It’s ironic that one of the quintessential American firearm actions also happens to be one of the least-explored by the American firearm industry. The lever-action is not a new notion, a fact outlined by Smith & Wesson in its release of the Model 1854, so-named for the year that Horace Smith and Dan Wesson built a company around their Volcanic Repeating Rifle, a design that dated to the 1840s. Despite their best efforts, the Volcanic was a failure. Smith & Wesson went on to do bigger and better things, while Oliver Winchester bought the Volcanic company and its assets and directed his shop foreman, Benjamin Tyler Henry, to “make this fool gun work.” Of course, he did, and the rest, as they say, is history…
Read the full story here at americanrifleman.org.
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