Leverguns and the Mil..

[stevemb]

Ok, so cowboys and settlers and such embraced the levergun. Why NOT the military ? A matter of timing ? At each time in history when there was a search for a new rifle, was the levergun at that point a poor choice ? Too complex, moving part-wise ? I wanna know. I believe someome here can answer this'n. stevemb

[toroflow]

The Russian military in the 1910s bought and used Winchester 1895's in 7.62x54mm.

[subsonic]

I'm going to guess it is lack of extraction power. Get a "hot" round, debris, corrosion, etc in the chamber and you're done until you can drive it out with a rod from the muzzle. You will note most rifles continued to have full length steel cleaning rods below the bore until well into the 1900s and the AK still has one today. It wasn't because they did a better job of cleaning.

[Frank V]

That & in a tubular magazine dents would put you out of action as a repeater?

Still as a truck gun, hunting gun, home defense gun, & just plain fun gun, the lever is great!

[serialsolver]

It's hard to shoot from the prone with the lever gun. Back then they were concerned with troopers just blasting away and not making shots count. The military did a test with two troopers and 50 rounds each. One with a lever gun one with a trapdoor. The test was to see who could fire 50 rounds first. The trapdoor won. They did not do a lot of training then just a couple of rounds a month.

[bradshaw]

Were this a multiple choice question, I reckon you guys got it right with "C----all of the above."
David Bradshaw

[TERRY MURBACH]

THE MILITARY DID ISSUE A LEVERGUN, the Spencer. They also learned their lesson well as leverguns tend to be cranky and less than REALLY sturdy on the battlefield where soldiers beat the crap out of everything they lay hands upon.

[rkcohen]

marlin submitted a rifle for testing - stipulating that SMALL primers be utilized in the ammunition IOT reduce the possibility of chain-fire.

the army did not and in fact the marlins chain-fired.

and were rejected.

as mentioned, the russians embraced the win 95 in 7.62x54.

despite the fact that many countries had already begun moving to repeating rifles, senior officers (many of whom were hold-overs from the war between the states) were unduly wary of troops being able to put out what was at the time considered a high rate of fire.

which is one of the reasons that as late at the 1903 springfield - there was a provision made for single loading...

[groo]

Groo here
The US DID issue win 94's in WW2 to the personal that were guarding the forest of the Pacific north west.

[TERRY MURBACH]

AND LET US NOT FORGET: ON the first day of WWI the French gummit ordered from Winchester 1500 model 1894 30-30 carbines along with 1, 500,000 rounds of ammuntion, for use by the French Navy. I have always wondered how many of the Hun felt the sting of a 30-30 rifle bullet.

[450ak]

Google the Battle of Plevna, Winchester 66s in combat and stacking the enemy in windrows!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[stevemb]

French navy...shooting at Huns ? It is possible they are still in pristine condition...just sayin'. stevemb

[TERRY MURBACH]

Jun 28, 2013 7:07:34 GMT -5 stevemb said:

French navy...shooting at Huns ? It is possible they are still in pristine condition...just sayin'. stevemb

YOU ARE MIS-NOTING YOUR HISTORY. The Franch lost 5,000,000+- men in four years of WWI because THEY did all the heavy lifting. We lost 50,000 in eighteen months or so because those 5MIL Frenchmen had also drained the Hun at the same rate or more. OURS was a Sunday walk-in-the-park in comparison.

[stevemb]

Am just up for church now. Thank you for correcting me. stevemb

[bobl44]

Hmm leverguns vs trapdoors? I think that was called the little big horn?