Working the Winchester 88

Many of us miss Winchester's Model 88. First revealed in 1955 as "a bolt action rifle with a lever," it shared few features with levered Winchesters made up to that time. It had no external hammer, no side-loading tubular magazine limited to flat-nosed rounds, and no rear breech lock-up. It had a full-length stock to dampen barrel vibrations, a removable box magazine that allowed hunters to take advantage of better ballistics pointed bullets provided, and combined lever/trigger assemblies, which eliminated the pinched fingers and snagged gloves known so well to lever gunners. The 88's biggest departure from Winchester's lever-action tradition, however, was its rotary bolt head incorporating a trio of locking lugs that was very close to Mauser's design of the late 1880s.

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