What Is A Lever Action Classified As?

[Mark_Mark]

What would you consider this.? It has a Lever, no ammo tube, no exposed hammer, ejects brass like it robbed a bank.

 

[.308 Norma]

“You know your weapons. It's a lever-action, breech loader. Usual barrel length's thirty inches. This one has an extra four. It's converted to use a special forty-five caliber, hundred and ten grain metal cartridge, with a five-hundred forty grain paper patch bullet. It's fitted with double set triggers, and a Vernier sight. It's marked up to twelve-hundred yards. This one shoots a mite further.” Matthew Quigley

 

[Mark_Mark]

“You know your weapons. It's a lever-action, breech loader. Usual barrel length's thirty inches. This one has an extra four. It's converted to use a special forty-five caliber, hundred and ten grain metal cartridge, with a five-hundred forty grain paper patch bullet. It's fitted with double set triggers, and a Vernier sight. It's marked up to twelve-hundred yards. This one shoots a mite further.” Matthew Quigley

I LOVE THE MOVIE!!!!

 

[jrmiddleton425]

Now I'm intrigued.

How is a gun semi auto but single shot?

Recoil-operated automatic ejection.

This gun works the same way:



3 rounds fired at the 7:00 minute mark.

 

[Jim Watson]

I call the Ruger No 1 an "underlever falling block" so as to avoid Internet Confusion with a lever action repeater.

The Winchester Model 55 (Not to be confused with the lever action of the same model number.) is a single shot open bolt .22 single shot.
Cock the bolt back, slide a Long Rifle in the top loading gate, release the automatic safety, and fire. Blowback recocks the bolt, resets the safety, and ejects the empty out the bottom of the action.

 

[Good Ol' Boy]

Here's another unique one for you. A Semi-auto Revolver.

https://www.forgottenweapons.com/early-automatic-pistols/webley-fosbery/

I love learning. That is super interesting. Thanks for sharing.

Seems like that revolver would be classified as a semi auto.

 

[Good Ol' Boy]

What would you consider this.? It has a Lever, no ammo tube, no exposed hammer, ejects brass like it robbed a bank.

View attachment 1089862

A single shot.

 

[Mark_Mark]

A single shot.

I was shooting that gun at deer camp (more like we scared the deer away camp) 45-70. One of the guys said “Nice Lever Action”, I was offended. So I let him shoot it with my super hot 405gn HC. He said it hurt.

 

[Speedo66]

I call the Ruger No 1 an "underlever falling block" so as to avoid Internet Confusion with a lever action repeater.
.

I think the old Ithaca .22 Saddlegun was also a single shot lever action falling block.

A friend had one when they were new and we were young. He cut the stock and barrel to make it look like the mare’s leg Steve McQueen carried in “Wanted, Dead or Alive”. Who knew anything about NFA?

 

[Jim Watson]

I think the Ithaca has a top rear pivoted tipping breechblock sort of like a Martini.
Or a Peabody, since it has an external hammer.

 

[Archie]

I do not know for what this information - distinction - is intended. My suspicious mind suggests some 'official' form, but 'simple curiosity' also suggests.

At any rate, my inherently precise mind would consider the standard type level action rifle - to include both the exposed hammer rifles like the traditional Winchesters and the concealed hammer types such as Savage 99s and the Winchester 88 - as: An individual shoulder fired, manually operated, [air cooled] repeating rifle.
That should cover all the salient features, I think. Caliber may or may not be of concern.

 

[Beck]

I didn't read this entire thread, so someone may have already covered it, but a Lever Action as in an 1892 or 94 broadly falls under the designation of "Repeater." But so do any firearms that aren't single-shot, side-by-side double barrels, and over-and-unders. Not counting pepper box designs either.

lever-action Repeating Rifle
Pump-Action Repeating Rifle
Bolt-Action Repeating Rifle

etc...

And semi-autos, AKA self-loaders ultimately fall under the broad umbrella of "Repeater" when it comes down to it.

Henry's 1860 rifle was called Henry's Repeating Rifle before the terms Lever-Action and Levergun became part of common firearms vernacular.

 

[someguy2800]

Repeater

 

[Picher]

I've heard it called a: One-shot full auto!

 

[Coyote3855]

1000 yards for a Henry is optimistic, in my opinion. But a great ad nevertheless.

 

[Picher]

I never shot 1,000 yards...intentionally or otherwise.

 

[Milkmaster]

It's a Winchester Model 55. I saw one at a gun show with a sign on it that said, "Winchester's Edsel."
Just like any other semi-auto, you have to "cock it" for the first shot, then when you shove a round into the chamber through the trapdoor like thing on top, it automatically put's the rifle on "safe."
When you take it off "safe" and fire it, it automatically ejects the empty case out through a port in the bottom of the stock, and re-cocks itself - again, just like any other semi-auto.
My mom and dad gave me my Winchester Model 55 for my 10th birthday in 1958. I'm not sure exactly why Winchester ever came out with such a rifle, but I suspect somebody might have thought it would be a great design for a kid's first gun. I know that's what my mom and dad thought - they told me so.
The thing is though, it wasn't a great design for every kid's first gun. That port in the bottom of the stock where the HOT, spent cases fall out is located right where I placed my left hand when I was 10 years old. I had an almost constant blister in the palm of my left hand until I grew a little.
BTW, I still have that rifle, and it still shoot great 64 years later.

Good old Model 55 is a unique rifle for sure. Here's mine

 

[Milkmaster]

I've heard it called a: One-shot full auto!

An open bolt design is what I think he means. Open bolt designs are open until you pull the trigger. Then the ammo is chambered, fired, and then ejected. There are still a few around from years gone by, but nothing new like that I know of except military arms.

 

[Jim Watson]

Open bolt firearms are effectively illegal now because most are convertible to full automatic.
There are a lot of kluges for closed bolt operation in those "pistols" that used to be submachine guns.

 

[Milkmaster]

Open bolt firearms are effectively illegal now because most are convertible to full automatic.
There are a lot of kluges for closed bolt operation in those "pistols" that used to be submachine guns.

Very true! The old Winchester 55 being a single shot with no magazine was the only thing that kept it from being full auto! Unique firearm for sure. Mine is in great shape. I am told the trap door is the weak point and very hard to find if it breaks. I shoot it a few times every couple of years as an excuse to clean it is all.

 

[.308 Norma]

I am told the trap door is the weak point and very hard to find if it breaks.

Yeppers, mine is already cracked, so I'm very careful when I load it - which isn't often.

 

[bandur60]

Not QUITE following the topic, but the Weatherby XXII is a semi-auto/ single shot 22 rimfire. Selector switch will hold the bolt back after firing in single-shot mode and bolt must be manually released (spring-loaded of course) back into battery for each shot from a five- or ten- round magazine. Functions normally with selector in semi auto mode.

May be some interesting trivia for some folks here.

 

[BigBlue 94]

It’s a lever operated bolt. The trigger is single-action, but nothing revolves.

Savage 99s and Ruger 96s have magazines that revolve...

A revolver as a general design is also a lever action. The hammer is the lever. Same with the handle on a bolt action.

I classify the original '73 I had as an early assault rifle, with its 14 round capacity.

My '73 is in 32-20 with a 30" magazine tube. It holds 17 or 18 rounds!

 

[Varminterror]

This thread feels a lot like discussing what breed of dog a person is…

 

[BigBlue 94]

This thread feels a lot like discussing what breed of dog a person is…

Bermese mountain daschund...