I wonder how many people modified their lever guns to fire on closing.
I had a toy model 92 when I was a kid that had a little flip up piece on the lever that would trip the trigger when you closed the lever. I think it was made by Mattel. I wore it out pretty quick.
I might have had the same one, had plastic bullets you put green-n-stick’em caps on.
I had one too and am pretty sure it was made by Mattel. I don't remember if I had the firing bullets, though. A kid down the street had one also, and I remember he got the idea that if he rubbed the stock down with a stick of butter, it would preserve it and make it look better. I thought it was a good idea too, and did the same. That was over 60 years ago and I can't recall whether the stock was wood or plastic (but I'm thinking plastic)...four-year olds can be pretty impressionable.
I liked The Rifleman, but I was a fan of "Wanted Dead or Alive" long before I ever saw Chuck Connors on TV. Steve McQueen played Josh Randall, a bounty hunter who carried a badass little cut down lever action. I liked the way the brim of his hat was curled up, and I came up with the notion that if I gathered up enough green grass and rolled it up in the brim of my hat, it would stay rolled up in that shape. So that's what I did...and when I walked in the house with that hat on with all that grass trolled up in the brim, Mom ran my little three-year old ass out the door for no good reason. That took place in Alpine, Texas while my [then] step-father was finishing up a degree at Sul Ross State.
Interesting time of my life, it was. I learned about jets breaking the sound barrier (late 50s), but I also learned that searching for the thing that hit the ground with such a tremendous thud, and therefore just had to be nearby, was a pointless effort. I looked all day for this broken sound barrier, confident that I would recognize it when I saw it. Never did find the damned thing.
