TTAG writer and resident war hero Jon Wayne Taylor has a large number of guns, including full auto SBR’s in some astounding calibers. His eldest son, an avid hunter and firearms enthusiast, has access to Jon’s arsenal – and I’m not using that term in the assault media sense of the term. And yet his son has a thing for lever guns; his eyes lit up when he saw the Henry Repeating Arms .30-30 Jon’s got on test. There’s something deeply, intrinsically appealing about lever guns. Wild West charisma? Cowboy assault rifle? Stunning capacity? All-American design? The simple joy of shooting simplicity? I don’t know. What I do know . . .
is that I’ve got lever fever. I thought that owning several examples of the genre – including a Grizzly Custom Guns Marlin 1894 [above] and a Big Horn Armory Model 89 chambered in .500 S&W [below] – would cure me of that affliction.
No chance. I like to say I own a bunch of Henrys because it’s the best gun to put into the hands of my neighbors in a SHTF scenario. True dat. But it’s also true that I’m addicted. You?