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Then and Now: The Winchester ’94 Lever Action Rifle

A look at 120 years of the best-selling sporting rifle in American history

By Aram von Benedikt | Published Jan 11, 2016 10:25 PM

A trail-worn Winchester '94 carbine beside Winchester's newer Trails End model. Aram von Benedikt
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I strolled along, reluctantly following my wife into the house with the “Yard Sale” sign out front. Though she and my kids were brimming with excitement about treasures they might find hidden in the dark recesses of the century-old home, I was doubtful that it held anything capable of rousing my pulse.
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Wandering into a back bedroom, I went on point tighter than a quail dog. Leaning in a corner was an old Winchester ’94 carbine—as trail-worn and tough looking as John Wayne in The Cowboys.

Twenty minutes later I was headed out the door with the old ’94 and a grin that lasted at least three days. I researched the lovely beat-up old lever-action: It was a saddle-ring model in .25/35, bluing all but worn away, and the air of a veteran about it. Sporting a serial number below one million, the rifle was manufactured in 1919. Almost a century later, this old rifle still shoots true and functions smoothly and reliably.
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The author, testing the Trail’s End model from Winchester.

Winchester lever-actions in various models (’73, ’86, ’92) deservedly earned the moniker The Gun That Won the West. Arriving somewhat late on the scene, the ’94 is praised as “the ultimate lever-action design,” and is the last and greatest of a long legacy of rifles designed when lever-actions carried more authority than the law.

Continued:
https://www.outdoorlife.com/articles/guns/2016/01/then-and-now-winchester-94-lever-action-rifle/

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John aka NitroX

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