Lever action

Early Concepts

Lever-action firearms have their roots from a lever-action revolver designed by Italian gunsmith Cesar Rosaglio in 1826 and patented in 1829. He designed a gun with a lever mechanism that simultaneously turned the drum and cocked the hammer. In 1829, Rosaglio also designed a percussion cap revolving shotgun.^[3][4]

Colt Ring Rifle

The first lever-action rifle to be adopted by the military was the Colt's 1st and 2nd model ring lever rifles, both revolving cap and ball rifles that held eight shots, they were the first firearms produced by the Patent Arms Mfg. Co. Paterson, N.J.-Colt's Patent between 1837 and 1841.^[5] The ring-lever carbine did not have an exposed hammer that is manually cocked and fired like a traditional revolver, rather a small ring sat in front of its trigger and the user would pull the ring downward and backward toward the trigger, which cocked the weapon and rotated the cylinder. The rifle was available in .34, .36, .38, .40, & .44 calibers and saw limited use by the United States Army in the Seminole Wars in 1838.^[5] However, the rifle had many issues that kept it from being widely adopted, its 32 in (810 mm) long barrel and 8.5 lb (3.9 kg) weight made it a massive rifle that was difficult to wield.^[6] It was also exorbitantly expensive, in 1838 the Army purchased 50 rifles at a price of $125 each, adjusting for inflation that would be equal to $4,400 per rifle in 2026. The gun was also prone to chain firing, which is when the sparks from a chamber firing manage to get into other chambers, causing them to fire simultaneously, potentially causing the weapon to explode.^[5]

Volitional & Volcanic

The first lever-action firearm that could be recognized in terms of what the modern concept of a lever action is, was the Volitional repeater invented by Walter Hunt in 1848, a rifle that used a 12-round under-the-barrel magazine tube, making it the first to adopt this type of magazine that became ubiquitous with lever-actions.^[7] Another early predecessor to the modern lever action was the Volcanic pistol, invented in 1855 by Daniel B. Wesson and Horace Smith (the founders of Smith & Wesson), along with Walter Hunt who designed the gun's .41 caliber caseless ammunition known as a Rocket Ball. The Volcanic pistol was made by Volcanic Repeating Arms, a company that was eventually reorganized into the Winchester Repeating Arms Company in 1866, with the Volcanic pistols' design being the basis for the Henry Rifle and the Winchester Model 1866.^[8]

Spencer Rifle

The most significant design improvements in the history of lever actions were the Spencer repeating rifle and Henry rifle, both created in 1860.^[7] The Spencer was designed by Christopher Spencer, it was a lever-operated rifle with a removable seven-round tube magazine that loaded into the butt of the stock, a major breakthrough for the time.^[7] Some 200,000 rifles were produced between 1860 and 1869, and it was adopted by the United States and used during the American Civil War,^[7] which marked the first adoption of an infantry and cavalry rifle with a removable magazine by any country.^[7] The early Spencer's rifle lever only served to unlock the action and chamber a new round; the hammer had to be manually cocked after chambering a round.^[7]

Henry Rifle

The Henry rifle, invented by Benjamin Tyler Henry in 1860 while he was working for Winchester, is widely considered to be the first practical lever-action rifle that was also a commercial success.^[9] When designing his rifle, Henry attempted to solve the problems that had prevented prior lever-action firearms like the Volcanic pistol from being widely successful, namely the unreliability of its ammunition. His approach was to design the ammunition first, and then design a gun to accommodate it, to that end he created the self-contained .44 Henry cartridge in 1858.^[7] To accommodate the round's higher pressures he designed a larger frame made from brass, and designed a new barrel specifically for the .44 caliber bullet his new rimfire ammo used. He made an under-barrel magazine tube that ran the length of the barrel, giving the rifle an unprecedented 16-round capacity. Other improvements Henry made was perfecting the loading and ejecting mechanism, including designing the bolt to automatically cock the hammer each time the lever was cycled, and he created a firing pin independent of the bolt face.^[10] By October 1860, Henry had finished his rifle and received a patent for it, only 8 months after the Spencer was patented. At the time, Winchester did not have the money to retool their machines to mass produce Henry's new rifle, it took a few years for them to get the proper equipment. This delayed the production of the first Henry rifles until 1862, just in time for the eve of the Civil War.^[7] About 15,731 Henry rifles were produced, 1,731 for the federal government and 14,000 were made by the New Haven Arms Company for civilian sale, before production ceased in 1866.^[10]

Winchester 1866

The Henry rifle was replaced by the Winchester Model 1866 after New Haven Arms was acquired by Winchester. The rifle was also known as the Model 1866 “Yellow Boy” due to its polished brass receiver, the "Yellow Boy" was the first lever-action rifle to bear the Winchester name.^[11] The Model 1866 was chambered for the same .44 Henry round, but featured several design improvements: most notably a spring-closed loading port on the right-hand side of the frame, directly at the rear of the magazine tube (whereas the Henry was loaded with a loading gate at the end of the magazine tube), this allowed the rifle to be reloaded more quickly.^[12] The 1866 was available in three different configurations: an infantry rifle musket with a 27 in (690 mm) barrel, a sporting rifle with a 24 in (610 mm) barrel, and a saddle carbine with a 20 in (510 mm) inch barrel. A total of 170,100 Yellow Boys were produced between 1866 and 1873.^[13]

Winchester 1873

The next major breakthrough in lever-action rifles came with the Winchester Model 1873, chambered for the .44-40 WCF, it was the first lever-action rifle to use a centerfire cartridge, which have substantially more power than rimfire cartridges. The .44-40 would go on to become the most commonly used centerfire cartridge in the late 19th century, and the Winchester 1873 went down in history "as the gun that won the West".^[7][11] Some of the other changes with the Model 1873, compared to the 1866, was the use of a larger steel frame with side plates that made it easier to access the rifle’s innards for cleaning. Roughly 720,000 Model 1873s were produced between 1873 & 1923, it was later made in other chamberings such as .38-40 WCF and .32-20 WCF.^[14] In 1875 Winchester made a special, limited edition grade of the rifle known as the "One in One Thousand" grade. Rifles of this grade were test-fired at the factory, and those that met a certain accuracy level were fitted with set triggers and fancy walnut stocks with checkering and engraving on the metal work. A standard model cost about $18 (equivalent to $487.80 in 2026), however a One in One Thousand grade rifle sold for $100 (equivalent to ~$2,800 in 2026). This grade of the 1873 was so coveted and legendary it inspired a film with James Stewart called Winchester '73.^[14]

Marlin 1881 & 1893

John Marlin, founder of the Marlin Firearms Company, introduced the Marlin Model 1881 as the company's first lever-action repeating rifle, and the first lever-action rifle designed to fire the powerful .45-70 Government cartridge originally designed in 1873 by the U.S. Army for use in the Springfield Model 1873, which would become one of the most popular big-game hunting cartridges in the world, and is still in use today. The Model 1881 was also offered in .38-55 Winchester.^[7] The Model 1881 was developed into the Model 1893, and was designed to handle higher pressure loads in anticipation of smokeless powder becoming the standard. The Model 1893 was also the first side-ejecting lever action, a key selling point over Winchester since it better protected the internal workings from weather and debris.^[7] The Model 1893 is still in production in the 21st century as the Marlin 336, and it gave rise to the Marlin Model 1894, which is also still in production.^[15]

Winchester 1894/94

The Winchester Model 1894 (now called the Model 94) is arguably the most famous lever-action rifle in the world, the rifle has been in production for 132 years and is the best selling centerfire rifle in U.S. history.^[11] Designed by John Moses Browning, the Model 1894 was the first lever-action rifle specifically designed to use smokeless powder cartridges.^[7] It was initially chambered for the .25-35 WCF and the .30 WCF; the .30 Winchester came to be known as the .30-30 Winchester, the most popular lever-action rifle cartridge in the world. The Model 94 is credited with taking more game animals in North America than any other rifle. The Model 94 is/was offered in a number of other chamberings including .32 Winchester Special, .35 Winchester, .375 Winchester, .357 Magnum, .44 Remington Magnum, and .45 Colt to name a few.^[16] To better withstand the higher pressures of smokeless powder, the Model 1894 was designed with a new nickel-steel alloy barrel. Other major design improvements included a new safety feature involving a thick, solid-steel rod that slides up in front of the hammer while the bolt is being closed to prevent accidental discharge. A unique feature to the Model 1894 is a hinged floor plate in the receiver that pivots down when the action is opened, allowing easier access to the gun's internal mechanisms. The Model 1894's wider lever handle allowed it to be used more easily while wearing gloves, leading it to become the carbine of choice during the Alaskan Gold Rush of 1897, resulting in the Winchester 94 being christened “The Klondike Model”. This is credited with the Model 94 becoming thought of as the north woods deer camp rifle, the rifle to carry in a scabbard while riding on horseback and being commonly found in many a pickup truck’s rear window gun rack during hunting season.^[16] The Model 94 also became a very popular rifle with law enforcement during the early 20th century, it was used by a number of law enforcement agencies including Railroad Police like the North West Railroad Police, it was also used by the Texas Rangers and New York State Troopers. The Model 94 was the first sporting gun to sell more than one million units, the one millionth Model 94 was presented in 1927 to President Calvin Coolidge,^[7] and as of 2019 some 7.5 million Model 94's had been produced.^[17]

Savage 1895/1899/99

The Savage Model 1895 was designed and patented in 1893 by Arthur Savage, who also founded the Savage Arms Company in 1894. Entering production in 1895, Savage's rifle had a few revolutionary design changes over prior lever-actions. The Model 1895 was one of the first rifles designed to use smokeless powder, and it was the first lever-action rifle designed to use a bottlenecked cartridge with a pointed (spitzer) bullet. The Model 1895 used Savage's new .303 Savage, a bottlenecked cartridge that was designed to take advantage of the increased pressures of smokeless powder, it also used a pointed spitzer-style bullet.^[18] Pointed bullets have the advantage of having better accuracy and penetration, however they were not used in lever-action rifles with traditional tubular magazines because of safety issues: a cartridge in the magazine sits nose-to-base with the one in front of it, the recoil of the rifle being fired can possibly (however unlikely) cause the bullet's point to act like a firing pin and set the round in front of it off; this is why lever-action rifles traditionally use round-nose bullets.^[19] Arthur Savage solved this problem by designing the Model 1895 with a rotary spool magazine, in this style of magazine the rounds sit next to each other in a cylindrical sprocket, instead of end-to-end.^[20] The Model 1895 was also revolutionary for being the first successful, truly hammerless lever-action rifle.^[18][20] The Model 1895 evolved into the Model 1899, then the Model 99, and was in production from 1895-1997. It was one of the most successful hunting rifles in history, with one million rifles being sold by 1960.^[21]

Other Examples

Early Lever-action Pistol

The Rudolf Oesterreich 1881 was an Austrian lever action pistol with an underbarrel tube magazine that ejected the spent cartridges rearwards when reloading. Similar firearms such as the Joseph Schulhof 1884 and a design by Franz Passer and Ferdinand Seidl in 1887.^[22] Paul Mauser proposed a pistol and carbine using a similar operation.

American Civil War

The Henry and Spencer rifles were used in the US Civil War, in fact the Henry was credited with giving the Union Army a number of victories due to its rapid and highly accurate fire. Major William Ludlow stated after the Battle of Allatoona Pass: "What saved us that day was the fact that we had a number of Henry rifles. This company of 16 shooters sprang to the parapet and poured out such a multiplied, rapid and deadly fire, that no men could stand in front of it and no serious effort was made thereafter to take the fort by assault.”^[9] The Henry's extremely high magazine capacity of 16-rounds made the rifle infamous with the Confederates, most of whom were still using single-shot muskets, with them calling the Henry "That damn Yankee rifle you can load on Monday, and shoot 'til Sunday".^[9]

Spanish-American War

The Winchester Model 1895, Winchester's first lever-action rifle to use an internal clip-fed box magazine, was used by some of the Rough Riders during the Spanish-American War in 1898.^[26] While the primary rifle of the U.S. Army at the time was the Springfield Model 1892, the military designation for the bolt-action Krag–Jørgensen rifle. Winchester Model 1895s were issued to some troops due to a shortage of the Krag rifles, the 1895 was chosen because it was available in several cartridges being used by the military including the .30-40 Krag (also called .30 Army), .30-30 Winchester, and .303 British, and was loaded the same way the M1892 was. Colonel Theodore Roosevelt carried a Winchester Model 1895 chambered in .30 Army while leading the Rough Riders.^[27]

Spanish Civil War

Lever-action rifles were used extensively during the 1930s by irregular forces in the Spanish Civil War. Typically, these were Winchesters or Winchester copies of Spanish manufacture. At least 9,000 Model 1895 rifles are known to have been provided by the Soviet Union in 1936 to the Spanish Republicans for use in the Spanish Civil War.^[28] Both the Russian Empire and the United States adopted the Winchester Model 1895 as a military weapon.^[29]

During World War I and World War II, due to battle rifles being badly needed overseas, approximately 1,800 special ordinance-marked Winchester Model 94 carbines were issued to troops stationed along the Canada–United States border and Mexico–United States border, National Guard home guard troops, and members of the Army Signal Corps.^[16]