That didn’t last. There were new variations late in the 19^th century in lever guns, guns like the 1899 Savage with its rotary magazine that allowed the use of spitzer-type bullets, for instance. But perhaps the ultimate design of the lever-action rifle was the brainchild of the same man responsible for the immortal 1892 and 1894 Winchesters. That man was John Browning, and his ultimate lever-gun design was the 1895 Winchester. This new rifle did away with the tubular magazine, which limited the shooter to flat-point bullets to avoid a catastrophic chain-fire of rounds in the magazine. Instead, Browning designed his big new lever gun with a box magazine, which enabled the new lever gun to use a wider range of cartridges, including the  7.62×54mmR, .303 British, .30 Army (.30-40 Krag,) .30-06, .35 Winchester, .38-72 Winchester, .40-72 Winchester, and .405 Winchester. This was the strongest lever gun available, allowing it to use the new, powerful smokeless powder rounds that just wouldn’t work in older designs.

John Browning’s Ultimate Lever Gun

The new rifle caught on quickly. This was before the Great War when many American men went Over There and came back with a new appreciation for bolt guns gained from their handling of the 1903 Springfield and M17 Enfield rifles. Lever guns were where it was at, and the big, powerful 1895 was the acme of the type.

You may notice the inclusion of the 7.62x52R Russian cartridge among the 1895’s chamberings. As it happens, Imperial Russia, in 1915, was desperate for small arms and so purchased 300,000 1895 Winchester rifles in that caliber, modified with stripper clip guides and bayonet lugs. They soon learned that a lever gun wasn’t the ideal piece for soldiers in the trenches, as every cycling of the action opened up the bottom of the receiver for mud and debris – but this does represent the single largest post-1865 purchase of any lever-action rifle by any major military, and these Russian 1895s made up a significant portion of the total production of the rifle. 

Then came one of those remarkable pairings of man and rifle: Theodore Roosevelt and his “Big Medicine,” an 1895 Winchester chambered in the .405 Winchester cartridge.

The .405 Winchester, introduced for the 1895 Winchester rifle in 1904, was, at the time, the most powerful lever-gun cartridge available. It used a rather odd-sized bullet, measuring .411 instead of the more normal .423, as used (for example) in the .404 Jeffries. But it was a real thumper, punching out a 300-grain pill at 2200 feet per second, which was a pretty impressive set of statistics for the first few years of the 20^th century. It was also chambered in the Remington-Lee bolt gun as well as the Winchester 1885 single-shot, and later in the Ruger #1 falling-block single shot. It’s still available, in the 1895 Winchester resurrection marketed by the company bearing the Winchester name and trademark today.

Big Medicine

Teddy Roosevelt was a gun guy and loved to hunt. Before being president, he was known for his robust embrace of the rugged outdoor life, and that continued after his term in the White House, and the big 1895 Winchester was among his favorite arms.

Roosevelt most famously carried “Big Medicine” on an African safari in 1909. Teddy and his traveling companions were funded on the expedition by Andrew Carnegie and sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution, for whom they were charged with taking samples – and take samples they did. Lots of them. I wrote about the expedition as part of a larger story on Teddy, one of my personal heroes, last year.

See Related: Portrait of an American Hero: Theodore Roosevelt, the Hurricane Who Walked Like a Man

As I wrote in that story:

Shortly after handing over the White House to William Howard Taft, Roosevelt went hither to Africa as part of the Smithsonian-Roosevelt Africa Expedition, his purpose being to gather zoological specimens for several museums. He immortalized this trip in his book, "African Game Trails."

The safari covered a large part of the continent and killed or trapped over 11,000 animals, ranging from insects to elephants, all of which were sent to the Smithsonian Institution and the American Museum of Natural History in New York for display. After the safari, Roosevelt proceeded to Europe, there to jaw with (among others) Kaiser Wilhelm II, King George V, and Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary. He capped this in 1910 by becoming the first U.S. president to fly in an airplane.

It was a busy time for the energetic former president. As for the safari: Teddy Roosevelt and his host of companions set out only days after Roosevelt’s presidency ended in March of 1909. They arrived in British East Africa (Kenya) in April, and commenced taking samples; all in all, as noted above, the expedition indeed bagged over 11,000 critters, including, reportedly, 4,000 birds, 2,000 reptiles and amphibians, 500 fish, and almost 5,000 mammals. Roosevelt wrote about the performance of Big Medicine in his book, “African Game Trails,” which is a ripping read. In describing weaponry, Teddy wrote:

The Winchester and the Springfield were the weapons one of which I always carried in my own hand, and for any ordinary game I much preferred them to any other rifles. The Winchester did admirably with lions, giraffes, elands, and smaller game, and, as will be seen, with hippos. For heavy game like rhinoceroses and buffaloes, I found that for me personally, the heavy Holland was unquestionably the proper weapon.

Teddy used a big Holland & Holland double for elephants, but favored the Winchester for lions and other medium-sized game:

Tarlton took his big double-barrel and advised me to take mine, as the sun had just set and it was likely to be close work; but I shook my head, for the Winchester 405 is, at least for me personally, the “medicine gun” for lions.

Note that Teddy himself did not, apparently, use the term “Big Medicine,” that appellation being applied by writers later on; instead, he referred to the Winchester as his “medicine gun.” And, as noted, he thought it good medicine for lions, which are not beasts that should be taken lightly. It’s unclear how many lions Roosevelt sent to their reward with the 1895 Winchester, but it was probably more than a few.

Any story about guns that includes the original Winchester Repeating Arms Company, John Browning, and Teddy Roosevelt, well, that’s a story that’s hard to beat. But in this case, there’s a great sequel. Not only is the 1895 Winchester back in production, but it has a more modern successor in the Browning Lever Rifle, likewise a box-magazine-fed rifle using modern high-velocity hunting rounds. It’s a great piece, worthy of the Browning name, and we can’t help but think that Teddy Roosevelt would have approved.