"Single Action don't mean slow"

Thats about the standard that I've seen the last 3 days shooting at CowTown (1 day Wild Bunch, 2 days Main Match). Tomorrow I start Wild Bunch at Winter Range. Watching some of these guys shoot Wild Bunch would make some of the IPSC wannabes green with envy. By the way this is 9 days of the best fun you will ever have shooting. YeeHaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
 
I actually wonder why they went away from lever action to bolt action for military rifles. Levers are really fast, and have huge mag capacity.

Is it because of the really pointy spritzer bullets?
 
Wow, I though only Chuck Connors could shoot like that.

Look like very manageable low-recoil type loads, no 45-70s for sure. . . That guy at 2:01 was incredibly fast.
 
I'm watching cowboy movies all day. Glad I stumbled into this. I have A LOT of practice to do on my quest to be the fastest gun slinger lol
 
JR Hartman said:
I actually wonder why they went away from lever action to bolt action for military rifles. Levers are really fast, and have huge mag capacity.

Is it because of the really pointy spritzer bullets?
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Well the main reasons I imagine would have been that bolt actions are easier to manufacture/maintain. At that time the metallurgy was not very advanced so lever actions couldn't handle the same power as a bolt action. Bolt actions tend to be quicker to load via stripper clip (chargers) or mannlicher clips (they didn't use do magazine changes back then). Bolt actions are also easier to train people on there use. Bolt actions were also cheaper to produce. And because lever actions used pistol sized rounds at that point in time they couldn't shoot half as far (remember they expected infantry to be shooting over 2k away in some cases eg. the earlier Lee Enfields with the volley sights). They were also concerned with ammunition consumption before the first world war, hence the magazine cut off on most older bolt action rifles.

These are probably the main reasons that Bolt actions were chosen over lever actions. The only country that I can think of that ever ordered a significant amount of lever actions for military usage was the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) and this was during the Crimean War which I will say reportedly did very well but the Russians were armed with single shot rifles.
 
Eaglelord17 said:
At that time the metallurgy was not very advanced so lever actions couldn't handle the same power as a bolt action. ... And because lever actions used pistol sized rounds at that point in time they couldn't shoot half as far.
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What about the Winchester Model 1886; it was chambered in 45-70!

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Eaglelord17 said:
The only country that I can think of that ever ordered a significant amount of lever actions for military usage was the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) and this was during the Crimean War which I will say reportedly did very well but the Russians were armed with single shot rifles.
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A little bit later but the Imperial Russian army supplemented their Mosin-Nagant inventory during WW I with Winchester Model 1895s chambered in 7.62x54R. And IIRC, they could be loaded using stripper clips.

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Curmudgeon said:
What about the Winchester Model 1886; it was chambered in 45-70!
A little bit later but the Imperial Russian army supplemented their Mosin-Nagant inventory during WW I with Winchester Model 1895s chambered in 7.62x54R. And IIRC, they could be loaded using stripper clips.
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There are exemptions to every rule. 45-70 isn't the most long ranged high velocity round out there (part of the reason the Krags were dropped by the States). The Russian Winchesters would be pretty cool to own but they still are not as practical as the bolt action for standard use/production. Russia was getting those simply because they needed firearms, if they had the choice of Mosin Nagants or those Winchesters they would choose the Mosin Nagants every time.

Edited here: I made a mistake on the Krags they used 30-40 Krag not 45-70. My point is though that the 45-70 is not a very effective round for ranged shooting, especially when compared to rounds like the 30-06, 8mm Mauser etc.
 
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Awesome video indeed.

Last week I was visiting friends in North Carolina so did a Google search for cowboy action and went out to the local range to observe a shoot. I was highly impressed and there were 2 old guys there that were super fast. A few were super slow as well and everyone seemed to be enjoying the event.

My home range doesn't do cowboy action and I'll have to check out why... The neighboring club in Kingston does cowboy action but their membership is full and closed off. Will have to do some snooping around as I'm impressed with what I saw down south.
 
The lever actions made me feel warm and fuzzy ...

Ive seen several marlin lever actions put up outstanding accuracy at 100 yards ... in .45 and 30-30
 
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