A few breech loading metallic cartridge arms were available, but these were also single shot weapons. A repeating rifle would allow several shots to be fired before reloading and thus dramatically increase the rate of fire. The Winchester Model 1873 was the first really successful lever action repeater. Several designs were introduced and subsequently discontinued in the evolution of the Winchester lever action, the Model 1894 being the most common and still in production in various forms. Marlin, Browning, and Savage also produce lever action repeaters, the Savage Model 99 and the Browning Model 81 being perhaps the most useful for our purposes.
All lever actions utilize a lever under the action to facilitate repeat shots.
After a shot is fired the user lowers a lever under the action which unlocks the breech, extracts the fired cartridge case and cocks the hammer. A fresh cartridge is fed from a spring loaded magazine into position, and when the underlever is raised the fresh cartridge is pressed home into the chamber and the breech locked. The Winchester and Marlin lever actions utilize a tubular magazine requiring round nosed or flat point bullets. This is a disadvantage as these bullet types lose velocity very quickly and limit the effective range of the arm dramatically. Another disadvantage is that the breech locking system of Winchester and Marlin rifles is not designed for high intensity cartridges.