A Browning BLR with white line spacers, a relic of bygone lever-action Fudd glory days. [Zac K.] America is a land of four distinct firearm archetypes: Big-bore handguns, pump-action shotguns, AR-pattern rifles and lever-action rifles. But out of all those Big Four, lever-actions might be the most American of all, due to their association with a generation of Wild West frontier life and then another three generations of sporting use. Far from the decline that we observed over the 1990s and early 2000s, lever-actions are back, in a big way. And while there are good reasons for that to happen, a true revival of this segment to its dominance does seem to be as distant as ever. Just like John Wayne @ TFB:Fudd Friday: A Winchester 1895 Too Nice For The Job It Was Made For Winchester 1892 Takedown Rifle makes a comeback Fudd Friday: The Winchester 71 Is The Best Lever Gun You'll Never Own TFB Review: Is the New Ruger/Marlin 1895 SBL Done Right? Why lever-actions went into declineThe reason for lever-action rifles’ decline isn’t because people didn’t want them, not exactly. The problem was twofold: A lot of people who wanted lever-actions could have their desires met by rifles that were already on the market, typically at more affordable second-hand prices than they could find if they were buying new.In simple English: You could find a good-condition Savage 99 or Winchester 94 a lot cheaper than Savage or Winchester themselves could make you a new one, and it would work just as well. So much for the heritage of the Model 1895 and other classics. Winchester shut down its lever-gun line in New Haven about 20 years ago, and even at that point, production was far from its past glories. [Zac K.] There were still people who wanted new lever-action rifles in the 1990s and early 2000s, but not enough to keep the manufacturers engaged in American production; the only American gunmakers who stayed the course on these rifles were Marlin and Henry, and it certainly helped that they didn’t do much else.The other major reason was that most people preferred the options and capabilities of bolt-action rifles—and their pricing. As OEMs figured out how to make cheaper and cheaper rifles like the Savage Axis, the desire for something like a Marlin 336—which sold for a very good price through the early 2000s—diminished. A Marlin XL7 was cheaper and shot high-power cartridges, and you could typically buy such rifles with a pre-packaged scope.I’d contend that the GWOT had an influence too, and video games. Semi-autos filled the demand for fast-shooting rifles, and as their prices have dropped steadily, they again took market share from lever-actions. Overseas manufacturing stayed strong even when American production shut down. Now, Winchester’s modern versions of its classic lever guns are made overseas, like all the other repro companies. [Zac K.] The comebackLever-actions are hot now, though—Smith & Wesson brought out the Model 1854, Savage has the Revel rimfire rifle, Ruger brought Marlin back to life and re-introduced most of their models, and Taurus-affiliated subsidiaries are once again flooding the market with lower-priced copies of John Browning’s work. What happened?First off, the Red Dead video games happened. Never underestimate the impact of pop culture on gun sales. Just as hours spent playing Counter Strike in the 2000s sold shooters on ARs and AKs, so did hours of roaming the Red Dead prairiescapes sell shooters on the fun of a lever gun. The combined sales of Rockstar Games’ titles Red Dead Redemption and Red Dead Redemption 2 add up to about 115 million copies worldwide. That’s a lot of potential customers. The Yellowstone TV series didn’t hurt, either. Savage didn’t bring back the Model 99, but they did return to North American manufacturing of lever-actions when they started making the Revel rimfire rifle in Canada. [Zac K.] Then, modern manufacturing happened. Manufacturers found more efficient ways to make lever-actions (Ruger had to retool after buying Marlin, as much of the old machinery was junk; Henry also rebuilt their manufacturing capacity as they moved their plant to Wisconsin). The efficiency, plus a realization on the public’s part that lever-actions were just plain going to cost more money, re-established American lever-action manufacturing.Finally, lever guns got cool—that is to say, tacticool. Manufacturers tried giving lever-action rifles the same capability to add tactical add-ons. I’m pretty sure this was partly inspired by, of all things, the space-Western sci-fi show Firefly, but it was also a reaction to ever-tightening regulations across the U.S. market. In states that banned ARs, a civilian could instead buy a lever-action rifle that accepted grips and lights and extra ammo storage and anything else. That’s certainly not something you regularly see in Fudd world yet, but you will. XS Sights will sell you parts to trick out your classic lever-action and make it tactical. [Zac K.] What’s next?They’re only just beginning to show up, but pretty soon, you’re going to see Turkish lever-action rifles everywhere; they’re already flooding the Canadian market, which has been buying them to cope with the loss of their ARs. Some shooters might sneer at the idea of a Turkish-built lever gun, but remember that Americans have already been buying lever-action rifles made in Brazil, Japan and Italy, and it has been that way for decades. For now, the Turks appear to mostly be copying the Model 1892 design, but it won’t be long until they’ve blueprinted and reproduced everything else they think they can make a buck off.The biggest question is, what happens after they do that? Will they be able to undercut American manufacturers to the point that we see a second massive die-off in lever-action production Stateside? I doubt it; I imagine you’d see tariffs before that happened. But who knows the future for sure? As long as the market supports it, I expect Henry will continue to crank out its excellent series of modernized lever-actions. [Zac K.] I will say this: Over the past few years, Henry Repeating Arms has shown they’re willing to move the lever-action space forward with models like the internally-suppressed H23 Supreme or the built-for-precision SPD Predator. As long as people still have the money to encourage these projects, I imagine Henry will continue pushing forward, and I’m glad for it. Their made-in-America-or-not-made-at-all ideals mean they’re building rifles that the customer base has a greater connection to. In some ways, they’re picking up where Winchester and Savage both left off, making a combination of pistol-caliber rifles as well as longer-range firearms that can cover any shooter’s needs. I would expect Henry’s Supreme lineup will grow in the years to come, with short-action cartridges built on that same design, and maybe using AICS magazines. If that sounds promising to you, better start saving.Because this is the biggest problem that lever-action manufacturers will continue to face: They’re expensive rifles to make properly, and in an age of declining consumer spending power, that will affect discretionary purchases such as a fun lever-action. American gun sales might still be regularly over a million firearms a month, but with prices rising (including ammo prices), expensive firearms will be a hard sell—especially when the trends started by Yellowstone and Red Dead games have passed.If this post has you ready to hit the range, head over to gunranges.com - a free directory to help you find shooting ranges near you, wherever you are in the United States.