Can you please explain how an Illinois militia unit was able to use a rifle that didn't go into production until 1866 to fight in a war that ended in 1865?
I've heard of B. Tyler Henry's rifle getting some use in the Civil War, but nothing about any time traveling Winchesters.
Yes, they were Henrys. Mea Culpa.
(me laughing at myself)
Vestrum erit flagitum; the way you stated "The semi auto won WWII". This thread
is about why pump rifles aren't more popular, not what won what war. Because small arms don't win wars. I will agree that they may have become more familiar to veterans because of wars
Lever guns
were predominant among the guns that won the west. (Even there, there were pumps involved. Colt Lightnings. ) You saw whatever gun the script called for in John Wayne's hand, even if it was a plastic toy M-16 that he smashed up on a tree after Kowalski's death in "the Green Berets."
However, if we are going down the rabbit hole of what was popular with US gun owners because of what was used in wars, the Trapdoor would have won the west, but lever guns had more capacity, as the
Henry's ( and not the time-travelling Winchesters
) use in the Civil War showed, so for those that could afford them at the time, they were the first choice.
The comment about Post-WWII select-fire rifles and consumer choices was an
ad absurdium extension of your premise to demonstrate that it does not correlate. You are entirely correct, State DNR's don't allow them for game, and yes the registry is closed. And in a sense, the semi auto MSR used for hunting is the result of both those.
I get what you meant, it's just that the generalization changed the meaning.
I believe the main reason pump rifles never became popular is because most of the early ones were in pistol calibers, except the Colt Lightning Express models, of which few were made. By the time Remington started production on the Model 14, WWI had started, and by it's end, bolt actions became available as surplus, and ammo was plentiful. As has been mentioned in other posts, the pump rifle became it's most popular, (so to speak) in the Eastern and Midwestern forests, probably because of it's handiness and medium power rounds.