Show 1 ff ift N B by y ted T e d K kelting resting es ti ng one hundred this wms years uno ago liu lim august the u s patent office issued a patent which sh helped change the course of history in almost every land on earth it was as walter hunts patent no for the volition repeater and was the first appearance of w what h at b became became the lever action repeating rifle rule that hat few persons associate hunt with the lever action rifle und understandable ersland abie able his idea be came practical only after it was refined and suitable fixed ammunition was invented today looking back back over the hundred year pedigree of the rifle operated by a lever this gun holds its own with the more recent bolt and slide silde ac tion lion on rifles its influence on his tory was immense according to arms anns expert bill Dep depperman pennan those who claim the model 73 lever action was the rifle that won the west wese are quite right however hunt had bitten off more than he could chew his conical bullets which he called rocket balls reluctant ebb acma were vu to perform according to the eions that mr hunt wrote on the label and lacking a proper cartridge no lever action could have worked properly from hunt patents for the lever action moved through several phases until the repeater was acquired by a connecticut shirt manufacturer named win chester he fought a losing bat tie to have the rifle perfected with all the inventive talent lavished upon the lever action it was still a flop nop then in a move that is now recognized as a stroke of genius winchester gave B tyler henry the job of making the rifle work the solution is simple to write down on paper today henrys modification was to make the rifle take his new cartridge there is consider able dispute about the genius of the first metallic cartridge but the fact remains it was henrys 44 44 flat that pulled the lever lover ac tion from a succession of ever hopeful ul but ever falling failing ventures into a success grateful winchester put the 1 lever action into production as th the ea henry rifle somewhere around 1862 in 1866 with further modification and a side loading port the company presented the first rifle under its own names the winchester s ter model 1866 the west winning model 1873 introduced the firms first center fire ammunition the famous it was considerably more effective than its predecessors because it could step out and knock cm em over at greater ranges next important contribution to the lever action came from john browning in improvements that resulted in the famed model 1885 single shot lever leve r action all these lever action rifles rines had been made for black powder cartridges in 1894 the company brought out a sporting rifle for smokeless powder cartridge and a smokeless p powder sporting cartridge the 30 30 this model 94 is still being manuta manufactured stured and it is st still I 1 11 americas top deer pol rifle rine last year president truman received the th of the series which is now headed for the 2 million mark |