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Evans Repeating Rifle
Type	Lever Action Centerfire rifle
Place of origin	United States
Production history
Designer	Warren R. Evans
Manufacturer	Evans Repeating Rifle Company
Produced	1873-1879
No. built	Approx. 15,000
Specifications
Caliber	.44 Evans short, .44 Evans long
Action	Lever-action
Feed system	28-34 Round Rotary Magazine

The Evans Repeating Rifle was a lever-action repeating rifle designed by Warren R. Evans as a high capacity rifle.

Overview

The Evans Repeater is one of the oddest rifles to ever be produced in the United States. The Evans was invented by Warren R. Evans, a dentist from Thomaston, Maine. With the help of his brother George, they perfected the rifle and and started the "Evans Rifle Manufacturing Company" of Mechanic Falls, Maine in 1873. Their rifles were marketed by Merwin & Hulbert. The hope was that the rifle would be issued by the United States Army, but the rifle failed the standard dust test. It was then offered as a sporting rifle. The rifle has a radial block reciever similar to the Spencer, but the rounds were fed from a Archimedean-screw magazine which formed the spine of the rifle stock and could hold up to 34 rounds. The fluted cartridge carrier made a quarter turn each time the lever was operated, feeding a new cartridge into the breech. The company went out of business in 1879. There were several things that the rifle had against it. The round was unique to the rifle and hard to find. As stated earlier the mechanism of the rifle was not very sturdy and did not do well with such things as dust. Not a good thing in the Wyoming Territory in 1875. The rifle was heavy. It isn't a natural pointer. Nevertheless the Evans Repeating Rifle has lately become something of a collector's item and prices are going up. Whatever it's faults it's a fascinating part of United States firearms history.

Design

The basic design of the Evans repeating rifle is similar to the Spencer Repeating Rifle. The Evans has a rotary magazine in the buttstock, cartridges are fed to the breech by cycling the cocking lever/trigger guard. The magazine tube of the Evans is much larger than that of the Spencer. It holds four rows of cartridges which are loaded through a trapdoor in the buttplate. Each time the action is cycled, the magazine feeds the next cartridge to the breech in a barber's pole fashion.

Old Model

The first model or what is now known as the old model was made from 1873 to 1876. This model is easily distinguished from the later models by the fact that it has only an upper buttstock. The magazine tube is exposed and runs along the bottom of the stock. Also the ejection port has no dust cover. Approximately 500 old models were produced. Of these the very first (estimated serial numbers 1 to 200) have no cocking lever retaining stud on the underside of the magazine tube. Old models made after these have a stud or a locking nut to hold the lever in place. Barrel markings on the old models are as follows: “Evans Repeating Rifle/Pat. Dec 8, 1868 & Sept. 16, 1871”.

Old model Evans rifles were made in the following configurations:

• Sporting Rifle:

Walnut stock, checkering and engraving available on special order. 26”, 28” and 30” octagon barrels. Estimated quantity made - 300.

• Military musket:

30” round barrel, full forend retained with 2 barrel bands. Estimated quantity made - 50.

• Carbine:

22” round barrel, short forend retained with a single barrel band. Sling swivels. Estimated quantity made - 150.

Transition Model

By early 1876 the so-called transition model was in production. The primary difference between this and the old model is that the transition model has a two-piece buttstock and a redesigned buttplate. This improved the balance of the rifle and offered better protection of the magazine from damage or dents which could jam the action. Barrel markings on the transition model are as follows: “Evans Repeating Rifle Mechanic Falls Me./Pat, Dec. 8, 1868 & Sept. 16, 1871”.

Transition model Evans rifles were made in the following configurations:

• Sporting Rifle:

Walnut stock, checkering and engraving available on special order. 26”, 28” and 30” octagon barrels. Estimated quantity made - 1050.

• Military musket:

30” round barrel, full forend retained with 2 or 3 barrel bands. Estimated quantity made - 150.

• Carbine:

22” round barrel, short forend, single barrel band, sling swivels. Estimated quantity made - 450.

• Montreal Carbine:

A rare variation believed to have been sold in Canada by Ralph H. Kilby. A sporting goods dealer in Montreal and Evans’ Canadian agent. Estimated quantity made - less than 100.

New Model

The company received numerous testimonials from its customers. One of the more colorful ones came from Kit Carson who claimed “At twenty paces, have, with this rifle, shot the eyebrows from my wife, and every night regularly, in the presence of an audience I shot an apple from her hand, a pipe from her mouth, a penny from her fingers, or snuff a candle from her hand. I think the Evans is the safest and most complete repeating system ever devised.” Testimonials like this were great advertising and highly sought after by all the arms companies.

Requests soon reached the factory from the far west for a more powerful cartridge. George Evans listened and then went to work. The new cartridge together with numerous improvements in the design were combined to make the new model Evans repeating rifle. By the summer of 1877 the new model was perfected and put into production.

The new model is easily distinguished by its larger, more robust receiver and sliding dust cover over the ejection port. The front edge of the receiver is cut straight not scalloped as in the old and transition models. The new model was chambered for a 1 ½” long .44 caliber cartridge case. Previous models used a 1” long case of the same caliber. The increased length of the new cartridge necessitated a reduction in magazine capacity to only 28 rounds. Barrel markings are the same as the transition model except with the addition of “U.S.A.”.

New model Evans rifles were made into the following configurations:

• Sporting Rifle:

Walnut stock, checkering and engraving available on special order. 26”, 28” and 30” octagon barrels. Estimated quantity made - 3,000.

• Military musket:

30” round barrel, full forend retained with 2 barrel bands, many converted to sporting rifle. Estimated quantity made - 3,000.

• Carbine:

22” round barrel, short forend retained by a single barrel band, occasionally with a bayonet mounting stud. Estimated quantity made - 4,000 plus.

References

• Pending AfC submissions
• Pending AfC submissions in article space