Magazine repeating firearms are not a new invention. There are some in existence that were developed as early as the 17th century, with several variations known. Almost all of them are finely built arms. Most are of European manufacture and are of flintlock ignition. And importantly, all them are basically impractical and most are dangerous to shoot, not because of workmanship, but because of design.
What opened the way for a practical magazine-fed repeating levergun to be built was fixed ammunition. A self-contained metallic cartridge with the bullet, primer and powder in one unit is what made a useful levergun possible.
This advancement is generally acknowledged to have begun with Walter Hunt of New York with the patent and manufacture of his "Volition Repeating Rifle". Hunt's rifle is a direct ancestor of Winchester as we shall show. The gun itself was doomed to failure from the beginning due to it's manufacturing requirements. It had a complicated arrangement of two levers and a series of small delicate parts that made manufacturing the levergun a financial liability. But it had fixed ammunition. The Volition rifle was built around Hunt's "Rocket Ball" ammunition. Developed by Hunt the "Rocket Ball" was basically a hollow-based bullet with the powder charge in the hollow base of the bullet. Mr. Hunt secured a patent (# 5,70 1) on August 10, 1848 for... "a ball for firearms, with a cavity to contain the charge of powder for propelling said ball, in which cavity the powder is secured by means of a cap enclosing the back end." It also was a disaster commercially, but it was a beginning!
Our focus is on the lever action of course, but if you enjoy studying the history of such things there are a number of books that have been published .. many of them long out of print ... on the development of the repeating firearm in all its forms. The Rifle in America by Philip B. Sharpe, One Hundred Great Guns by Merrill Lindsay and A History of Firearms by H.B.C. Pollard would be good reading if you can find copies. (Good luck on your search)
The lever action rifle was immediately popular when it was introduced and that popularity has not diminished in the passing years. Quite a few 19th century firearms are still being manufactured in almost identical configuration and mechanisms that they were first introduced with. This is quite a testimony to their design, reliability and practicality.
