Originally Posted by Driftwood Johnson

Howdy

About 1854 there were these two gun designers. Their names were Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson. They formed a company to build rifles and pistols based on the earlier work of Hunt and Jennings in Norwich Connecticut. Eventually they moved the company to New Haven. They also hired a man as shop supervisor named Benjamin Tyler Henry. At about this same time a successful mens' clothing manufacturer named Oliver Winchester invested in the company and the name of the company was changed to the Volcanic Repeating Arms Company.

But the Volcanic design was never a financial success. The problem was the ammunition. It was under powdered. The ammo consisted of nothing more than a hollowed out bullet that contained a small charge of Black Powder. There was a foil covering and a priming mechanism at the base. But the powder charge was too small to develop enough energy to be a reliable man stopper.

Smith and Wesson eventually lost interest in the project and sold their interests to Winchester. Winchester directed Henry to redesign the ammunition, and he came up with a more substantial 44 caliber rimfire round. Then Winchester had Henry completely redesign the rifle for the more powerful round. The Henry Rifle of 1860 was the result. This was the first levergun of what became the extensive Winchester line up of rifles.

Smith and Wesson wound up in Springfield Massachusetts where they started up a new company producing revolvers in 1857. The rest is history.

As far as S&W producing a lever gun today, I can assure you they have no interest in it at all. Back in 2000 when they produced an updated version of the Schofield, they did not sell like hotcakes. S&W knows where their bread is buttered, and it is not in lever guns.

If you want a nice American made 357 Mag levergun, buy a Marlin.

I have included a photo of some Volcanic firearms. The two handguns and the small rifle near the bottom of the photo are Volcanics. All the other rifles are Henrys. I have handled an original Volcanic rifle, they were quite small.

P.S. The reason you can't find a Marlin is because they just relocated to the Remington factory in Illion NY. They are still firing up for full scale manufacturing. Give it a little bit of time and you will be able to find a Marlin.