Howdy Again
Lever Action Rifles, my take.
First off, let's differentiate between 'Rifle Caliber' lever guns and 'Pistol Caliber' lever guns.
Here are a few cartridges typically chambered in leverguns. Top to bottom, 45-70, 30-30, and 45 Colt. The first two would be chambered in leverguns with longer actions, to accommodate the length of the cartridge. 45 Colt is a good example of a cartridge chambered in a 'Pistol Caliber' rifle, because it is short enough to be commonly chambered in a revolver cylinder. Yes, there are some goofy revolvers out there developed to chamber 45-70, but they are unusual and out of the scope of this discussion.
The Winchester Model 1886 is a good example of a lever gun chambered for a Rifle Caliber cartridge. This one is chambered for 45-70
The Winchester Model 1894 is an example of a lever gun chambered for 30-30, another Rifle Caliber cartridge.
Because of the extra length of the action and the cartridge, the Model 1894 Winchester has a pivoting link at the bottom of the frame to help with the throw required of the action to feed a new round out of the magazine.
OK, let's get into some specifics.
The Winchester Model 1873 was known as a Toggle Link action rifle. I have removed the side plate from this Winchester Model 1873 to show the Toggle Links. The Toggle LInk design dates back to the 1850s with the small rifles made by a couple of guys named Smith and Wesson under the name Volcanic Repeating Arms Company. The Volcanic rifles were under powered due to the anemic Rocket Ball ammunition they fired, and eventually Smith and Wesson left the company to found a new company to make revolvers. Oliver Winchester, who had made a good amount of money as a shirt manufacturer, gained financial control of the Volcanic Company and its designs. He hired Benjamin Tyler Henry to come up with a more powerful cartridge and then to redesign the little Volcanic rifles to fire the new cartridge, which was the 44 Caliber Henry Rimfire cartridge. Winchester moved the company to New Haven and renamed it New Haven Arms Company. The 1860 Henry rifle was produced from 1862 until 1866, when Winchester and Henry had a falling out. Henry approached the Connecticut legislature and tried to have the company renamed after himself while Winchester was on vacation in Europe. Winchester got wind of the plot, cut his vacation short, hurried back to the US and renamed the company the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. Under Winchester's guidance, the Model 1866 Winchester and Model 1873 Winchester were produced, each having the Toggle Link design.
In this photo, the links are lined up in the 'locked position' and the rifle is in battery. The hammer is down in this photo, but this is the position the links would be in when the hammer fell to fire a cartridge.
In this photo, the lever has rotated all the way forward, folding the links all the way. The front pivot of the links has pulled the bolt all the way back, and the bolt extension has cocked the hammer., The slanted piece is the lifter arm has and it has raised the brass cartridge elevator all the way up lining the next cartridge up with the bore. When the lever is rotated back to the normal position, it will unfold the links, which will in turn push the bolt forward, stripping a cartridge out of the cartridge elevator and feeding it into the chamber. At the last moment the cartridge elevator will drop down to its normal position and the magazine spring will shove a fresh cartridge onto the elevator.
As I said, the 1860 Henry, 1866 Winchester, and the 1873 Winchester all used the Toggle Link system, as well as the larger Model 1876 Winchester. The links were never truly locked in the sense of the lugs of a modern rifle. They actually locked up slightly cammed over, but lockup was never as strong as the lockup of a more modern rifle. In addition, the frame of these rifles was basically skeltonized, with much of the frame cut away, also limiting the strength of the Toggle Link rifles. However they were plenty strong enough for the cartridges of the day, the 44 Henry RImfire, 44-40, and 38-40, and 32-20. The Model 1873 was manufacture up until 1923, well into the Smokeless era, and was strong enough for the Smokeless cartridges of that time.
In addition to that antique 38-40 Winchester Model 1873, I have an Uberti replica of the Model 1873. I bought it used about 20 years ago for Cowboy Action Shooting. Chambered for my favorite Pistol Caliber cartridge, 44-40. I bought it because I was going to start loading cartridges with Black Powder and thought I needed a shiny new bore for shooting Black Powder. That eventually proved to be untrue, but that is another story.
While I am on the subject of Toggle Link rifles, here is my Uberti replica of the 'Iron Frame' 1860 Henry rifle. This model is only available chambered for 45 Colt and 44-40. The original 44 Henry Rimfire round is no longer commercially available. I bought my 44-40 Henry on sale at Dixie Gunworks about ten years ago for $800. Those prices are long gone. I
DO NOT recommend the 1860 Henry as a shooter's first lever gun. Notice there is no wooden fore stock. Yes, when fired with cartridges loaded with Black Powder the barrel and magazine get very hot. I usually wear a glove on my left hand when shooting my Henry in the summer time. And as the brass tab on the bottom of the follower works its way back every time the action is worked, eventually it will come up against the shooter's left hand, and the magazine will cease to feed, unless the shooter does the Henry Hop. Notice there is no side loading gate. That feature did not appear until the Winchester Model 1866.
The 1860 Henry is loaded by pulling the brass follower tab, which can be seen protruding out of the bottom of the magazine, all the way forward and swiveling the false muzzle to the side, exposing the front of the magazine. Fresh rounds are loaded into the magazine from the front. They must NEVER be dropped down the magazine with the rifle held vertically. And the spring loaded magazine follower MUST NEVER be allowed to slam down on a stack of live ammunition in the magazine. Yes, bad things have happened.
Let's move on to the Winchester Model 1892. It was stronger than the Model 1873, cost less to manufacture, and was about 1 pound lighter than a Model 1873.
This 44-40 Model 1892 shipped in 1897. I bought it about 20 years ago for a very good price because it had been refinished. Yes, you can occasionally find nice old rifles that have been refinished for good prices because the high end collectors are not interested in refinished guns. I had a gunsmith mount a Lyman peep sight on the tang, and the rear sight was changed out for a fold down rear sight that would not interfere with the line of sight when using the peep sight. I used this rifle as my Main Match rifle in CAS until I started loading cartridges with Black Powder. It was, and still is, a tack driver.
Here is the peep sight. Notice the pair of locking lugs locking the bolt in battery in front of the hammer.
The folding rear sight I had a gunsmith install.
The twin locking lugs, plus the fact that the frame is not skeltonized, is why the '92 is so strong.
One of the reasons the CAS crowd likes the Model 1873 so much is they can be made to run very fast. The cartridge elevator on the Toggle Link rifles is a big chunk of brass, machined to shape. It rises straight up and down in its mortise in the frame. The fresh cartridge is lined up with the chamber and when the elevator is up, and the bolt is shoving a cartridge straight into the chamber, it is like a torpedo on a submarine being shoved into a torpedo tube. It is a straight shot.
The Model 1892 Winchester, the model 1894 Winchester, the Model 1894 Marlin, and every other lever gun I can think of use a tilting carrier. When the carrier is down, a fresh round is shoved onto it. When the action is worked, the carrier pivots up, and the round is shoved into the chamber as the bolt closes. Much like feeding problems with a 1911 pistol, sometimes, ammo with a sharp shoulder on the bullet, such as semi-wadcutters, will hang up when the sharp shoulder bumps into the edge of the chamber. Round Nosed Flat Point bullets such as in this photo of a round being chambered in a Model 1892 Winchester, or truncated cone bullets do not present this problem, they usually load very smoothly. Also, with the '92 there is a recommended Over All Length of cartridges. Cartridges a little bit too long might not feed well. This can be particularly true of 357 Magnum 92s shooting 38 Special. I will have to get back with the suggested maximum Over All Length for 38s in a 357 '92.
At last count I have four original Winchester Model 1892s. I hesitate to say 'antique' because the newest one shipped in 1928. Calibers are 44-40, of course, and 32-20 and 25-20.
Regarding the Model 1892s manufactured by Rossi, I have very little experience with them. I did win one chambered in 45 Colt in a raffle years ago, but never fired it. Instead I sold it and used the proceeds to help pay for my Henry.
Yes, it was a little bit stiff, but don't forget I have been spoiled by Winchesters over 100 years old, and they have been smoothed out by use over all that time.
If I was in the market for a lever gun, I would not turn my nose up at a '92 made by Rossi. I am a good enough gun butcher that I'm sure I could get one up to snuff with out too much effort.
Marlins
Except for the very earliest, the Models 1881, and 1888, starting with the Model 1889, Marlins have always been side eject. This was a conscious decision by John Marlin in order to compete with Winchester lever guns, which have always been top eject. The Model 1894 was, and is side eject. I bought this 44-40 (again, my favorite levergun cartridge) Marlin Model 1894 back in the 1970s. It was made in 1895. Yup, no blue left on it and not much varnish either.
A cartridge visible through the ejection port loading into the chamber while the lever is being closed. Note the 'hook' on top of the lever. The Marlin has a central locking bolt that gets pulled down by that hook, simultaneously as the bolt retracts. Look carefully at the hook and you will notice it is discolored. This old rifle started having problems cycling soon after I bought it. A smith discovered the hook at been mostly worn away over the years. He welded up some new steel on the hook and shaped it, making the rifle functional again. The discoloration is the result of his welding job.
I love this old rifle, it is the first rifle I brought to a CAS match. The bore is old and pitted, but it still shoots just fine, and it likes my 44-40 Black Powder ammo. I still bring it to a match every once in a while.
I bought this little Marlin Model 1894CS used a bunch of years ago for my wife, when she started shooting cowboy with me. She did not like the 'heavy' 24" Winchester Model 1892 I was letting her shoot. The barrel on this little rifle is 18 1/2" long. It is chambered for 357 Mag, but it feeds my 38 Special ammo with truncated cone bullets just fine. I seem to recall it feeds semi-wadcutter bullets well too. A real pleasure to shoot with 38 Specials, a little powerhouse with 357 Mag. When I bought it, it would only fit 9 357 Mags in the magazine, but a friend shortened the magazine spring and follower a little bit so now it holds 10 357 Mags in the chamber. I dunno how many 38s, maybe 11.
A word about Marlin quality:
Marlin has been around a long time, since the 1870s. In 2007 Remington bought Marlin and moved production from Hartford to their factory in Ilion NY. At that time, most of the machinery at Marlin was old and worn, but long time employees were able to milk high quality parts out of the old machinery. Remington moved the old equipment to Ilion, and offered to relocate employees, but few, if any took them up on it. The result was terrible quality. This went on for a few years until Remington invested in new equipment to make parts, probably most of it CNC. After the new equipment came on line, Marlin quality went back up again. A couple of years ago a friend bought a 45 Colt Marlin Model 1894 made by Remington with the new equipment. I got a chance to examine it and shoot it. As far as I was concerned, the quality was back. More recently, the Marlin line has been acquired by Ruger. I have not seen any Ruger Marlins, but I would expect quality to be right up there with everything else Ruger makes.
Henry Repeating Arms Company.
Sorry folks, I will never own anything made by that company. Mostly because they continue to press the falsehood that they are somehow connected to B. Tyler Henry and his revolutionary 1860 Henry rifle. The Henry name was in public domain, and Henry simply appropriated it, there is no historical connection with HRAC and Benjamin Tyler Henry or Oliver Winchester, despite the photographs on their web page. I have never liked the whole Big Boy series of HRAC rifles, they are clunky and heavy. Yes, I have held and fired a few. As for their 'Original Henry Rifle' HRAC's version of the 1860 Henry, it was only introduced a few years ago. Uberti has been making their version probably since the 1970s. Suggester retail price of the HRAC 'Original Henry Rifle is $2720.00. The Uberti version starts at $1549. I have always been very happy with my Uberti 'Iron Frame Henry' that I have been shooting for about 10 years now.
Let's talk 'Pistol Caliber Cartridges' for just a moment. Although it is certainly a pistol caliber cartridge, rifles were never chambered for 45 Colt in the 19th Century. This is a relatively new chambering, mostly due to the popularity of the cartridge and Cowboy Action Shooting. As far as I can tell, the first lever guns chambered for 45 Colt were made in the 1980s. Here is why. This is a photo of a bunch of old 45 Colt cartridges from my cartridge collection. Notice how tiny the rims are. At this time, 45 Colt was only chambered in single action revolvers, such as the Colt Single Action Army. All the rim had to do was keep the firing pin from shoving the cartridge down into the chamber, and it did not take a very big rim to do that. Ejection in the old Colts was always done with an ejector rod that poked the empties out from the inside, there was no extractor to grab a rim. Except for the round second from the right. That round was designed for a double action Colt, I forget exactly which one right now, and the extra large rim was so an actual extractor claw could get a purchase on the rim. On the far right is one of my reloads in modern brass with a large rim. SAMMI Spec for rim diameter of modern 45 Colt brass is .512. Some of those old rounds have much tinier rims.
The old Winchester Centerfire cartridges, 44-40, 38-40, 32-20, and 25-20 were designed as rifle cartridges. They had nice big rims, big enough for a rifle extractor to grab, .520 in diameter.
Nothing wrong with a lever gun chambered for 45 Colt, it just is not traditional.
One more thing. Let's talk about butt stocks.
This is a lovely old Winchester Model 1894, chambered for 30-30, that left the factory in 1895. It has a crescent shaped butt stock. If you look back through this post you will see that most of my lever guns have butt stocks like this. I hear more guys complaining about stocks like this in CAS, even guys shooting mouse fart loads from a replica 1873 or 1892, complaining how the points of the crescent dig into their shoulders and it hurts when they shoot. There is even a cottage industry that makes butt covers that lessen the pain. Many years ago I had an old 30-30 Winchester Model 1894 that had been cut down. The barrel was about 20", and the magazine had been shortened to half length. It was a very light rifle. It had a crescent shaped butt plate like this, and I could only shoot about three shots before it hurt so much I had to stop shooting. 30-30 is not an elephant gun round, but those sharp points were digging into me so much that I could only fire a few shots before I was flinching so bad I couldn't hit the broad side of a barn.
Winchester and Marlin and everybody else were making rifles with butt stocks like this for many years. If they hurt so much to shoot, why did they keep making them like this? It turns out, modern shooters do not understand how to shoot a rifle with a crescent shaped butt plate. Rather than mounting the rifle butt to the meaty part of the shoulder, the butt should be hiked out a little bit so the points encircle the shoulder joint. The points should not touch the body. When mounted this way, the points keep the butt from sliding up or down while working the action. This may require the shooter to alter his stance a bit. I do not face the target directly, I stand at about 45 degrees to the target with the rifle slung across my body. I do not lower my face to the stock, I raise my right elbow to bring the stock up to my face. That old Model 1894 was stolen many years ago, I wish I still had it as I know the proper way to shoot it now.