Hunt Volitional Repeaters & Jennings Breechloaders: Tracing the Origins of the Lever-action Rifle

This article explores the firearm designs that eventually led to the Henry and Winchester models of magazine-fed, lever-action rifles. As is so often the case in the history of firearms design, these two iconic rifles were not created ex nihilo, but were born from the cumulative efforts of many years of design work by different individuals. The impacts of the Henry and Winchester rifles on firearms development and military and frontier history are frequent topics of discussion, but the rifles’ predecessors are not nearly as well known. This is especially true with regard to the timeline of their development. Accordingly, this article examines the development history of the predecessors to the Winchester Model 1866, beginning in 1847 with inventors Walter Hunt and Lewis Jennings, and reviews the key design steps that resulted in one of the most iconic of American firearms: the lever-action repeating rifle.