My full range of Marlins. Left to right, 1895 in .45-70, 1894 in .45 Colt, and a 39A Mountie in .22LR.
Then there are the Winchesters. Left to right, 1886 Extra Light Rifle in .45-70, then a real oddball (right up my alley). Model 71 in .348 Winchester.
Sometime in the 1930's Winchester quit using the year of introduction as the model number and just began numbering sequentially. Thus, the Model 71 came right after the Model 70. The Model 71 was an improved 1886, the strongest lever action they had ever made. Which was a good thing, it chambered the new .348 Winchester, probably the original "short magnum" if there ever was one. The .348 was their last gasp effort to keep their bread and butter lever gun relevant to modern hunters, who were adopting the bolt gun in droves. The .348 represented a significant step up in lever gun performance, launching 200 grain bullets at pretty much the same muzzle velocity as the .30-'06 did 180 grain bullets. Factory loads included, in addition to the 200 grain, a 250 and a 300 grain load.
The Model 71 and the .348 chambering were a direct "1:1" relationship. The Model 71 was never available in any other caliber. The .348 was never chambered in any other rifle. They both died, commercially, in the 1950's. Shooting one today is strictly a hand loading proposition.
Here it is alongside the .30-'06.
