Over 160 years ago, Benjamin Tyler Henry and President Lincoln held target practice on the White House lawn with the 1860 Henry repeating rifle. For the next hundred years, if you wanted a hunting rifle or fighting rifle, the lever action was the prominent choice.
Now, after several decades in decline, the virtues of the lever action have been rediscovered by a whole new generation of shooters. You can take your pick of traditional models as well as newer tactical composite stock models, and even mag-fed lever-action models.
The release of the Henry Supreme at SHOT Show 2025 made waves as it is a lever-action rifle that takes detachable AR-15 magazines instead of relying on a traditional tubular magazine. But lever actions fed by conventional magazines are nothing new.
While age proof compared to more traditional lever action rifles, magazine-fed lever guns lived in the shadow of tube mag guns like the Winchester 1894 and the Marlin 336. But savvy shooters then, and now, understand the strengths.
The story of mag fed lever actions is the story of a solution looking for a problem and generational change in what it means to be a hunter and rifleman. Here is the history of magazine-fed lever-action rifles.
Savage Model 99: The Trendsetter
Arthur Savage might have been a forgotten figure given his proclivity to move around and change careers. He tried his hand at homesteading, wildcatting, working for the railroad, and growing citrus fruit. Thankfully, we get to remember him because he invented the radial tire and the Savage Model 99.
In 1887, he opened Savage Arms. By 1892, he submitted a striker-fired pistol-caliber lever-action rifle with a rotary magazine for the US Army’s rifle trials to replace the single-shot Model 1873 Trapdoor rifle with a modern magazine rifle. It stood no chance, but it got the attention of state militias.
The refined Model 1895 had an action that was strong enough to handle new high-pressure smokeless ammunitions. The .303 Savage that was introduced alongside it stands as the first smokeless sporting cartridge, along with the .30-30 Winchester. The 1895 was given a cocking indicator and a refined sight and magazine system to become the Model 1899—later shortened to the Model 99.
The Model 99 was produced in over a dozen different configurations for both military and sporting use. It also came in just as many cartridges, ranging from .22 Hi Power to big black powder rounds like the .38-55. But the most popular models came in .250 Savage, .300 Savage, .303 Savage and .30-30 Winchester. Later in its production run, it was available with a detachable box magazine and in cartridges like .243 Winchester and .308 Winchester.
Although the Model 1899 was introduced before pointed spitzer bullets, its rotary action allowed you to stack six rounds instead of pushing the ammunition into a tubular magazine, which could throw off barrel harmonics and necessitated the use of blunt-nosed bullets to prevent detonation inside the magazine. All that was avoided with the rotary magazine.
Furthermore, the Savage was favored by mounted hunters and plains hunters thanks to a snag-free hammerless design that chambered cartridges that held a power edge over conventional lever action cartridges. Its side ejection also allowed for the use of a rifle scope. Initially, this was a gunsmithing job, but was later made standard.
The Model 99 is the most prolific mag-fed lever-action rifle with over one million units produced before Savage canceled production, citing high labor costs in 1999.
The Winchester Model 1895: In Peace and War
Winchester is the first name that comes to mind when we think of lever action rifles. Oliver Winchester bought the Henry company and improved versions ranging from the Model 1866 to the prolific Winchester 1894.
The Winchester 1895 debuted the same year as the Savage Model 1895 and it was another solution to the smokeless powder revolution. It featured a fixed box magazine and was beefier built than the Model 1894, allowing it to take larger cartridges that were beyond the latter’s design.
The first models were chambered in the Army’s .30-40 Krag cartridge, but came to be chambered in other cartridges as well. Its strength, combined with its handiness, made it popular with big game hunters. Teddy Roosevelt carried an 1895 chambered in .405 Winchester during his post-presidency adventures in Africa and the Amazon. British big game hunter Kenneth Anderson used a .405 to kill the deadly Sloth Bear of Mysore in 1957.
The Winchester 1895 also had the distinction of outright military adoption by Russia in 1915. The military model was chambered in the 7.62x54R cartridge and could be fed with stripper clips instead of individual rounds. The rifle found favor with Russian forces through World War I and the Russian Civil War, but most were surplused to the socialist regime in Spain during its Civil War in the 1930s. Production came to an end with World War II, of which over 400,000 were produced—close to 3/4 of which went to Russia.
After a long hiatus, the Model 1895 was reintroduced to the Winchester catalog in 2001.
Despite their potential, the Savage 99 and Winchester 1895 did not sell as well as traditional tube-fed rifles. The Winchester 1894 that preceded the 1895 never left production, with over seven million units produced.
Magazine-fed lever-action rifles, despite their appeal, were much more expensive to produce and market. Rifles like the 1894 were cheap to make, and the cartridges it fired were more than adequate for timber hunting that all but the most West-bound Americans found themselves needing. But the concept continued on.
As the Savage 99 continued on in production, it was joined by rifles like the Browning BLR and the Winchester Model 88.
The Browning BLR and Winchester Model 88: The Intermediate Generation
The Winchester Model 88 was introduced in 1955 to answer the growing dominance of bolt-action rifles gained with hunters since the end of World War II. It featured a receiver and action that was similar but more streamlined than the Savage 99. It took detachable box magazines. It also featured a bolt-action like one-piece stock and a forward-locking rotary bolt.
This radical departure for Winchester occurred with the advent of new short action rifle cartridges that allowed for a shorter action and bolt throw. At its introduction, it was chambered in the .308 Winchester and the then-brand-new.243 Winchester. It also came in .284 Winchester and .358 Remington. But the popularity of these cartridges in the Winchester Model 70 bolt action cannibalized sales of the Model 88. It was quietly discontinued in 1973, by which time the Browning BLR entered the scene.
Concurrent to these events, Karl Lewis, a designer for FN in Belgium, sought to make a lever action rifle that shot like a bolt action. Produced under the Browning brand, the BLR rolled off the assembly line in 1971. The BLR remains in production and into the 2000s, was the only available magazine-fed lever-action on the market with the demise of the Savage 99.
The BLR features a detachable box magazine that holds between 3-5 rounds of ammunition, depending on the chambering. The BLR is chambered in bolt-action rifle rounds ranging as small as .22-250 to as large as .300 Winchester Short Magnum and .450 Marlin. It is optics-ready and uses a rotary bolt that locks from the front rather than the rear ,like other lever action rifles. This lock-up is similar to a bolt action rifle and can give better accuracy.
To Beat the Ban: The Fightlite Herring 2024
In the late 2010s, tactical versions of classic lever action designs began to grow in popularity alongside the traditional wood-stocked models. These featured composite stocks, dark furniture, and any number of rails and slots for accessories.
The Mossberg 464 was the first, but the concept caught on with the Marlin Dark Series in 2019 and the later Henry X Models. These were still gate-loading tube-fed designs, but their popularity spurred the next evolution in magazine-fed lever actions like the FightLite Herring 2024.
The Herring is one answer to a features-compliant rifle in states that restrict possession of off-the-shelf AR-15s and other popular semi-automatic rifles. It features a composite, though fixed semi-pistol grip buttstock, but comes with M-Lok slotted handguards for ample accessory mounting.
It takes AR-15 magazines and makes liberal use of AR parts, which makes spare parts logistics that much easier. It even has a distinct upper and lower receiver like an AR, but the lower features a short throw lever linked to standard AR locking bolt and barrel extension.
The Herring is currently available in either .223 Wydle, 5.56 NATO, and .300 Blackout.
The Henry Supreme and Long Ranger: A Sportsman’s Sweet Spot
When Winchester left the United States and Marlin entered a time of troubles, Henry Repeating Arms became the predominant lever action maker. While most of their rifles are conservative designs, their engineers breathed new life in the mag fed lever action even before the tactical lever action made inroads.
The Long Ranger was first introduced in 2017, and it was the first box-fed lever gun since the Browning BLR.
The Long Ranger features Henry’s characteristic checkered walnut stocks and blued furniture. It featured a 4-5 round detachable box magazine and rotary bolt. Unlike the BLR, the Long Ranger is scaled down from big magnum cartridges to standard hunting rounds, including .223 Remington, .243 Winchester, .308 Winchester, and 6.5 Creedmoor.
Henry took the concept to a more utilitarian level over SHOT Show 2025 with the Supreme chambered in .223 Remington or .300 Blackout.
Echoing a mixture of the Long Ranger, the Herring, and the Savage 99, the Henry Supreme retains the forward-locking bolt, uses AR magazines, and has a sleek hammerless design. Although it still sports appealing walnut stocks and a hefty, blued steel receiver, it features a short throw lever and a threaded barrel for suppressor work.
Mag Fed Lever Action Rifles: Worth the Trouble?
There is plenty to mark against mag fed lever guns. There aren’t as many out there and they lack the cowboy appeal of traditional models. On the other hand, mag fed lever guns are equally as handy, and you do not have to settle for round-nosed ammunitions and tubular magazines that can play with downrange accuracy.
Although it doesn’t feed into nostalgia, magazine-fed lever actions have been around nearly as long as lever guns themselves.
The magazine fed lever gun began with the Savage 99 and Winchester 1895, and a quest for more powerful cartridges at the start of the smokeless era. Later, spitzer cartridges kept these designs in action while new rifle cartridges came along in rifles like Browning BLR and Winchester 88, which promised bolt action accuracy and lever gun speed.
Finally, the latest generation of rifles from the FightLite Herring and Henry Supreme represent the modularity and adaptability of the lever gun in the AR era with modern manufacturing processes to bring historically high cost down.
Whether you are looking to channel the spirits of sportsmen past, an answer to state law, or a quick-handling suppressor host, there is a mag fed lever gun out there for you.
