It's no secret here that I'm a lever gun and single shot fanatic. I've gone on and on regarding the virtues of the lever gun not just as a hunting rifle, but as a viable, effective defensive or "combat" arm. Especially for the civilian concerned with urban unrest of some sort.
It's advantages are many, when weighed against the immensely popular modern "black rifle" in all its guises. Chief among these advantages is its tubular magazine, in that it can be continuously "topped off" without taking the gun out of action. It can be fired every bit as quickly, if aimed fire is the goal, as any "black rifle". It's available in a broad range of chamberings, from revolver calibers to some very powerful rifle calibers. The revolver caliber guns can share ammo with, well, your revolver.
The public at large finds them less offensive than those "evil black rifles". Lever guns remind folks of John Wayne rather than Rambo. They look rather unassuming. A pickup with one in the rear window gun rack barely rates a second glance, even in many big cities. A black rifle so displayed will bring out the SWAT team in short order.
I've also mentioned before just how much fun they are to shoot. And how much fun I have had over the years at the gravel pit, beating up on the Rambo wannabe's with their black rifles and "tactical gear" in friendly shooting contests.
Well, this month's
Rifle magazine landed in my mail box last night. The first thing I always read is Mike Venturino's column. Lo and behold, this month's column is about "ugly rifles", or the often erroneously dubbed "assault rifle". In it, Mike relates a story about attending Clint Smith's
Thunder Ranch tactical shooting school with, of all things, an 1892 Winchester of 1914 vintage, in .38-40 caliber. There is actually a far more important "big picture" message in Mike's column, but I really enjoyed the few paragraphs about his
Thunder Ranch experience.
Yup, Mike is in there with the "tactical" crowd and, by the sound of it, giving them a little shooting lesson. I love it. We are certainly on the same page with this stuff; Mike's experiences so closely parallel my own. Great stuff (scroll down to Mike's column):
http://www.riflemagazine.com/magazine/PDF/R%20245%20Partial%20.pdf