Few hunting rifles can knock the dust off nostalgia with the same force they hammer a deer. Henry "gets it" and recently added a .45-70 to its stable of American-made lever guns.
A legendary brand was launched in 1866, and 150 years later Winchester is celebrating its founding with a series of commemorative offerings. Among them is a once-in-a-lifetime series of 10, pre-production rifles, chambered in 44-40, of the "One of Five Hundred" Model 1866 "Yellow Boy."
It was 150 years ago that the name “Winchester” was first stamped on a rifle. But Winchester’s narrative began well before that, and it is a tale tied to the American West, to the wars of the 20th century, to big personalities such as John Browning and John Olin, and to the manufacture of billions of cartridges and millions of rifles and shotguns beloved by generations of Americans.
What a difference Nelson King's patented loading gate makes. The Henry was cool, but the 1866 was the first of the Winchesters. Although they stopped making the 1866 more than a century ago, Winchester brought them back this year—but others have made them since the 1960s.
Marlin is expanding a number of its lines in 2017—the big bores included. The Model 444, chambered in, predictably, the hard-hitting .444 Marlin cartridge, will return to the company's lineup.