THE AMERICAN WEST
The military has sometimes been slow to embrace firearms innovation, preferring tried & true technology over the new and untested, and this was certainly true during the Civil War and Indian Wars era. Winchester had abandoned the rocket ball system in favour of a .44 Rim fire cartridge in its famous brass framed Henry rifle in 1860, but only a few were purchased and used during the Civil War. The Spencer Repeating Rifle Company had also patented an effective lever action repeater firing metallic cartridges by the beginning of the Civil War, but its adoption by the Army was resisted until it was demonstrated to President Lincoln, who promptly personally championed it purchase.
Although the Spencer was the most widely used repeating long gun of the Civil War, and breech loading single-shot Sharps rifles in the hands of expert "Sharps-shooter" marksmen took a toll, the vast majority of the soldiers on both sides were armed with muzzle-loading
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Winchester responded, first with an improved brass frame rim fire Model 1866 lever action, followed by a centrefire Model 1873, and then by Models 1876 and 1886, made strong enough to handle true big-game cartridges in the .45-70 class.
Marlin was Winchester's strongest competitor in the field, with Whitney Kennedy and Evans also producing lever action repeaters.
Despite the development of repeaters, single shot rifles remained a popular option, and in the early years of metallic cartridges, they could handle stronger rounds than the more complicated repeaters.
The tradition of powerful, big bore rifles for the large game of the American west such as bison, wapiti, and grizzly bear certainly pre-dates the Civil War. As first trappers and mountain men, and then settlers and farmers pushed into the Great Plains and Rocky Mountain west, a new type of American rifle was developed to meet the