I bought this Winchester 71 this past weekend at a local gun show. It, too, has stories to tell - stories that have been silenced forever by its former owner's death. One of his friends was at the show selling the deceased man's collection, which included a lot of neat leverguns. The dealer told me that this 71 was his friend's main hunting rifle for over 50 years. If I got the story right, the man was the original owner of this gun, produced somewhere around 1947. The gun has aged gracefully. He obviously cared for it well, but its blue wear is quite telling.
The first thing that struck me about this gun was that that bottom of the receiver forward of the lever and around up both sides was worn smooth. I placed it in my hand, confirming my suspicion that the worn area was the perfect balance point for carrying the gun. The top left side of the barrel shank has a small wear area that was perfectly covered by my right thumb as I held the gun in this position. The top corner of the right side of the receiver also showed wear - wear that perfectly matched the area covered by the heel of my hand as the gun's weight rested in it.
Not only was this gun cared for, it was carried - a lot. It was carried by a man who hunted a lot on foot and knew exactly how to balance a levergun for long walks. This same man was right handed and his hands were nearly exactly the same size as mine. The fit of my hand is an eerily perfect match to the worn areas on the gun.
I wish the gun could tell of the game it has killed. I wish it could share with us the sunrises it saw and the evenings spent hiking out of the woods at the end of a long day. These stories will now be told only in our imaginations as we dream of where this classic rifle has been and what it has seen. I am proud, though, that my hand, a perfect fit for that of the gun's former owner, will carry on that tradition. Only, I hope to pass the rifle, along with all its new stories, on to the hands of another generation personally.
One of the last, great hunting rifles of a bygone era.
The serial number tells us this gun began life in 1947. The smooth wear tells us that this gun has been carried a lot since then.
The man obviously had good taste in sights. Note the wear on the bottom edge of the receiver - wear from the fingertips of the former owner's right hand.
The above wear shown again, with the wear on the barrel shank from the right thumb.
The top edge of the right side of the receiver shows wear from the palm of the hunter's hand. While many leverguns show that they were carried long miles in saddle scabbards, guns like this whisper of years spent afield on foot.
