Winchester announced its Model 1894 rifle in October that year, in. 30-30 became our first smokeless sporting round. 44-40 appeared in the short-action Winchester 1892 and Marlin 1894 lever rifles. The advent of smokeless powder in the early 1890s brought new rifles and new cartridges to deer hunters. 44-40 cartridge Winchester had introduced in its 1873 lever rifle, hunters and homesteaders flocked to buy both. When Colt chambered its Model 1873 Peacemaker revolver for the. But a lever-action was slim and lightweight, and delivered a tube-full of firepower at a head-long rate. Hawken muzzleloaders were far more powerful! Ditto the single-shot Remington Rolling Block, Sharps 1874 and (Browning’s) Winchester 1885 cartridge rifles. But its 216-grain bullet, driven by 26 grains of black powder, ambled along at only 1,025 fps. The Henry must have delighted deer hunters then. Browning fashioned a stronger lock-up after his dropping-block single-shot action-and designed for Winchester its 1886, 18 rifles. The Henry rifle, proven by Union troops in the Civil War, fathered the Model 1866 that saved Oliver Winchester’s New Haven Arms Company from bankruptcy. Gunsmithing by Lewis Jennings, Horace Smith, and Daniel Wesson improved Hunt’s Volitional Repeater B. A tube under the barrel held a stack of rocket balls-hollow-base bullets with black powder secured in the cavities by paper caps. One of those repeaters had the form and function that would define deer rifle.ĭuring the late 1840s Walter Hunt, who also invented the safety pin, developed a lever rifle with a pill-box device to advance primers. But the Hawken and kin remained popular for decades into the era of metallic primers and repeating rifles. During the brief period of the Rendezvous, Ohio brothers Jake and Sam Hawken built the most celebrated of these rifles in their St. Its spawn, the Plains rifle, had a shorter, big-bore barrel for easy carry on horseback and lethal hits on bison and grizzlies. The Southern rifle hurled heavier balls and wore iron fittings. As settlement pushed past forest with relatively few deer into a wilderness with bigger game and fewer gunsmiths, this long-rifle changed. Oddly enough, its archetype came from Pennsylvania shops run by German immigrants. Hunters in this crowd may or may not insist that rifles have souls.īy the end of the 18th century, the flintlock rifle of the northeast had taken a recognizable shape: the “Kentucky” was long and lean with brass furnishings. When a deer shows up, the rifle in hand comes to cheek as naturally as a blink in a dust devil. They fire rifles when they don’t have to. Those with only several think themselves deprived. Then there are hunters to whom deer season is merely an excuse to carry a rifle. It’s still lethal-though a box of ammo lasts years, because none of it gets fired after Thanksgiving. Silvered steel and scarred walnut attest to days in rough weather and hostile places. During the off-season, it stands in the closet or behind glass, or fills pegs, or the space behind the pickup seat. To some hunters a rifle is merely hardware, used a week in November. By Wayne Van Zwoll, regular contributor, photos courtesy of author
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