case with a lead bullet seated on top. Within the rim of the case was a priming charge. This tiny .22-caliber cartridge, simply named the “rimfire,” was to prove a landmark in self-contained metallic ammunition design and is still in production around the world, with literally billions having been manufactured subsequently. But it was of little use to the design of the larger rifles and despite the plaudits of the press, sales remained poor. With probably fewer than 3,000 rifles and pistols being manufactured in the years 1855–57, the Volcanic Repeating Arms Company continued to accumulate debts.

Crucially, during this time it had attracted a new major investor, Oliver F. Winchester (1810–80), and the name of the company was changed in 1857 to The New Haven Arms Company. Winchester may not have been a gunmaker, but he was an astute businessman and he acquired exclusive patent ownership of the Volcanic designs, as well as nearly 50 percent of the stock. At a stroke he became president, treasurer, and chief stockholder. By now, both Smith and Wesson had virtually ceased work on the long-arm side of the company, preferring to put all of their efforts into developing the pistol side of the business, as it seemed clear to them that this was where their future lay. They were materially helped in this decision by acquiring the vital Rollin White patent for a revolving cylinder that was bored through, enabling their new metallic cartridge to be used. It wasn’t only pistols that attracted them, however, for both worked on developing their 1854 Flobert-based metallic cartridge, and they began producing larger calibers, heralding an entirely new era in the production of revolvers. In January 1857 they founded the Smith and Wesson Revolver Factory at Springfield, Massachusetts. In payment for handing over their patents to Oliver Winchester, they received the sum of $64,000 ($1,360,000/£874,000 today) and 2,800 stock shares; in addition, they entered into a gentlemen’s agreement that the Smith & Wesson Company would not produce rifles, while Winchester would never manufacture pistols. It is here that their association with the rifles ended, but the story of the Winchester was only just beginning.

It seems fairly certain that by 1856 the foreman at Volcanic, Benjamin Tyler Henry, had already become heavily involved in the development work on the Volcanic systems, most specifically with the rifles. With Oliver Winchester now in sole control of the company, Henry was given the freedom to continue his experimental work on the rifles. One of his first tasks was to find a cartridge that would prove suitable. Henry wasn’t a man to rest on his laurels and wait for something suitable to pop up, so in October 1856, having looked closely at Smith and Wesson’s new rimfire design, he patented his own .44-caliber rimfire, finally doing away with the old Jennings/Smith and Wesson loaded-bullet concept. His invention was a rimfire-primed, copper-cased cartridge holding a conical 120- or 126-grain lead bullet propelled by 26 grains of black powder. The small charge produced a fairly low velocity of 1,125ft/sec, resulting in a short range of under 200yd with a very curved bullet trajectory. In modern terms, this performance would be considered suitable only for a handgun; this proved a limiting factor that would constrain the new rifle for many years, but it was a huge improvement over earlier designs. Each cartridge base was marked with an “H” to denote it was a Henry round. Nevertheless, by 1860, Henry had finished his work on the new rifle and it was ready for the commercial market.

The Henry rifle patent of 1860 incorporated many of the features of the Jennings. (Author)

It was both distinctive and well-proportioned – with its handsome iron (later brass) receiver, neat lever/trigger guard combination, and octagonal barrel with full-length tubular magazine – and weighed 9.25lb. It worked in much the same way as the earlier Volcanics, with the advantage of having a cartridge extractor on the bolt-face. However, one down side of the mechanism was that there was no safety position. Once loaded, a Henry rifle would either have the hammer in the fully cocked position, or it could be lowered manually resting on the firing pin, which in turn was in contact with the cartridge. Henry appreciated this was a serious shortcoming, and subsequently all early sold rifles could be returned to the factory where a half-cock position was added to the hammer free of charge. It wasn’t foolproof, but was certainly an improvement. The magazine held 16 cartridges, or 17 if the chamber was loaded. Allowing for loading time, the Henry could shoot at 28 rounds per minute, which was considerably faster than other contemporary breech-loading repeaters.

A left-side view of a Henry with the sideplate removed, showing the toggle action, with the left side plates of the link removed for clarity. Its simplicity was an advantage, but its relative fragility was to cause problems as the power of ammunition increased. Similar mechanisms were later adopted for the Maxim machine gun and the Borchardt semiautomatic pistol. (CC BY-SA 3.0/Hmaag)

Production was slow, as the New Haven Arms Company of Connecticut which had been formed in 1857 had a workforce of only 50 people, and when production of the Henry began in 1860, they were manufacturing fewer than 200 per month. It was, by the standards of the day, relatively expensive at $42 ($1,160/£720 today) at a time when a Springfield muzzle-loading military rifle was $12, but there was no doubt it could, in terms of sheer firepower, outshoot any existing rifle.

The year 1866 was to prove a seminal one in the history of the rifles, for not only did the company cease to be the Henry Repeating Rifle Company, becoming instead the Winchester Repeating Rifle Company, but the first Winchester design, the Model 1866, was introduced. This rifle, nicknamed the “Yellow Boy” because of its brass receiver, was the product not of Benjamin Tyler Henry, but of Nelson King, who had become the superintendent of the Winchester factory in mid-1866. King remedied the problems of the magazine tube by reversing the loading process. A hinged loading gate was placed in the right side of the receiver, allowing the cartridges to be loaded from the rear. The magazine tube no longer required a full-length slot for the spring, as this was now fitted internally; the action of pushing the cartridges in simply compressed it automatically and the troublesome slot in the tube was now omitted. As King himself wrote:

A Model 1866 “Yellow Boy” rifle, showing the contrast between the flat Henry receiver and the new design incorporating a loading gate and wooden forend. (Laurie Landau/Bob Maze)

Within the tube I placed a follower and close the upper end of the tube by a plug … and between the follower and the lug I place a helical spring the tendency of which is to force the follower toward the … rear end of the tube … Through one of the [side] plates … I form an opening, through this opening, and when the carrier block is down … insert the cartridges, front first … the second cartridge pressing the first into the magazine, and so on. (Quoted in Wilson 1991: 25)

A wooden forend was fitted just in front of the receiver, which solved the problem of holding onto a hot barrel while also providing some protection for the magazine, for if a Henry was handled heavily the magazine tube could be dented, effectively cutting off the ammunition supply. In other respects, however, the Model 1866 shared much of its lineage with its predecessor. It was still chambered for the rather inadequate .44 rimfire, and used the inherently weak toggle-link action. Two versions were offered: a rifle with 24in barrel and a magazine capacity upped to take 18 cartridges, if one was pre-loaded in the chamber, and a carbine holding 14 cartridges with a 20in barrel. The early guns were roll-stamped with “Henry’s Patent – Oct.16, 1860 / King’s Patent – March 29, 1866.” Interestingly, a statistical analysis of sales of the Model 1866 (Parsons 1966: 96) showed that the carbine outsold the rifle by almost seven to one. This was hardly surprising, as the barrel length had little impact on the range of the bullet (effectively 200yd), but it made a great difference to the practical ability of a rider to carry one in a saddle scabbard from where it could be withdrawn quickly. The shorter gun was also easier to point and aim, and at 7.4lb weighed almost 2lb less.

The patent document for the Model 1866 rifle. (Author)

Fortunately for the future of the Winchester rifle, by 1870 the science of metallurgy had moved forward somewhat and brass-cased centerfire ammunition was becoming more widely available. As sales increased, the company took the decision to move its manufacturing from Bridgeport back to New Haven, and in early 1871 the new facility was ready for occupation. In 1873 Winchester introduced the .44-40 centerfire cartridge, which became arguably the most widely used cartridge in America up to the beginning of the 20th century. Its 40 grains of black powder could propel a 200-grain lead bullet at 1,500ft/sec and higher velocities were quite feasible with hand-loading. As a result, in 1873 Winchester offered a new rifle, the Model 1873; it was, to quote contemporary sales literature, “built for the use of a longer … centerfire cartridge, holding a charge of 40 grains of powder, with a sliding breech cover at the top to keep dirt and snow out of the lock.”

Nelson’s new gun was instantly identifiable by its steel receiver and sliding top cover, and for the first time it had an integrated safety sear which prevented accidental discharge of the rifle when the hammer was cocked. Savings in weight meant that it was now slightly less than 2lb lighter than the Model 1866. It also came in three barrel lengths: 20in, 24in, and a new musket length of 30in. The heaviest variant, the musket, weighed 9.3lb. In addition, round or octagonal barrels could be ordered. Uniquely, the carbine had a steel ring fitted to a lug on the left side of the receiver; this harked back to the sliders fitted to many cavalry rifles, enabling it to be secured to the saddle, or have a loop around the shooter’s wrist, preventing accidental loss. The rifle sold for $27 and the carbine $24 ($439/£278 and $390/£247 today), although it is worth noting that these prices were often doubled by the time the guns had been shipped west.

Among other options offered were different grades of rifle, including silver or gold plating, engraving, set triggers and special carrying cases. A small but vital accessory was an all-in-one reloading tool which fulfilled all of the requirements of earlier tools, but combined them into a single, handy unit. In an era where many owners living in remote places had no option but to reload their own ammunition, it proved a huge success – as did the Model 1873 itself, which did not cease production until 1924. Other calibers were introduced: .38-40 and .32-20, as well as .22 rimfire. In total, over 720,000 were manufactured and it led the rifle to be named, perhaps a little precipitately, “The Gun that Won the West.” Winchester also began to offer very limited edition rifles, as “One of a Hundred” and “One of a Thousand” with special finishes and set triggers, delivered in luxury carry-cases but with price tags to match, a “One of a Thousand” having a base price of $100 ($1,800/£1,157 today) with just 133 being manufactured. It was a clever move on Winchester’s part, though, for it established the company as America’s predominant rifle manufacturer and bolstered their image of prestige and quality, which has remained to this day.

A Model 1873 with the right sideplate removed, the loading lever dropped and the action open. The carrier (the square steel block) is visible at center left; this would hold the fresh cartridge that had been pushed onto it from the magazine tube at bottom right. The sliding dust cover is visible on top of the receiver. (Laurie Landau/Bob Maze)

The second stage of loading the Model 1873, with the lever pulled back up into the closed position. The bolt has pushed the cartridge home into the breech, and the hammer is now cocked ready to fire. In terms of strength, it is little different from the Henry. (Laurie Landau/Bob Maze)

The problem with any rifle was that their owners needed one gun that was all things to all men; they were purchased for self-defense, hunting, law enforcement, and every other purpose that one could conceive of for a firearm. The limitations of having just one relatively small caliber to accomplish all of this was quite apparent to Winchester, and his introduction of other, smaller cartridges for the Model 1873 did little to ameliorate the issue. At the first-ever world’s fair, the Centennial Exhibition held in Philadelphia between May and November 1876, the Winchester Company introduced a new model, which they fervently hoped would redress the situation. Indeed, the 1876 Centennial took the exhibition by storm, winning it a citation from the judges in the 1877 “Souvenir of the Centennial Exhibition” as the “best magazine rifle for sporting purposes yet produced.”

The problem facing the engineers at Winchester had been in producing a mechanism that could take the longer and more powerful cartridges that were appearing almost daily. They needed to produce a rifle that could hold its own when pitted against other, newer makes of lever-action rifles – such as Bullard, Whitney, and Marlin – that were capable of handling the larger cartridges. The only way to accomplish this was to beef up the bolt and toggle mechanism and lengthen the receiver, which was increased by 1.5in. This made it possible to handle a new Winchester cartridge, the .45-75-350. This was a bottlenecked .45-caliber bullet, weighing 350 grains and propelled by 75 grains of black powder that provided about the same energy as the Government .45 cartridge and a velocity of around 1,300ft/sec. The new cartridge reduced the capacity of the magazine, the 28in rifle now holding 12 rounds, and the 22in carbine nine rounds. The Model 1876 sold well and due to popular demand, two new cartridges were brought out in 1879, a .45-60 and .50-90 Express, then later a .40-60. In fact, ammunition production was rapidly becoming a major part of Winchester’s inventory, for the firm had developed a reputation for manufacturing very high-quality cartridges. Some idea of the scale of this can be gleaned from the fact that between May 1874 and April 1875 Winchester produced for a Turkish military contract over 120 million .45-caliber Martini-Henry cartridges and 80 million .577in Snider.

The lengthened receiver of the Model 1876 is evident here. This is a special-order rifle, with polished walnut woodwork, checkered wrist, set trigger, and color case-hardened receiver. (Laurie Landau/Bob Maze)

The Model 1876 also appealed to a different breed of shooters, those who hunted big game in Africa, for the new calibers were perfectly capable of bringing down the largest of African animals – rhino, elephants, Cape buffalo – and in the Americas they could comfortably deal with grizzly bears, buffalo, and elk. Many high-profile figures used the new models, including the larger-than-life Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), and this helped materially to market the Winchesters far more effectively than advertising. As a result many European hunters began to carry the larger-caliber guns, and in total some 64,000 were produced. These rifles carried both of King’s patents as well as the “Model 1876” designation on the upper tang, and had distinctive color case-hardened receivers.

Despite increasing sales and an expanding product line, there lay within the design of the Winchesters a fundamental weakness. Once the breech-block was locked in place, the toggle action relied on machined studs to take the pressures generated in the breech when firing. All would probably have been well had not a French chemist named Paul Marie Vieille (1854–1934) invented a new type of propellant in 1884. Aside from the smoke it produced and the acidic fouling it left behind in firearms, the greatest limiting factor with gunpowder was its slow burning rate, which resulted in low pressures and correspondingly low velocities, requiring large charges to counteract it. Vieille produced “Poudre B” (white powder) made from 68 percent nitrocellulose gelatinized with ether and paraffin. The resultant chemical was safe unless compressed, very moisture-resistant, and produced almost no smoke on discharge. Even better, it generated far higher breech pressures due to its fast rate of burn, typically 10,000lb per square inch higher in a .30-caliber cartridge than gunpowder. The problem this posed for the older-model Winchesters was that the new high-velocity ammunition could and did break the mechanisms, shearing the pins and occasionally sending the breech-bolt flying backward, with unpleasant results. It was clear that a new mechanism was required that was capable of safely handling the smokeless ammunition that was becoming increasingly popular from the mid-1880s onwards.

The employment of John Browning by Winchester to improve the designs was a watershed in the history of the company. The 1884 patent shown here shows the method by which he strengthened the mechanism of what was to become the Model 1886 rifle. (Author)

Winchester needed a solution and turned to a quiet genius of a gunmaker, John Moses Browning (1855–1926), probably the most significant and influential firearms designer in history. Browning and his Mormon brothers were men of great simplicity and astonished fellow engineers with the primitive tools they used for their design work: foot rulers, calipers, spirit levels, a protractor, and design sketches done on pieces of scrap paper were their stock in trade. Indeed, there did not exist a single drawing board in the workshop, nor was there ever a blueprint produced by them. John Browning was able to visualize in three dimensions and the brothers’ ethos was that whatever they manufactured, they promptly went out and shot, putting their designs to the ultimate test. In fact, Browning had been working for the Winchester Company for some years, having produced a successful falling-block rifle in 1879. Winchester had wisely bought the patent rights and had been marketing this very popular model with great success. After a meeting with Browning in 1883 Thomas Grey Bennett, Winchester’s president (Oliver Winchester had died in 1880), purchased for $8,000 ($188,000/£120,000 today) the rights to the falling-block design, as well as the first manufacturing rights of any new designs from Browning. Bennett was a very clever self-made businessman, who had enlisted in the Union Army in 1860 as a private and ended the war as an infantry captain. If he had one flaw, it was that he was no engineer and this resulted in a distrust of untried technology, as would become painfully evident in later years.

In engaging Browning, Bennett provided two things. First, Bennett gave Browning a financial freedom that he had never had before, enabling him to continue working on his designs to the eventual benefit of Winchester Repeating Arms. Secondly, Bennett secured for the company the future manufacturing rights to whatever the best engineering brain in the business was likely to produce. From Browning’s point of view, the arrangement was perfect, for he understood only too well the risks that a company the size of Winchester’s was taking when it decided to manufacture a new model. Three-quarters of the designs the company bought from Browning never went into production but, as Browning himself observed:

Bennett knows what he is doing. I sell him a gun – the ’86 for instance. He pays a lot of money for it, and has a big investment in plant and materials. It would be a serious blow to him if someone should come out with … a gun of the same general type. I’m just building some protective fences … that what these guns are that he buys and never expects to make – fences. (Browning & Gentry 1987: 92)

It was a partnership that would endure for 20 years, although the relationship remained largely secret, for unlike Henry and King, Browning’s name never appeared on any of the rifles.

What Winchester really needed next was an action capable of safely handling the pressures generated by the new smokeless ammunition, and it seemed that the falling-block design was the answer. There was nothing new in the concept and it dated back in its most simple form to the removable breech-blocks used in medieval cannon. More recently, it had been used most successfully by Sharps in their rifle and since the end of the Civil War many big-game rifle manufacturers had utilized the mechanism. It was, like the best inventions, both simple and foolproof. The action was a single piece of steel that dropped downward in machined grooves when the lever/trigger guard underneath the rifle was pivoted forward. This gave easy access to the chamber, and after a cartridge was inserted the lever was lifted upward, closing the block and locking the chamber. Once closed, the receiver effectively became one single piece of steel, making it literally unburstable. It could and did handle the most powerful of ammunition with no problems aside from the shooter’s physical ability to deal with the resultant recoil. This was something the old Winchester design simply was incapable of doing, regardless of how much it was strengthened, unless it was made so massive as to be unusable.

Two land claimants in Guthrie, Oklahoma Territory, pose for the camera in 1889. The man on the left leans on a Model 1886 Winchester, while the seated man holds a ubiquitous hammer shotgun. (University of Oklahoma, Western Library)

Providentially, Browning had been working on a lever action that incorporated a falling-block mechanism, and in May 1884 he patented his new design, for which he was paid the then huge sum of $50,000 ($1,110,000/£700,000 today) by Winchester. Because of his agreement with Bennett this meant that over the next two years the company gained not only the patent and manufacturing rights of the new gun, the Model 1886, but 11 other designs including the Model 1885 single-shot rifle and the iconic Model 1887 shotgun.

Browning’s Model 1886 Winchester still retained its trademark lever action, but the toggle link was replaced by a vertically sliding breech-block, actuated by unlocking the lever and dropping it down; it also incorporated a rear-locking bolt for strength. The carrier still picked up the cartridge from the tube magazine in the traditional manner, but when the lever was closed, the bolt moved forward as the breech-block slid upward in its machined tracks and it then solidly locked the action shut. It enabled the rifle to chamber virtually any cartridge, although it was best suited to the mid-range ones such as .45-70 and .50-110. There were carbine and musket versions offered as well, with the usual expensively finished special-order rifles available from the factory, but by far the most popular was the rifle chambered for the .45-70 Government cartridge, and over 160,000 Model 1886s were sold until the end of production in 1935.

Emboldened by the success of the new gun, Bennett once more approached John Browning and requested that he look at the now aging Model 1873 rifle with a view to upgrading it. A rival to the Model 1886 wasn’t what he wanted; what was needed was more like a strengthened version of the popular older models that could handle smokeless loads. The need to come up with a better design was imperative, because by the early 1880s several rivals had begun producing good alternative lever-actions. Marlin, Whitney-Kennedy, Colt Burgess, and Savage were making good-quality rifles, and all were taking valuable sales from Winchester. Additionally, many of these models were now capable of shooting smokeless ammunition. Attempting to use the higher-pressure loads in the old Winchesters was not a safe practice, and in desperation Bennett told Browning that he would pay him $15,000 ($351,000/£226,000 today) if he could have a working example at New Haven within two months. Never one to resist a challenge, Browning’s response was businesslike and utterly typical: “I will have the rifle in your hands within thirty days for twenty thousand or I will give it to you” (quoted in Browning & Gentry 1987: 142).

Browning’s 1891 patent for the Model 1892 rifle. (Author)

Browning was better than his word and he excelled himself by having a working prototype sitting on his workbench in Ogden, Utah, only two weeks later. The Model 1892 was really a scaled-down version of the Model 1886 rifle; that it would prove successful was almost a foregone conclusion, for demand was huge. The Model 1892 was produced in a vast number of variants: sporting rifle, carbine, musket, and a novel take-down model that unlocked at the breech. They were mostly chambered for the lighter cartridges such as the .32-20, .38-40, and of course the ubiquitous .44-40. The Model 1892 proved a huge financial success, with over 1 million being sold. It would gain considerable fame (and sales) from being the Winchester model used most frequently on film and television.

The Model 1892. This was a similar rifle to the Model 1886, but as the photograph shows, had a shorter action and was more compact, making it ideal for chambering the lower-powered cartridges that were widely used. (Laurie Landau/Bob Maze)

Never a man to rest on his laurels, Browning’s next design was the Model 1894, which differed little visually from its predecessors and had originally been designed to chamber the two most popular black-powder cartridges, the .32-40 and .38-55. Browning’s revised mechanism still retained the toggle design, albeit a stronger one than those in the earlier guns, but the carrier was fixed to the lever and lifted the cartridge into position at an angle to the breech. As it closed, the bolt was pushed forward, chambering the cartridge; the breech was locked by a heavy, vertically sliding block that was mortised into the rear of the receiver, making it capable of handling far higher pressures than the earlier types. The carbine was also light and handy, weighing a modest 6.6lb. Within a year of its introduction, a higher grade of steel was introduced which permitted the action to handle the .30-30 Winchester cartridge, introduced in 1895.

“The ultimate lever-action.” The receiver of the Model 1894, showing the length required to chamber the new .30-caliber cartridge. The top of the sliding-block reinforcing added by Browning can be seen in front of the hammer. (Laurie Landau/Bob Maze)

This was a seminal design, being America’s first lever-action rifle capable of handling the new small-bore, high-velocity, smokeless cartridges. The .30-30 bullet diameter was actually a very modern design; its .308in diameter and bottleneck cartridge design enabled a velocity in excess of 1,970ft/sec, using the original 160-grain bullet, and eight rounds could be chambered in the rifle, or six in the carbine. Far higher velocities were possible with different bullet configurations, and to say that the introduction of this rifle and its cartridge were watersheds in firearms technology is something of an understatement. The .30-30 has subsequently become the yardstick cartridge by which all others are judged in terms of performance, and despite its moderate size it was capable of bringing down large game at normal hunting ranges of up to 200yd. The Model 1894 became synonymous with the .30-30 caliber and some measure of its success is that even today it is still the most widely used rifle for hunting in the Americas, and it is still in production. As the 1894 Winchester catalogue flatly stated: “No repeating rifle system ever made will appeal to the eye and understanding of the rifleman as this will.” These were prophetic words indeed, for the total of rifles made to date now exceeds 7,500,000 and special editions have been made, including a gold-inlaid and engraved example produced for the Paris Exhibition in 1900 by Tiffany and Company of New York.

By the 1890s the successive waves of settlers and hunters heading west had all but ceased. As the railroads extended ever farther towards the west coast, so too had civilization steadily crept across the continent. The buffalo had virtually been wiped out and farming had taken over much of the Great Plains. The Native American tribes had been ruthlessly subdued and there was little requirement, or enthusiasm, for the lives of brutally hard self-sufficiency of 30 or 40 years previously. No longer did items ordered from the East take weeks to arrive and cost a small fortune. Such hunters and trappers as still worked could purchase ammunition in virtually any nearby town, and there was little requirement for them to carry powder, bullets, and cases which had to be loaded in the field. Besides, there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that the latest breed of high-velocity ammunition performed far more efficiently than the old black-powder cartridges. In the 1870s no hunter who wanted to reach old age would have considered tackling a bear with a .30-caliber rifle. By the 1890s it was a standard hunting caliber for virtually any game in North America. While there was no doubt that many older rifles were still being used with black-powder loadings, it was also obvious that the days of black powder were numbered.

A drawing of the compact magazine and receiver of the Model 1895. It bears all the hallmarks of Browning’s design genius and little relationship to earlier Winchesters. One of the cartridges listed is the .236 US Navy (also called the 6mm Lee), which despite being the first rimless cartridge adopted by the US military was never a popular commercial loading, and commercial production in .236 caliber ceased by 1903. (Author)

Browning had been particularly interested in advances made in European firearms technology through the late 19th century, in particular the almost universal adoption throughout Europe’s armies of magazine rifles. Even the United States, always glacially slow to decide upon its service arms, had accepted the Krag-Jørgensen rifle into service in 1892. By now, one could be forgiven for thinking that Winchester Repeating Arms pretty well had the marketplace sewn up as far as lever-action rifles were concerned, but Browning was an inveterate inventor and could not leave an idea to fester. He had been considering the limitations of the tubular magazine for some time, with its vulnerability to damage and the need to use flat- or round-nosed ammunition. This was due to the potential risk of a pointed bullet striking the primer of the cartridge in front of it if a rifle was dropped or carelessly handled. With the conical or flat-nosed lead bullets normally chambered in black-powder cartridges this was unlikely, but the smokeless cartridges were increasingly using pointed jacketed bullets, which were far more liable to cause a problem. Browning went back to the concept of using a rear locking bolt of the type seen in the Model 1886 rifle and produced what was to become Winchester’s last lever-action rifle, the Model 1895. Barrels were available in 24in, 28in, and 30in lengths and the standard finish was deeply blued. In an attempt to lighten the rifles, the receivers had distinctive fluted sides, although very early examples were flat-sided and today these are the rarest encountered.

In a break with tradition, the Model 1895 featured a box magazine that held, depending on the caliber of ammunition, four or five rounds; it was produced in a number of popular calibers, including .30-40 Krag, .30-03, .303 British, and several specific Winchester loadings, including the most powerful ever chambered by a lever-action, the fearsome .405. This was a good big-game cartridge, but showed up the weaknesses of the design, for the modest weight of the rifle (9lb) was little different from that of the earlier models, which of course were chambered for much less powerful cartridges. The relatively light weight of the rifle, allied to a sharply angled stock, transferred punishing recoil to the shoulder when used with heavy loads. In fact, the .405 cartridge proved the extreme limit for safety in a lever-action rifle and later attempts to chamber larger big-game cartridges using smokeless powder failed, the design never being developed any further.