January 2010 Feature Article:
If you're a serious gun nut and you haven't noticed the increased interest in shooting, reloading and hunting with old style guns in the last decade you've probably been in a coma. Rifles and shotguns that haven't come out of the closet in eighty years are being brought into the daylight, getting cleaned off and carried out to ranges and hunting fields. This particularly includes classic old lever action and single shot rifles. I haven't been immune from this old-gun bug myself, as an 1894 lever action in .38-55 is one of my current project guns.
The Winchester I'm working on is a great example because it's been in production for well over one hundred years. But that old lever gun and all the other golden oldies hunting again aren't the same guns Winchester and other manufacturers are producing today. Today's guns might look similar but they are built of better materials, to tighter tolerances and have improved safety features. On the 94 in particular, the manufacturer has added a tang safety and a rebounding hammer. And while I often hear knowledgeable gun people bemoaning the addition of a safety as a cosmetic detraction, I never hear anyone complaining it makes the gun less safe. While those same Winchester experts will know every intricacy of the 94's mechanism, including how to use it properly and safely, too many hunters don't. A recent incident I'm familiar with serves as an illustration. Read more...
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