I have an older article I downloaded, "One of the Last Alaskan Sourdoughs: The Legend of Sheep River," whose subject is Ed Stevenson. It is reprinted with permission from Rifle Magazine.
His arsenal includes several lever action rifles. From its text, Mr. Stevenson was partial to big bore lever rifles, such as Browning reproduction Winchester Model 71 (348 Winchester), Winchester 1895 (375 Hawk/Scovill), Browning reproduction Winchester 1895 (411 Hawk), Browning reproduction Winchester 1886 (450 Alaskan), Browning reproduction Winchester 1886 (45-70).
While Mr. Stevenson's arsenal includes the usual medium and large bore bolt actions, the article represents him as preferring levers. This is both surprising and interesting. Well maybe not as surprising as I make it sound. I also have a downloaded video that is a YouTuber's mud test of an original Winchester 1895. The presenter mentions that Czarist Russia used many 1905s during World War I and that Russian soldiers held it in high regard. He then proceeded to determine how well the lever action would operate in the mud of war. He placed an original 1895 in 30-40 Krag in a wheel barrow filled with mud (hammer down, chamber empty, magazine filled). He dumped mud all over the action, I mean really slopped it on. He removed the mud covered rifle and wiped the action with his hands. He did nothing special or especially cleansing. Rifle still pretty well covered with mud, he fired the magazine without any issues.
Nearly all articles and online threads I have read show a huge preference by guides, and especially among sport hunters using guides, for bolt action rifles with telescopic sights. Is Mr. Stevenson's preference for non-optical sighted big bore lever action rifles, especially Winchesters, abnormal among Alaskan guides?
