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Replica and much more
— Action Arms, December 2011 —
by Alessandro Magno Giangio
For experts and connoisseurs of lever arms, the Winchester Model 1886 is the pinnacle for leverarms of the era,
especially for big game hunting. Chiappa Firearms has paid a tribute to this iconic firearm with replica models and a modern
variant. These firearms, unique and suitable for hunting, perfectly combine two synergistic requirements: originality, and
evolution of the species to a more modern target for use by extreme hunters: the 1886 Kodiak.
Anyone who ventures in creating a
replica of the Browning designed 1886 is
faced with a serious responsibility: which,
since it’s inception has been known as the
rifle-of-the-rifles, or rifleman’s rifle.
It was Thomas Bennett, son-in-law
of the great Oliver Winchester, who in
1884 demanded a lever rifle for big game
hunting that could handle the powerful
.45-70 caliber. He had heard of two
brothers from Utah who were considered
excellent designers and developers of
robust, reliable and powerful firearms, so
he decided to pay them a visit in Ogden.
The two were named, respectively, John
Moses and Matthew Browning; Bennet
bought from them the project and rights
for two models that soon thereafter,
would make history in big game hunting:
a single-shot, falling block rifle destined
to give birth to the famous Model 1885
High Wall, and a lever action that would
be named the Model 1886.
Wi t h t h e 1 8 8 6 mo d e l i n
caliber.45-70, lever guns entered a new
dimension of big game hunting, no longer
carried out by exterminators of bison
(at that time the great herds had already
been decimated) and trappers, but that of
subsistence hunting, defense from wild
animals and, later, sport and recreation.
But it wasn’t just that: the 1886
was the most affordable big game hunting
weapon for all hunters, the one that lead
out of the black powder into the smokeless
powder era. In fact, it was enough for the