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While this is usually the formula for a technically advanced but impractical disaster, the Model 88 was one of those rare cases where everything fit together just right!

A TRULY UNIQUE DESIGN

Like the most advanced bolt actions of the time, the front-locking, rotating bolt of the New Model 88 featured a recessed bolt head with a plunger-type extractor. This would not only fully support the cartridge head, but also simplify manufacturing by eliminating the need to cut and index the extractor groove in the rear face of the barrel. The bolt head also offered the then-novel feature of three locking lugs – this before bolt action rifles offered this feature. This would not only reduce the amount of rotation necessary to operate the mechanism but was also significantly stronger. It offered a larger restraining surface than a conventional two-lug Mauser-type bolt action rifle and was more stable, just as a tricycle is steadier than a bicycle.

These three lugs were also cut with a slight pitch at the rear surface to provide the necessary mechanical advantage of “primary extraction” in removing a swollen case. Now, combining the rotation and recto-linear motion of a bolt action with the perpendicular motion of a lever is actually easier than it sounds. This can be readily accomplished with the use of a cam and bolt carrier mechanism and of course, the extra lever travel necessary to operate the cam and bolt carrier. But that’s not how Winchester did it! They did it with a short lever travel of a mere 60 degrees. To achieve this seemingly impossible task, they relied on additional levers and of course the necessary linkage along side the main lever to multiply the motion of the main lever. The Model 88 may thus be more accurately referred to as a “levers-action” rifle.