Shawnee
member
From the latter 1800s until the end of WW I, the American hunter – both East and West, and all over Alaska – had hunting rifles. That is – rifles and cartridges that were – by design - eminently suitable for the American hunter. They were lever-actions in such calibers as 30 WCF (30/30), .32 Special., .35 Remington, .44/40 etc.
At the end of the Spanish-American War a few “captured” (read: $0.00) Mexican Mausers made their way home with returning soldiers but the “real” hunting rifles were still the lever-actions - the various Winchesters and the Savage 99. But these rifles cost what they were worth.
At the end of WW I, the Doughboys drug home trainloads of “captured” (read: $0.00) Mausers etc., many kept their Springfields (read $0.00 or CHEAP), and the DCM unloaded thousands more for CHEAP onto the American Public.
American hunters flocked to those bolt-actions because they were a CHEAP alternative to the real hunting rifles – rifles designed for hunting game. NOT because they were suitable for hunting here. In fact, they weren’t so suitable – which gave rise to the cottage industry of Bubba’ing the klunker war guns to try to get them to work decently in the hunting fields.
In the Roaring 20s the gunmakers actually focused more on firepower and that is when we started to see the semi-auto (or “auto”) come on the scene. Lever-actions were still on the production lines but the “new kid on the block” was the semi-auto, and the bolt guns were a pitifully small market among civilians. No money in competing with all that war surplus.
Things stagnated in the depressed years of the 30s and then someone got the idea to throw WW II and the gunmakers responded by gearing up to churn out those Springfields and Garands and M1s etc. – and the lever-action hunting guns went to the back of the bus since everyone was too busy elsewhere to worry about deer hunting, or hunting much of any American game.
At the end of WW II – GI Joe again carted home souvenir military rifles (again for $0., or CHEAP), and the DCM again dumped their excess war guns onto the Public – again for CHEAP. The gunmakers were fully tooled to produce bolt-actions and semi-autos now – especially in calibers the Military liked - and lost no time (or money) in kicking out a raft of such guns and marketing them as hunting rifles.
By this time, too, scopes were losing their former bad reputation as “too fragile” and were starting to be produced within the budget of the newly prosperous 1950’s hunting families. And with that new prosperity came the ability to travel AND all the hype about needing an ex-Military caliber (how financially convenient for the gunmakers) for the “wide open West” and Alaska (where the true hunting rifles - the lever-actions - had rightfully reigned Supreme for 90 years or so.). So by 1960 the American hunter was pretty well convinced he/she needed a scoped bolt-action in a caliber designed to pierce enemy armor at 400yds. so he/she to slay 150-lb. deer at 150yds.
Then Viet Nam came along and since then we pretty much need the ugliest, blackest, semi-auto military “rifle” , man-damager caliber – adaptable to more pinstripes, in-dash accourtements, and hubcaps than the whole line of General Motors cars - we can find if we are to have any hope at all of bagging prairie dogs, woodchucks, coyotes, deer, elk, bears, zombies, or paper targets.
However - there are still – surprisingly – some Neanderthal lunatics around who actually attempt to harvest game with old Roman Candles like the lever-action 30/30s – some of them even without scopes with heat-seeking reticules - because they simply don’t know any better and never got passed Y-1939-Compliant. But they probably can’t hold out much longer.
At the end of the Spanish-American War a few “captured” (read: $0.00) Mexican Mausers made their way home with returning soldiers but the “real” hunting rifles were still the lever-actions - the various Winchesters and the Savage 99. But these rifles cost what they were worth.
At the end of WW I, the Doughboys drug home trainloads of “captured” (read: $0.00) Mausers etc., many kept their Springfields (read $0.00 or CHEAP), and the DCM unloaded thousands more for CHEAP onto the American Public.
American hunters flocked to those bolt-actions because they were a CHEAP alternative to the real hunting rifles – rifles designed for hunting game. NOT because they were suitable for hunting here. In fact, they weren’t so suitable – which gave rise to the cottage industry of Bubba’ing the klunker war guns to try to get them to work decently in the hunting fields.
In the Roaring 20s the gunmakers actually focused more on firepower and that is when we started to see the semi-auto (or “auto”) come on the scene. Lever-actions were still on the production lines but the “new kid on the block” was the semi-auto, and the bolt guns were a pitifully small market among civilians. No money in competing with all that war surplus.
Things stagnated in the depressed years of the 30s and then someone got the idea to throw WW II and the gunmakers responded by gearing up to churn out those Springfields and Garands and M1s etc. – and the lever-action hunting guns went to the back of the bus since everyone was too busy elsewhere to worry about deer hunting, or hunting much of any American game.
At the end of WW II – GI Joe again carted home souvenir military rifles (again for $0., or CHEAP), and the DCM again dumped their excess war guns onto the Public – again for CHEAP. The gunmakers were fully tooled to produce bolt-actions and semi-autos now – especially in calibers the Military liked - and lost no time (or money) in kicking out a raft of such guns and marketing them as hunting rifles.
By this time, too, scopes were losing their former bad reputation as “too fragile” and were starting to be produced within the budget of the newly prosperous 1950’s hunting families. And with that new prosperity came the ability to travel AND all the hype about needing an ex-Military caliber (how financially convenient for the gunmakers) for the “wide open West” and Alaska (where the true hunting rifles - the lever-actions - had rightfully reigned Supreme for 90 years or so.). So by 1960 the American hunter was pretty well convinced he/she needed a scoped bolt-action in a caliber designed to pierce enemy armor at 400yds. so he/she to slay 150-lb. deer at 150yds.
Then Viet Nam came along and since then we pretty much need the ugliest, blackest, semi-auto military “rifle” , man-damager caliber – adaptable to more pinstripes, in-dash accourtements, and hubcaps than the whole line of General Motors cars - we can find if we are to have any hope at all of bagging prairie dogs, woodchucks, coyotes, deer, elk, bears, zombies, or paper targets.
However - there are still – surprisingly – some Neanderthal lunatics around who actually attempt to harvest game with old Roman Candles like the lever-action 30/30s – some of them even without scopes with heat-seeking reticules - because they simply don’t know any better and never got passed Y-1939-Compliant. But they probably can’t hold out much longer.
. Didn't realize a tale that isn't Mil-Spec would ruffle the petticoats of the lever-action-challenged crowd so badly. Sure wish I could say I was sorry. 
