FALL 2019
duction now, the Model 1894 remains the
most popular lever-action rifle ever.
Theodore Roosevelt used a Model 1894
in .30-30 (what he called the “little .30”)
on Western hunts, fitting another witha
Maxim silencer for home use at Sagamore
Hill. He may have presented an 1894
(some sources indicate an 1886) to Holt
Collier, a slave who had served as the
Confederacy’s only Mississippi-born
black soldier at the age of 14. After the
war, Collier worked as a dog handler. On
a 1902 hunt with the president, he ropedand
pulled to shore a bear that had soughtrefuge
in a lake. Roosevelt refused to kill it. Cliff
Berryman put “Teddy’s Bear” in a Washington
Post cartoon. The toy industry responded.
Five years later, in Louisiana, thepresi-
dent got another chance. Again, Collier
handled the hounds. “Mr. Clive,” he urged
the hunt master, “don’t put him on no stand.
He ain’t no baby.” Roosevelt couldn’t have
asked for higher praise. The bear he took at
20 yards would be his last.
Other Makes
At the turn of the 20th century, Winchester
was the dominant firearms maker stateside.
But other lever-action rifles challenged the
New Haven stable. John Mahlon Marlin
was 18 in 1853 when he apprenticed as an
unpaid machinist in Connecticut. Histop-
ejecting Model 1881 in .40-60 and .45-70
begat the short-action 1888 by L.L. Hepburn
and the solid-top 1889. Side-ejecting rifles
wouldfindincreasingfavor.Hepburn
designedtheModel 1893 for.30-30-length
loads. TR, who would eventually ownat
least 20 Winchesters, liked this rifle.Onhis
1909 African safari, a Marlin 1893 in.25-36
served as the only lever action in hisarsenal
that wasn’t a Winchester.
Arthur Savage’s hammerless No. 1
repeating rifle earned patents in 1892.
In U.S. Ordnance trials, however, it was
upstaged by the Krag-Jørgensen bolt-action
rifle. Mr. Savage reconfigured his rifle
for hunters and formed the Savage Arms
Company in Utica, New York, in 1894.The
Model 1895, then the 1899, fired the.303
Savage cartridge, much like the .30-30but
with a heavier bullet. TR praised hisSavage
Model 1899 as one of the best-builtrifles
he’d ever owned. Other notable hunters,
including W.T. Hornaday, Harry Caldwell
and Roy Chapman Andrews, did the same.
Smokeless powder helped meet the
demand for ever-more-potent rifles. The
stout Winchester Model 1886 and kin bottled
the pressures generated by the likes of the .33
Winchester. Hurling 2,150 foot-pounds of
energy (fpe) out the muzzle, it trounced the
.45-75 with its 1,480 fpe. Marlin added the
.33 to its Model 1895 roster. Savage would
follow with its speedy .250, and later a .300.
Meanwhile, John Browning built for
Winchester a lever-action rifle with a box
magazine. The vertical stack (like Savage’s
spool) allowed for the safe use of pointed,
flat-flying bullets. Nicely machined, if
heavy, Winchester’s Model 1895 was
bored for hard-hitting rounds: the .303
30-06, .35 Winchester and .405 Winchester.
Theodore Roosevelt took to it immediately.
oon after his second term as president—
ervice and so protected 193 million acres of
ammunition and spare parts. He brought
along five Winchester Model 1895s, with one
in .30-06 and the rest in .405 Winchester.
One was also fitted with a Maxim silencer.
He declared the .405 “medicine for lions.”
Roosevelt also presented a Model 1895 to
General Leonard Wood, a career soldier and
Medal of Honor recipient, on his appoint-
ment as governor-general of Cuba. Wood
had charge of the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry
in 1898. TR had been second in command.
Arguably the Republican presidential hope-
ful for 1920, Theodore Roosevelt died at the
age of 60, early in 1919. He missed the 1936
debut of Winchester’s .348 Model 71, to replace
the Model 1886. But he’d have liked the 71.
In a late retrospective, Roosevelt
declared, “I do not believe that any presi-
dent ever has had as thoroughly good a
time as I have had.” Surely our 26th presi-
dent also bore in mind a full life afield with
his beloved Winchesters! ✪
32 GUNS OF THE OLD WEST
ROOSEVELT’S RIFLES
available today. (Above) Cliff Berryman’s
“Teddy’s Bear” Washington Post cartoon.
