Home Forums Lever Action Central Big Bore Levers Winchester Model 71s-The Hunter's Rifle

The 348 is a fine fire-arm. It has continued to grow on me since mine came into my life. I have a 1955 Winchester that at some point in it's life had the barrel cut down to 22" and a recoil pad installed. This took away some collectors value but allows me to use it as a main hunting rifle here in the Yukon. I used it on last years Moose and had to thread a bullet through Alders to connect. I can honestly say the main attribute of the rifle, fine balanced handling came into it's own that day and I connected. My dad was a great shotgun man..he would shoulder a rifle and comment on how it "came up", if it "came up" and the sights where on and the balance was fine he would consider it as a rifle for use. He used a long barrelled half magazine Marlin 30-30 and just loved the balance of that gun. I think he would have liked the Model 71 even better. The riflefeels alive in the hands...with my moose the sights where on and I was able to thread the needle in part because the rifle "comes up" with balance and grace and with the sights on. This is a tribute to an evolved design made by men of the same pedigree as my dad.

I used 200 grain Hornady FN at 2520 and the moose did not take a step! The old lever guys at Winchester talked management into pooling all their experience and making one rifle that could replace all the older Levers on the docket. The 1886's in 33 Win and 45-70, The Win 95 in 35 Win and 405 where essentially replaced by the finest lever that all those years of experience could create. It was a labor of love from the ground up and there is something special about this combination. In my opinion there is nothing much to be gained by improving it and it is a very well thought out design from the ground up. My own version will shoot into 1.5" groups with the right loads.

The only real struggle is in finding the correct bullet. The 250 grain bullets shoot to a very different impact point than the 200 in most rifles. The 250 Woodleigh is the most accurate bullet in my rifle and penetrates like a bugger! It prints about 5" lower than the 200 grain samples. The 220 Barnes Original core separates way too easy. I have settled on the 200 Horn FN for up to Moose, the 200 FTX for caribou and the 200 Swift for Bison. The Swift penetrates like a 250 grainer and I don't need to change the sight settings.

I tested some historic examples and the 250 Silvertip that Elmer loved, is not a great penetrator and separates all the time. It expands very quickly though and would be a fast killer on Elk and smaller. I wish we could still buy the 180 Speers....they were pretty incredible bullets for deer and caribou and hang together very well.


The 348 in it's natural habitat in the Yukon. 10 minutes after this shot our moose was down


What the 348 excels at.... bringing home the bacon