Howdy
No idea who Chris Baker is and don't really care.
When Oliver Winchester began manufacturing the 1860 Henry, the first practical lever action rifle, the first few hundred had iron frames. Production did not actually begin until 1862, during the Civil War. Winchester tried to get military contracts for his rifle, which was the most advanced, state of the art design at the time. That is why he soon had the frames changed from iron to bronze. Yes, bronze, not brass as most shooters believe. Winchester wanted to sell some to the Navy and felt the bronze frames would stand up better to the corrosive atmosphere at sea than an iron frame would. He never did secure any government contracts for the Henry rifle, but as has been stated, several states purchased them for their militia units. And let's be clear about this. The Henry rifle was expensive. It cost a lot to make them. A standard Henry rifle cost $42.00 in 1862. Adjusted for inflation that is $1,082.80 today. Let's not forget too, that the general in charge of procurement of firearms during the Civil War was dead set against repeating firearms. He believed issuing repeating rifles to the troops would result in wasted ammunition. That is why the Civil War was fought almost completely with muzzle loading rifled muskets. The only reason the Spencer carbine was purchased by the Army was because Lincoln personally ordered it, overriding the General's opinion.
Winchester continued for years, trying to obtain military contracts. Although he did not get any from the US government, he sold lots of Model 1866 lever guns to foreign governments. These were usually sold in the 'musket' configuration. During the 19th Century, Winchester and many other manufacturers built their rifles in 3 different configurations. This was not solely based on barrel length. Rifles had a crescent shaped butt plate, the fore end was supported by an internal dovetail and had a metal cap, and the magazine was suspended under the barrel by a hanger dovetailed into the barrel. Carbines were usually shorter than rifles, had differently shaped butt, no fore end cap, and the magazine and fore end were held in place by barrel bands. Muskets were kind of like a carbine on steroids. Longer barrel, barrel bands, bayonet mount, and most important, the fore end extended almost the entire length of the barrel. I always thought the full length fore end on the muskets was weird, but never thought of it until now. I suspect the full length wood was there to protect the magazine, because yes, it is easy to dent the tubular magazine of a lever gun, and if the dent is too big ammunition will not feed.
This photo shows two Winchester Model 1873 Rifles at the top, a long barrel and a shot barrel, a carbine in the middle, and a musket at the bottom. As I said I never thought about it before, but I suspect that since most of these rifled muskets were sold to foreign governments, the extra long wood was there to protect the tubular magazine from being dented.
Oooops, hit reply before I meant to.
Allow me to continue.
Yes, the early lever guns were less massive than the early single shot cartridge rifles. Look for instance at the Trapdoor Springfield. It fired the 45-70 round, with 70 grains of powder inside and a 500 grain bullet. The early lever guns were chambered for much less powerful cartridges, such as the 44 Henry Rimfire, 44-40, and 38-40. The Henry cartridge originally carried a 216 grain bullet over 26 grains of powder. The bullet was later reduced to 200 grains. The 44-40 round was the successor to the Henry round and it had a 200 grain bullet over 40 grains of powder. 38-40 had a 180 grain bullet over 40 grains of powder.
It was not until the Winchester Model 1876 came along that a cartridge of the same class as the 45-70 could be chambered in a lever gun. The 45-75 cartridge carried a 350 grain bullet over 75 grains of powder. It was nominally more powerful than the 45-70, but used a slightly shorter tapered case in order to fit into the toggle link frame. The Model 1876 Winchester, sometimes called the Centennial Model, was a big, heavy rifle, much bigger than the 1860 Henry, 1866 and 1873 Winchesters. It had to be to take the power of the 45-75 round. Yes, I have seen musket configuration 1876 Winchesters, but I don't know if many were sold to foreign governments. If you want to see a Model 1876 Winchester, watch Tom Selleck's movie Crossfire Trail. He had two original 1876s cobbled together into one functioning rifle.
The John Browning designed Model 1886 Winchester was slightly lighter, and much stronger than the Model 1876, and had a frame long enough to accept the same 45-70 round that the Trapdoors fired. As a matter of fact, by that time most of the Trapdoors issued to the Army were the shorter carbine versions and were firing the reduced power 45-70 round with only 55 grains of powder inside.
So I don't know what Chris Baker's problem is with lever guns. Yeah, they cannot compete with an AK47 or an AR15. But they were pretty darn good at the time they first came out.
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