Featured Image Courtesy of Wikipedia user Hmaag
Tactical lever-action sounds, at best, a bit like an oxymoron, and at worst laughable.
However, modern takes on this old classic have shown otherwise. Over the last few years, there have been more than a handful of companies out there that have reintroduced the lever-action.
We aren’t going to look at all of them in this article, but we will check out a couple of the top contenders.
In no particular order, we’ll start with the Henry Model X Series. Henry has been around for a while and has been known for its lever-action rifles.
In 2020 the Model X Series of rifles was launched. This new series features a black synthetic stock, an M-Lok and Picatinny mount, as well as a 5/8×24 threaded barrel. Henry also opened up the lever on the rifle just enough to easily be operated with a gloved hand but not so large to be overkill.
We can’t be out there with our tactical lever-action rifles looking silly, can we?
The X Series rifles are chambered in .357 Mag, .44 Mag, .45 Colt, .45-70 Gov’t, and .410-Bore.
Another heavy hitter on the market is Marlin with their Dark Series.
Marlin decided to stick with some more traditional chamberings and keep it simple by offering .30-30 Winchester and .45-70 Gov’t.
If you don’t have anything chambered in .30-30 Win, you gotta. It’s a great cartridge.
The stock and fore-end on the Dark Series rifles are wooden construction painted black. Aftermarket forends are available if you are so inclined. Marlin made a wise decision and threaded the barrel 5/8×24, so adding a muzzle device or even a suppressor can be done very simply. The lever on the Marlins is larger than Henry’s X Series but still not too big to be distracting.
The last rifle we’ll check out is the Model 464 SPX by Mossberg.
This is probably the most “standout-ish” lever-action I have seen. It truly is “modern sporting rifle meets old school traditional.”
The main features of this rifle are its threaded barrel, fiber optic sights, and a full set of synthetic furniture.
The ability to use standard AR-15 stocks on setup on this particular model is its most outstanding feature. Aesthetically, some folks are really not going to like it. Functionally, it adds a whole world of end-user customizability.
So is the whole relaunch of the lever-action rifles really practical?
My answer is an enthusiastic yes. Having the ability to suppress your firearms has become more and more appreciated in the last few years and many of these “tactical” lever-actions offer that ability right out of the box.
I would personally love to pick up one of these rifles chambered in .45-70 Gov’t as a bear/moose gun. What about you? Is the modern “tactical” lever-action a practical update or is it something companies came out with simply to sell more guns? Let us know on social!
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