The Iconic Lever-Action

Winchester with its .30-06 Government chambering carried by the Texas Rangers and the .405 Winchester version that Teddy Roosevelt affectionately referred to as his “big medicine” for lions in Africa. During those years, the levergun was king among those who needed or preferred a trim, easy carrying, reliable repeater for everything from squirrels to moose.

Even when the century that spawned it ended, the lever-action continued to rule in civilian hands in America, till the bolt-action spillover from our Army and World War One picked up momentum, first with the Norwegian-based 1898 Krag service rifle, and later with the German-based 1903 Springfield. Although generally outclassed in power and range, Winchesters, Marlins, and Savages kept right on going in the woods, the trucks, and the saddle scabbards, side-by-side with commercial bolt-action versions as they adapted for civilian consumption, well into the 1950s. Along the way, the unique “hammerless” Savage dropped out of sight, Marlin soldiered on, Browning entered the field with thoroughly modern interpretations built overseas, Winchester ceased domestic production and moved its levergun line-up to Japan, Italian makers geared up to export thousands of Winchester lever-action replicas to the U.S., Ruger tried a foray into levergun-land that didn’t pan out, and a small company in Brooklyn, of all places, started up lever-action production of a humble budget-entry .22 rimfire.

Today

Where is America’s rifle today?

Alive and well, thanks, although the market and the players have changed considerably. Much as we die-hard levergunners might prefer otherwise, the truth of the matter is quite obvious – the bolt-action has taken over the bulk of the hunting market, along with the long-range market. Progress was inevitable; the bolt-gun is simply more efficient in the broad picture when it comes to strength, range, accuracy, and range/accuracy enhancers like optics, after market triggers, and stock bedding.

While the Italian repros are still doing well for traditionalists, and the Brownings are well-respected as modern designs, the Winchesters are now comparatively limited in numbers and high-dollar imports with modified actions incorporating modern safety features, and the results of the Marlin buy-out by Remington in 2007 and subsequent move to the Remington plant in New York left the Marlin brand in turmoil, with severe quality control issues and the suspension of certain lever-action models that the company is still recovering from.

Enter that little Brooklyn outfit, although it’s no longer a “little” outfit.

With Marlin and Henry being the only domestic levergun manufacturers left , and Marlin down to a handful of

H004 Henry Golden Boy .22 S/L/LR

models, if you’re on the prowl for a brand new made-in-America version of the time-honored pattern it’s between those two brands, and Henry offers by far the biggest selection in models and calibers. The little entry-level H001 in .22 LR/L/S that started it all in 1996 is still produced, although the Henry operation is now

H001MML Henry Mare’s Leg .22 Magnum

split between Bayonne, New Jersey, and Rice Lake, Wisconsin, and that model led to variations that include Henry’s flagship Golden Boy, Frontier, Small Game Rifle, Golden Boy Silver,

H006 Henry Big Boy .44 Magnum

Evil Roy, Silver Eagle, engraved special tribute editions, and short (but street-legal) Mare’s Leg pistol versions, all in the rimfire calibers from .22 Short through .22 Magnum to .17HMR that built Henry’s rep as “The Smoothest Gun In The West”.

H011D2 The Original Henry Rifle Deluxe Engraved 2nd Edition .44-40

With the rimfires doing so well, Henry brought out their first centerfire model, the .44 Magnum Big Boy, in 2001 in a hardened brass alloy frame followed by the .357 Magnum and .45 Colt, and those led over the years to successive handgun-calibered models in steel frames, the introduction of the .30-30 Winchester and .45-70 Government calibers in brass and steel frames, an All-Weather series, the Color Case Hardened Model, and both brass and steel engraved Wildlife tribute models. Not to mention the centerfire Mare’s Legs in .357 Magnum, .44 Magnum, and .45 Colt, or the first-class instant-retro-collector pieces like the Henry Original Rifle (1860 edition in .44-40) in both brass (alloy) and iron (steel) frames. Or deluxe limited-edition engraved One Of 1000 Editions. Or the 2016 total departure for Henry – the introduction of the Long Range Lever Action in