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.
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.
Big Horn Armory has announced that its popular big-bore lever-action rifles will soon be available in a 16-inch-barreled "Trapper" variant. Short-barreled versions of the company's popular rifles, which are chambered in cartridges like .500 S&W Mag., .460 S&W Mag. and .454 Casull, are due to be available in 2017.