My First Levergun (inspired by Bob Hatfield)

[JimT]

el tigre.jpg

EL TIGRE

The Spanish company of Gárate y Anitúa made a copy of the Model 92 Winchester in .44-40 called "El Tigre". These were a very close (if not exact) copy of the Model 92.

Spain was a major patent infringer in making firearms because its patent law had a huge loophole: patents were only enforceable if the patent holder actually built their guns in Spain! The major firearms manufacturers in other countries for some reason did not want to set up plants in Spain, so their patents were not enforced. This allowed Spanish factories to legally copy them.

Garate Anitua y Cia registered their own patent on the design since Winchester hadn’t bothered to do so. That patent was enforced since Garate made the guns in Spain.

They began to market the El Tigre rifles in 1923. The rifles had a 22-inch round profiled barrel marked with the makers name, caliber, and the trademark image of a Tiger. The stock was of Spanish walnut with a 12 3⁄4" Length of Pull. The rifle had a crescent shaped metal butt plate with a trapdoor fitted for storage of a jointed cleaning rod in the butt. A drift-adjusted blade front sight was fitted along with a military leaf rear sight. It was similar to those on the Mauser 1893 rifle and was adjustable to 1000 meters. All were made in .44-40 caliber.

Over one million El Tigres were eventually produced for private sale to hunters, forest rangers, and for police, prison or private security guards. Rural citizen militias and the Guardia Civil both used El Tigre carbines and many were also sold to Latin American police agencies or prisons leading to the widespread misconception that the El Tigre was made in Mexico or some other Latin American country.

These were available in the US in the 1950's and 60's for relatively little money. This was my first leveraction! I was 14 years old and purchased one from the old Jewel Box Pawn Shop in Phoenix, Arizona with my own money. I paid a whopping $45.00 for it and was given a box of factory UMC black powder loads that I promptly shot up. They were over 70 years old in the 1960's but all of them fired.

Chuck Conners carried and El Tigre in his scabbard on the show "The Rifleman". It was used as the saddle gun and for scenes where the gun may get banged around a bit .... saving the more valuable Winchester '92 for the close-up scenes.
Despite their lower cost than the Winchesters, the El Tigres were actually quite good guns, and served their owners well.

Looking back I wish I had never traded it for the dual carb setup for my hotrod. But hey, that's life!

[JimT]

I was handloading by then. My standard load was the keith 250 gr. SWC over 18.5 gr. 2400. This was a pretty hot load in the .44-40 and sometimes resulted in case head separation. The rifle had a bit of excessive headspace. But I shot it at distances to 400 yards with pretty good results and it held up well.

I find it amazing what the original El Tigre's are going for these days.

[gamekeeper]

I used to think they were made south of the border until quite recently... interesting story...

[Bill in Oregon]

I remember seeing those rifles in gun shops back in the day, Jim. They seemed to have a decent reputation for quality in spite of the "made in Spain" stigma that probably wasn't deserved.