Lever Guns Making A Comeback

Above, my Winchester 94 .30-30 rifle. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

It seems that after I bought my 1962-vintage Winchester 94 .30-30 rifle, everyone else is clamoring to get one or other lever-action rifles. 

I had been on the lookout for a pre-1964 Winchester 94 and finally found one at right price in April 2019. It is my favorite rifle.

According to Guns Magazine, lever-action rifles are making a big comeback.

Here's a snippet of a new article they posted:

Back in the 1970s, it seemed as though lever-action rifles were about dead. The Winchester 94 still sold well but most were “commemoratives” of one sort or another, intended to be collected and stored away untouched and unused. Those who bought Marlin or Winchester .30-30 hunting rifles were either old timers or nostalgic youngsters who figured they should get one of the classics before they were discontinued. Lever-actions for “modern” cartridges were not faring well — the Winchester 88 and Sako Finnwolf were discontinued, the Savage 99 was barely hanging on. Only the relatively new Browning BLR seemed fairly secure. Big-bore lever-actions chambered for cartridges such as .444 Marlin, .45-70 or .375 Winchester had fans who certainly helped keep lever-actions alive. Such shooters never wavered in their devotion but hardly constituted a mass market.

Nonetheless, in recent years the lever-action has shown a remarkable comeback. Although it isn’t a development I expected or would have predicted, as one who grew up in an era of lever-actions, it is a development I welcome. Looking back, several elements came into play.

To read more, go here.