While many of the American frontier’s most famous arms are well known today, few have had the distinction of becoming a working classic for as long as the Browning-designed 1886 Winchester lever-action rifle.
The big rifle was a favorite of many Old West frontiersmen, including President Theodore Roosevelt, frontier scout Al Sieber, bank robber Henry Starr, a number of peace officers like Oklahoma’s Heck Thomas, as well as numerous American hunters. A Winchester 1886 rifle was picture

December 2012
In This Issue:
Western Books & Movies
More In This Issue
- Kid Curry’s Last Gunfight
- Remington’s Second Life
- Hanging Your Hat in Colorado’s Historic Hotels
- 10 for 10: Grapevine, Texas
- Tom Van Dyke
- Gold Rush Genealogy
- December 2012 Events
- Hometown Visionaries
- Did the last hanging in the Old West take place in Santa Rosa, California?
- Did women in the West buy their foodstuffs in bulk?
- Do you agree with Maurice Kildare, who claimed the men hanged for the Bisbee Massacre were not the culprits?
- What camera equipment did Tombstone photographer C.S. Fly use?
- What kind of beans did cowboys cook on the trail?
- A Dickens Christmas
- Let’s Rodeo
- Fine Fruitcakes
- The Dalton Death Rifle?
- Remembering D.L. Birchfield
- The Geronimo Trap