This is a beautiful example of a rifle that has always been a baffling one to me.
Why were the lever-operated rifles ever made?
To a collector, of course, they would be golden, since they are so scarce. But to the shooter of real or replica versions what is the advantage? The disturbance while shooting with the thumb operated, more common, rifle would be less, and the trimmer, more streamlined common one would be nicer for carrying on the ones used in the field.
So, if anybody would like to educate me, I'm all ears. Thanx

Thanks for the reply, everything is worth hearing about.
Does the block really rock? I can't figure what would be different in the pathway of the thing- but I haven't ever seen a Walker Hepburn either. If it does that might be useful for the paper patch rounds, huh?

Yeah, I guess that finger support is good for the offhand. My ol' high wall has finger grooves, but I never use them, so I just overlooked that one. Good thinkin'.
Off the bags (about all I shoot these days), I just lay my thumb alongside the wrist and stick a single finger into the trigger, so don't pay it any attention other than being the handle to open the action.

My Walker Hepburn lecture.
The Walker Patent action was never manufactured except for prototypes. A very complicated action.
The Walker Hepburn is is identical to a regular Hepburn except for the lever, a Hopkins & Allen type link, different, but similar breech block, trigger plate and lever spring.
The Walker Hepburn was an attempt to cash in on the Schuetzen market with minimum changes to an existing action.
It was not a commercial success even though they hired Doc Hudson to campaign with one, hence the rarity
Several Walkers were modified to replace the Hepburn DST's. Don't know if this was factory or not.
Tom Rowe's Hepburn book is a good reference.
Chuck 

Chuckster wrote on Mar 19^th, 2018 at 10:37am:


Chuck, I'm curious why you consider the Walker a prototype, and not more of a special or custom Hepburn? Since Tom Rowe's book lists almost 40 known examples, and Remington did advertise the Walker version for sale as a "special", it seems it went past being just a prototype.
I've heard guesstimates of 50 to 100 built, but I seriously doubt there were 100 built. I'd guess it's likely around 50, as I'm sure there may be more beyond what Warren Greatbatch discovered, or Tom Rowe listed. But probably not many more.

Chuckster wrote on Mar 19^th, 2018 at 12:28pm:


Thanks Chuck! 

I want to see a Hepburn with a rocking Breech block! I never seen of those! All my Hepburn’s were the plain old falling block ones.