The Golden Days Are Here

In the early 1960s I was a pre-teenager fascinated with hunting and shooting — well, in addition to fishing, camping, hiking, baseball, hockey, archery and even golf. Hunting for the most part meant deer hunting and almost every household had some sort of “deer rifle.”

At this time and place, lever-actions predominated. Old timers (anyone over 40 was an old-timer to me) often had Marlin or Winchester carbines in .30-30 or .32 Special. The more serious hunters generally had a Savage 99 in .300 Savage or .308 Win or a Winchester 88 in .308 Win. I recall a couple of Winchester 100s or Remington 740/742 semiautomatics and one or two Remington 760 pumps.

Military surplus bolt-action rifles were fairly common as they could be purchased for a fraction of the cost of commercial sporting rifles. One friend of my dad’s stands out in my memory because (1) he would sometimes let me tag along when he was hunting, and (2) his rifle was a Winchester 70 .270, both of which were unique in my experience.

Bad Times

For lever-action enthusiasts such as myself, the decades from the ’60s and into the ’90s were a melancholy era. Of the more “modern” lever actions, the Winchester 88 was discontinued in 1973, the Sako Finnwolf in 1974. The Savage 99 staggered along a bit longer. Savage did a good job of maintaining quality — in fact I consider the 99A as made from 1971–1981 one of the neatest 99s ever made. But price increases made necessary by inflation and reduced demand finally took their toll. Other than Winchester commemoratives and Marlin big bores, the lever action market looked dire.

The “Golden Years” Return

But events don’t move just one way. Today the lever-action market is probably stronger than at any time in the postwar era. Some of the reasons:

1. The Browning BLR — Browning kept the concept of the modern lever-action rifle alive with the BLR, adding new models and even adapting the rifle to accept magnum cartridges. The BLR styling may not suit everyone’s taste but it has always been a high quality and reliable rifle

2. Cowboy action shooting — The popular sport created a demand for traditional-style rifles, and a great many makes and models appeared to fill the demand.

3. Pistol-caliber carbines — Cowboy action shooters made pistol-caliber carbines more desirable. A few lever-action fans had long appreciated the utility of a compact, light carbine in .357 or .44 Magnum while new makes and models attracted the attention of many more rifle enthusiasts.

4. Winchester and Marlin are back — Browning/Winchester introduced Miroku-made replicas of several of the classic Winchester models, made to very high standards. Marlin went through some bad times but recently has committed the resources to once again meet the quality standards of a proud name.

5. Henry Repeating Arms — From its beginning with a basic .22 lever action this company has seen amazing growth, adding many new models and chambering for a wider range of cartridges. The company’s uncompromising commitment to quality and customer service has won it a loyal customer base.

And let’s not overlook Big Horn Armory, whose virtually custom-quality rifles are highly prized by discriminating lever-action enthusiasts. For those of us who love lever actions these are good days. My main enthusiasm right now is for compact .357 Magnum carbines. I can’t believe I overlooked such useful and enjoyable rifles for so long!

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