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.
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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