Every hunter has a gun that’s impractical for their needs, but they’d just like to try it out anyway. For example: A guy I hunted moose with years ago, who never hunted anything but moose, decided he wanted an elephant gun. Why? Hard to say, because he lost track of it when he lent it out, since he certainly wasn’t taking it woods hunting himself. And I can’t criticize that, because A) buying guns you want is fun for the sake of its own rewards and B) I have my own rifle that falls into the same category. I have zero real need for a Winchester 71, but I’d sure like to get one for deer and bear hunting. Winchester Repeating Arms @ TFB: Fudd Friday: The Highs And Lows Of The Winchester Model 1200 Fudd Friday: Winchester Model 1892 - The Best Keeps Getting Better Winchester Gearing Up For 6.8mm Military Contracts With New Plant The Rimfire Report: The Fondly Remembered Winchester 250 Lever Action Made for men with moneyWhen Winchester gutted its product line in 1964, buyers and gun writers were appalled—but they shouldn’t have been. They should have seen it coming, because for decades, Winchester had been making iffy business moves that should have prophesied the future.Some of the company’s product plays made perfect sense, such as introducing lower-cost models like its budget .22LR rifles and single-shot shotguns in the 1930s. That was where the market was headed. But other moves, like the introduction of the Model 71, were pretty questionable. The Model 1886, the rifle that started Winchester’s high-powered repeating lineup. This is the modern-day repro. [Winchester] It wasn’t that there was anything wrong with the Model 71. It was basically a modernization of the Model 1886, a classic John Browning design. Before the Model 1886, most repeating rifles used lower-powered cartridges—essentially, they were the PCCs of their day. The Model 1886 was chambered in such calibers as 45-70, .50-110, .45-90 and a whole bunch of other rounds that have been lost to history. There was even a shotgun version, in 32 gauge, available by custom order only. But other, better rifles came along, chambered for other, better cartridges. By the mid-1930s, the Model 1886 was still available, but the .33 WCF chambering (the first smokeless round made for the rifle, and the first .338-caliber sporting round made) was looking old-fashioned.So Winchester’s engineers tweaked a few internal parts and released the Model 71, chambered in the new .348 Winchester. The changes weren’t that big, at first glance; the metallurgy was improved, and the Model 71 got a coil spring driving the hammer, instead of the Model 1886’s flat spring. While the Model 1886 was available with octagon barrels, straight stocks and many other old-fashioned features, the Model 71 came with a pistol-grip stock with shotgun butt and a standard round barrel. It was a modernized version of the 1886, and despite many similarities, few parts interchange. A Cabela’s in Colorado has this Model 71 for sale. Looking at the action, you can see the obvious relationship to the Model 1886 as well as the Model 1892, itself also derived from the Model 1886. [Cabela’s] And it was only available in Winchester’s new .348 round, unlike the Model 1886. And here you must ask yourself: Why? Why, in the middle of the Great Depression, with Americans literally starving to death after a total collapse of the market, did Winchester decide to launch a new premium rifle that fired a premium round that was also only available from Winchester?The answer is probably that Winchester knew that not everyone was broke, and they figured on making luxury-market sales. The .348 Winchester had a lot of hitting power, with bullets as heavy as 250 grains available. Just the thing for sportsmen who wanted to hunt big bears in Alaska, or massive moose in the Great North Woods of Maine. Or maybe even safari animals in Africa. These rifles (available also in carbine length) always had a great reputation for no-problem functioning, and excellent fit and finish. They were made for hunters who appreciated Nice Things. The .348 WCF used round-nosed bullets due to the rifle’s tube mag, but it was a hard-hitting round within reasonable ranges. And who knows—maybe big sales would have happened if World War II hadn’t interrupted. But Americans were busy fighting World War II in the 1940s, and they wanted bolt-actions and semi-autos when the war was over. The Model 71 always had interest from buyers who wanted a big-bore lever gun, but like other Winchesters, it was expensive to make, and many buyers opted for less-expensive alternatives. They discontinued the Model 71 in 1958, even before they got to dismantling the rest of the lineup, which should tell you a lot about the rifle’s demand and profitability. About 47,000 were made in the original production run, I’ve read. This advert from an old Stoeger catalog shows the Model 71 positioned alongside Winchester’s high-priced semi-auto. Buying a Model 71 todayIn the 2020s, a Model 71 isn’t hard to find; originals are available as long as you’ve got the coin, and there have been various reproductions made over the past few decades. Currently, Winchester doesn’t sell a repro, although they do sell a Model 1886 repro, which is obviously close to the same thing. But Davide Pedersoli sells the 86/71 rifle, whose name reflects the Model 71’s origin in the Model 1886. Davide Pedersoli’s 86/71 looks like a Model 71, but comes in .45-70. [Davide Pedersoli] The 86/71 is only available in .45-70, not .348 WCF. Like John Browning’s original design and the 1935 Winchester update, its top-eject function means optics attachment is tricky. Pedersoli also makes a version with a forward rail, for long eye relief scopes, optimized for hog hunting, but at this point their website only lists the Premium version of the rifle, with no MSRP. It doesn’t take much searching to find a Model 86/71 in a different version for sale in the States, though—but it’ll be expensive. This Model 71 is listed for sale in Florida at a price just under $2,000. [Gainesville Pawn/Guns International] Personally, if I was going to spend a couple of grand on a gun like this, I’d probably just search out an original Winchester or maybe a Browning repro (actually Miroku-manufactured, of course). You can still find them listed in the $2k price range which is pretty tempting. But I won’t do that, because as much fun as this gun would be in a bear stand, I think my wife prefers me to make our mortgage payment this month, and despite the appeal of the .348 Winchester, it won’t kill deer any deader than anything I already have in the locker. That sort of thinking limited the Model 71’s sales over its 20 years of production, and limit the sales of any repros today.