The Lever Action Trapper - New Options for Trapper Length Barrels

 I've talked about how the National Firearms Action of 1934 effectively destroyed the market in the US for what is being called the trapper rifle. Prior to the NFA, Winchester and Marlin with other lever action rifle manufacturers offered versions of their rifles and some shotguns with barrel lengths that are well under the original minimum length of 18 inches found in the NFA. The guns were never banned but what did happen is that a tax was required for ownership of such rifles and shotguns. That tax was a flat $200. If you aren't aware, the Progressive inflation of the US dollar now has that value of 1934 money at $4,773 in today's dollar per a specific calculator you can find on the internet. Simply put, $200 back in 1934 was way more valuable than it is today. Thankfully, the tax hasn't changed. 

Today, many lever action platforms cost around $1000 which would be around $40 in 1933 money. I chose 1933 specifically because I want you to put yourself in the idea that you just bought a brand new Winchester 1892 in 32-20 Winchester with a 14 inch barrel in the Spring of 1933 to small game hunt as you cruise the woods. Then in 1934, you are being told that you have to pay a tax that is 5 times more expensive than your rifle is worth new because the barrel is 4 inches too short. What would you do?

Pretty stupid if you ask me but I think the objective was to make the cost so prohibitive, that normal everyday folks couldn't pay the tax. Congress claimed it was about fighting organized crime. Numerous people just put these rifles away and didn't say anything and occasionally, one shows up.

Today, the minimum barrel length is 16 inches for rifles. I haven't found when that change happened as the original length was 18 inches. As a result, most rifles have a 16 inch barrel option and that includes most lever action platforms available on the market. This includes the Winchester model 92, Marlin's 1894 and newer stuff like the 336 and all the rifles based off of that design such as the Henry's and the Smith and Wesson 1854.

Marlin and Rossi both refer to their 16 inch rifles as Trappers but as far as I can work out, original Winchester and Marlin short rifles didn't have 16 inches. I have only ever seen 14 and 15 inch models. Some would say that it's close enough. 

A more interesting option that's been available for a long while are the lever action pistols. Usually called a Mare's Leg after the Winchester carried by Steve McQueen in the TV show Wanted Dead or Alive, NFA Title 1 pistols have various barrel lengths close to the original short rifles.

A few options such as Henry and Rossi have been available but as people are becoming less afraid of the bureaucratic non-sense that is the NFA paperwork, people have taken to making their own lever action rifles with nice, short barrels. A few companies have even offered conversion services. The process of making your own Short Barrel Rifle involves filing a Form 1 with the ATF then paying the $200 tax. There's a little more that needs to happen but once approved, the conversion process of either converting a pistol or 16+ inch barrel to whatever length can begin.

Now that we've laid out a primer on the topic, at NRAAM 2025, I got to see first hand Rossi's new Triple Black Pistol. These are a 13.25 inch lever action pistol based on their newer R95 which is based, I think, off of the 336. As far as I am concerned, the Henrys, Rossi R95 and S&W are based off of the 336. That's just fine with me as the 336 is a great platform. What makes these interesting is the caliber options of their typical revolver chamberings of .357 Magnum, .44 Magnum and .454 Casull but they are also offering this in .45-70. I wasn't aware of any Mare's Leg type guns in .45-70 so we will see if that's worth anything in terms of performance. With the Rossi, you are getting a picatinny rail section with the gun for optics. There are no provisions for open sights but they are tricked out with an all black finish and a threaded barrel.

Henry's offering is a new pistol based on their X series and will be starting off with both .30-30 and .45-70. They call it the Bear's Leg. I like the pun. These will come with a 12.9 or 13 inch barrel based on statements made at NRAAM. To some degree, I like these a little more as they come with iron sights. They also feature a threaded barrel but have the X series plastic furniture with an MLOK slot on the handguard. The iron sights is a very attractive feature though they have the fiber optic version instead of a more traditional sight. That's fine as those can be replaced as you might want.

If you've read my stuff before, you've probably run into my interest in having an SBR lever action with a silencer. These new pistols offer a person like myself new options for this but you are probably wondering are the rifle cartridges actually worth anything in the short barrels? I know the pistol calibers make for great candidates and I think .30-30 can do good work but could .45-70 make the cut with sub-16 inch barrels? 

To be fair, since I don't have anything in .45-70, I currently can't answer that from a personal standpoint but seeing that .454 Casull has a case capacity less than .45-70 and that +P versions of .45 Colt are functional for hunting applications, I think .45-70 can be made to work just fine. Personally, I didn't want to get into .45-70 for cost reasons. The old .45-70 is just expensive and resource intensive. Lots of powder and heavy bullets. It's pretty much a reloader's cartridge if you want to shoot a bunch. I knew that if I did acquire something, then I really should learn how to make my own black powder. I did however, just recently learn about gallery loads for the .45-70. Basically, by putting a round lead ball way down inside a .45-70 case over top a very tiny charge of powder, you have a very soft shooting and relatively inexpensive option. The video I saw from Everything Black Powder used actual black powder and both round and conical .454 bullets but I wonder if I can get away with other options. Do these gallery loads work with black powder substitutes like 777 or Pyrodex? They used a Trapdoor type rifle but I think we can make this work in a lever action. 

For a while now, I have been working an article going over the efficacy of 16 and sub-16 inch barrels in the older calibers like these guns are found in. Again, the topic of the revolver cartridges isn't really in the discussion because you effectively only need around a 10 inch barrel to make .357 Magnum and .44 Magnum reach out to the 100 yard mark. 100 yards being around the typical hunting distance. I've gone over the revolver cartridge topic a bunch. But what about .30-30?

The generic answer is yes it works from shorter barrels. We can see this with the old Thompson Center single shot pistols such as the Super 14. Those Contender options included .30-30 but there are .45-70 Contenders out there. While you wouldn't be taking nearly full advantage of the cartridge's potential with a 13 inch barrel, the velocities achieved is still sufficient for regular folk's needs. For example, in testing done by American Handgunner using the 14 inch T/C Contender, the 160 grain LeverEvolution .30-30 load still achieved a velocity of 2100 fps. At 150 yards, that velocity drops to 1761 fps or so. That should be plenty for expansion and penetration in whitetail. You aren't going to lose that much by dropping to the 13 inch barrels. As it were, that is still faster than what a .357 Magnum 158 grain bullet is doing from even a 16 inch barrel and they do just fine. Ultimately, the performance aspect is something that the end user will need to understand to make these shorter barrels work for them. Know your ammunition.

In thinking through how I would build out one of these pistols into an SBR and it occurs to me that Henry and Rossi missed an opportunity. Both of these use nearly 13 inch barrels. Had they gone with the traditional length of 14 to 15 inch like Winchester had back in the day, we could have gone the pin-and-weld route. Simply put, a person could have screwed on an appropriately sized muzzle device and had a gunsmith permanently attach that muzzle device. Once completed, the firearm now has a 16 inch barrel. This allows you attach a stock without need for the $200 tax stamp while having a rifle that can host a silencer and still be shorter than the current trapper rifles on the market. Just an idea.

The Bottom Line Up Front is that these lever action pistols should not be discounted on performance. They might seem like novelties or range toys but they will still deliver a useful payload in typical hunting distances and will function for large game defense as needed. If you convert your lever action pistol into a Title 2 NFA weapon, it is not going to turn you into a bank robber, moonshiner and racketeering criminal like proponents of the NFA 1934 say. They have legitimate and viable uses in the average Joe's hands.

Categories of Commercial Sporting Rifles Destroyed by the NFA - Pocket Rifles and Trapper Rifles

 I've talked about the National Firearms Act of 1934 a lot. More like I've yammered about how I don't like it. The NFA did a lot to stifle development and general sales of rifles that were readily available before it's enactment. While I'm biased against the NFA, there are definitely firearms that were impacted that simply didn't fit within the idea of regulating gangster guns. While I don't believe in limiting people to guns that someone may define as "sporting" for the sake of this article, I'll talk about several guns that work within the confines of "sporting." They are "sporting" rifles used by people for legitimate reasons that still make sense today but were regulated into oblivion. Let's take a look at the categories then go over what I want.

Pocket Rifles

Pocket rifles are what we would call a survival rifle today. Similar guns exist today but not with the shorter barrel lengths. Basically, they were a single shot, breach loading rifle that appeared after the Civil War. The idea is simple. You have a short rifle that can be carried easily for the taking of small game animals while on a trail. If you're heading into the wilderness for some time, this stows nicely on a pack or elsewhere that can help keep you fed. I have seen in auction, versions of these rifles with barrels as short as 8 inches. That had surprised me as I had only ever seen 10, 12, 15 and 18 inch versions before. 

Apparently, they were fairly popular though I don't know to what extent. Given that a very large number of these guns would have been made prior to 1899, the examples surviving by 1934 would have been antiques and not regulated. Any gun made after 1899 would have been regulated. What would have been an inexpensive hunting rifle would have required an incredibly expensive tax to be paid. For example, an advertisement from 1894 has a 10 inch Stevens Pocket Rifle at $12.25. In 2023 money, that's about $438. That inflation is painful. That said, in 1934, the Pocket Rifle cost, if adjusted for inflation is $19.07. Imagine that you are a regular person with a modest income. You have purchased a 10 inch Steven's Pocket rifle in 1933 for $19. Then in 1934, some Democrats tell you that your new rabbit hunting rifle is actually gangster gun and requires a $200 dollar tax stamp. You're not going to pay that. That's 10 times the cost of the rifle. Let's adjust for inflation. Say you bought that rifle in 2022 for $416. Then Congress says you have to pay a tax of $4600 dollars to keep that rifle. Will you be keeping that gun? No you won't. All you wanted was a .22 rimfire rifle to hunt rabbits but now you can't keep your new 10 inch barrel rifle. 

It wasn't just rifles as well. The Marble's Game Getter combination gun ran into the same fate. The Game Getter had similar barrel lengths but had a second barrel under the .22 rimfire barrel for special 44-40 cartridges. The 1908 version of the small game hunting gun would handle the .22 Short, Long and Long Rifle cartridges with the .44 barrel underneath using .44-40 shotshells (like the CCI shot shells we have today). Some of those shells had .44 caliber round ball loads that could have likely taken larger game as needed. Maybe not deer though I could see someone trying. 

I recommend visiting Marble's website for a better history. 

Today, the rolls these guns play have been filled with rifles like the AR-7 or the Henry Survival Rifle or the Chiappa Little Badger. They are easily packed rifles with barrels that meet the current 16 inch minimum for Title 1 under the NFA. Alternatively, take-down guns like the Ruger 10/22 can be setup to do a similar roll. The Ruger rifle does have a pistol version called the Charger in a take-down that could be fitted with a stock but that would require a $200 stamp.  Congress did fess up to having made the mistake of regulating the Game Getter in 1938, which is why we have the AOW $5 stamp. Actually, Congress setup a $1 stamp for the Game Getter specifically but the rest would be $5. A $1 stamp is much more palatable on a $19.00 rifle than $200 for a stamp. It took them 4 years to do it though.

Trapper Rifles

Trapper rifles, as we call them today, are shorter rifles carried by woodsman, who didn't need the rifle specifically to take Big Game but were more for defense. Winchester sold factory rifles such as the Model 1873, 1892 and 1894 with 14 and 15 inch barrels. Today, Trapper rifles will usually have 16 inch barrels to comply with the current iteration of the NFA. Again, pre-1899 rifles would be covered as antiques but if you had a post 1900 one, there is a $200 tax stamp. 

The shorter barrels help with maneuverability in the woods. The longer barrels may get caught up in the brush and branches of the trees common to areas where fur-bearers (think beaver) live. The rifles still retain their ability to take larger game but at reduced distances. With a 20 inch 1894 in .30 WCF you might be able to take a deer at 200 yards but with the 14 inch barrel, that would likely be reduced to around 100 yards. That's not a huge loss as much hunting is done in that range anyway. The pistol calibers like .44 WCF or .38 WCF would not have faired well at range but a 1873 or 1892 with a 14 or 15 inch barrel is still a viable short range hunting rifle, especially with the express rifle loads available by the time the NFA was enacted.

Boy's Rifles

As it turns out, historically kids had been able to purchase inexpensive, single shot rifles in .22 rimfire with short barrels. For example, the Hamilton Models 27 and 28 could be had with a 15 inch barrel. This was just one of a number of rifles commonly referred to as Boy's Rifles. These are different from the Pocket Rifle in that that cost was much lower. These were inexpensive single shot rifles in a rimfire cartridge for teaching marksmanship and small game hunting. They could be had with longer barrels but I am seeing them with shorter barrels. Today, you would have to pay the $200 tax to purchase a new rifle just like that. It used to be that these rifles didn't even need to have serial numbers and yet now their "gangster guns."

My Uses

Simply put, .22 LR makes up a very large part of my ammunition consumption. Understanding the loads I use helps me as a shooter. The weapons I use in .22LR vary from revolvers and semi auto pistols to bolt action, lever action and semi auto rifles. Let's look at the velocity performance of .22 LR. 

I have used Remington's 36 grain Golden Bullet before and I still have a little left from my old stockpile. The above image is from testing done by Ballistics By The Inch. From 2 inches of barrel to basically 11 inches of barrel, the velocity is increasing pretty steadily. After 11 inches the velocity is pretty much the same. That chart demonstrates that there is fundamentally no reason from a cartridge performance perspective to use a barrel beyond 11 inches with this factory load. Other loads are similar with them having varying barrel lengths being the practical cut off point. Some are 10 inch and some are 13 inch. Each one varies a bit. Some actually do better with the 18 inch barrel but all the testing BBTI did shows around 12 inches is the shortest barrel length to achieve near maximum velocity for many .22 LR factory loads.  

One of my favorite .22 LR rifles is my Henry H001. It has the 18 barrel. I knew they had a 16 inch but years ago I had chosen the 18 inch. I think it was just the cheapest option. While having 15 rounds in the longer magazine is nice the shorter 16 inch still has 12 rounds of 22 LR for the Youth model. Looking further still, the 12 inch barrel version of the H001, the Mare's Leg, holds 10 rounds or .22LR. As a short range, small game hunting rifle or barn yard rifle, that's pretty good. Though if I had a rat problem, the 18 inch barrel with 21 rounds of .22 Shorts it pretty hard to beat. For a woods small game rifle, I'm happy with the 12 inch barrel. The NFA requires me to pay a $200 stamp for me to take the 12 inch barrel model and put a stock on it. If you want the shortest possible rifle for in the woods while still making full use of your .22 LR loads, you need to pay the taxes. Otherwise, anything longer is merely compliance. 

.357 Magnum

The old .357 Magnum works similarly to the .22 LR. Per BBTI's findings, the 158 gr loads they tested showed that one favored the 16 inch barrel while the other load favored the 14 inch barrel. 

In their chart above, the maximum velocity recorded came from a 16 inch barrel at 1739 while the 14 inch showed 1732 fps. That's the difference between one cartridge to the next. That means 14 inches is the shortest barrel needed to achieve near maximum velocity. What this chart doesn't show is that the velocity from even just a 6 inch barrel is still useable. In their real world testing with a Korth 5.8 inch barrel, they got 1259 fps. That should be good enough to take a deer around 50 yards. You can extend that range with a better bullet design expanding at lower velocities. 

If you had a modern version of the Winchester 1892 chambered in .357 Magnum and used the traditional 14 inch barrel similar to how the 1800's versions of the guns were, you'd have a greatly improved rifle by simply using the new cartridge. That isn't to say the .38-40 version of the gun wasn't useful but by having the faster moving magnum, we can get even more distance than before. I have successfully taken deer with a 16 inch barrel version of the Marlin 1894 and have no reason to believe the same cartridges wouldn't work in anything shorter. In fact, I chose the Remington 158 gr SJHP because of it's performance from both a rifle and a revolver. It works in my 16 inch 1894 and it works in my 4 inch revolver. It doesn't matter if it has a stock or not.  

I like my Marlin 1894 a lot. Having 8 rounds in the magazine is very handy but I would very much like to see how the 14 inch version would do as my truck rifle and hunting rifle for on the Little Farm. My understanding is that Marlin did make 14 or 15 inch versions in the early 1900's. 

Summary

While shortening the barrels on my two lever action rifles by just a few inches seems trivial, I argue the same. Why regulate a rifle by just a few inches? Why not optimize your situation? The two examples above are for older cartridges and older rifle designs, what if we fully modernized? What can we achieve? How about a 10 inch .300 Blackout AR-15 or bolt-action instead of the .357 Magnum? I know .300 Blackout works on deer since I've done that successfully. The NFA and your imagination are the only limiting factors on putting together a viable multipurpose rifle or short hunting rifle. Given those limitations, I think it's time to repeal the NFA so your imagination is the limiting factor.  

Update June 2025: I learned that the category of Boy's Rifles such as the Hamilton Models 27 and 28 had 15 inch barrel options. These are inexpensive single-shot .22 rifles intended for young lads to learn to shoot and hunt small game with. I also learned that these rifles are why in 1936, Congress amended the Short Barrel requirements to 16 inches for rimfire rifles. In addition, I learned that the 1968 Gun Control Act changed the SBR requirements to 16 inches for centerfire rifles because of surplus M1 Carbine rifles having 16 inch barrels. I didn't know those had 16 inch barrels as I had thought they were 17 or 18 inch. The things I learn. I have added a Boy's Rifle section to the .22 LR to incorporate this new knowledge. With the SHORT Act being added back to the reconciliation bill in 2025, if this makes it to the President, we should be able to buy all of these types of rifles again.