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I Have This Old Gun: Colt New Lightning Magazine Rifle

Colt’s “New Lightning Magazine Rifle,” so called to distinguish it from the company’s previous double-action revolver of the same name, was the first slide-action rifle to be sold in the United States.

They say lightning doesn’t strike twice, but Colt Patent Firearms disproved that old adage. Colt’s first lightning strike occurred in 1877, with the appearance of its Self-Cocking Central Fire Revolving Pistol, more popularly known in its .38 Long Colt version as the Lightning—a moniker bestowed upon it by B. Kittredge & Co., one of Colt’s major distributors.

Evidently,theexecutivesatColtlikedthatnickname.Whentheycameoutwiththeirnew“trombone”orslide-actionriflein1884—havingshelvedthepreviousColt-Burgesslever-actioninanallegedgentleman’sagreementwithWinchester,which,inturnpromisednottomakeanyrevolvers—itwasdubbedtheNewLightningMagazineRifle.Obviously,ColtmusthavefeltitsagreementwithWinchesteronlypertainedtolever-actionrifles.Byputtingthewords“New”and“MagazineRifle”foreandaftofthe“Lightning”name,Coltattemptedtod