There are pros and cons to any firearm and or action. I personally have grown very fond of them in the last couple years and own three now. They are all Match A guns that have been re barreled with better barrels but are in original calibers. They were purchased this way and that's ok by me. They will all shoot better than I. To me it is the lines and the general appearance of them. Two of mine have single triggers and one set triggers. My two single trigger guns one a 32-40 Rem. Hepburn and one a 40-50 Hepburn both have very good crisp triggers. Little to no creep. I also like the side lever operation and positive ejection of a spent case. If you shoot prone you don't have to lay the gun over to operate the action. Under lever guns such as a Hi Wall or Sharps etc... you do. I was advised when I really got interested in them to get Tom Rowe's book on the Hepburn. It will tell you just about everything you would want to know about them. There are several shooters here that own and collect and shoot Hepburn rifles and they all have high regard for them. I am sure some of them will contribute their opinions as well. 



JMH

If I hadn't started my love affair with Ballard rifles first, I'd have mostly Hepburns now! I have six Hepburns and only two with double set triggers. Single triggers have never needed anything to improve them for me as they're all very nice as is. The set triggers are as good as any I've ever owned, and hold their settings for as long as I've owned and shot them.
Hepburn actions are extremely strong design, and the only con I'd say is if you ever got a case stuck the side lever doesn't have much leverage to extract a stuck case. But in normal situations the side lever works flawlessly and I love it.

Hepburns are great in all aspects except one, recoil with larger cartridges.

There is a lot of drop in the Hepburn stock, which probably aggravates the felt recoil.

All the single trigger Hepburn I’ve fired have very good trigger pulls, unlike the large Rolling Blocks, which all seem to have to be tweaked for lighter pulls.  I only have two standard trigger models (and have fired a couple more), but the guys I shoot with that have Hepburns with double set triggers report that they are not that great at best, and not infrequently out of order at worst.

I have 4 Hepburns and obviously I really like them. Cocking the hammer is not for your average younger or weaker human but as mentioned it gives great ignition. Tom Rowe's book is very helpful and just plain fun to study. My guns range from a light 32-20, a near mint target 40-70SS, a very rare 16lb heavy barrel 45-100 and an early medium heavy barreled 40-70SS that I had Dan Zimmerman rebuild.

.22Hepburn wrote on May 15^th, 2025 at 11:17am:


Maybe I was misunderstood? I'm not making  any kind of derogatory comments about the heavy mainspring in Hepburns or rolling blocks. As you say that's they way they were made.

I own a number of Rolling Blocks, and Hepburns, and most don't have the heavy mainsprings once I work the mainsprings over. But a few like my Match B and Match A Hepburns had nice mainsprings when I got them. Most of my Rolling Blocks (minus one Cadet 1 1/2) are Sporting Rifles, and had nice hammer feel and not too heavy. Dave told me about the trigger return springs many years ago, and I bought a pound of piano wire then, and have used it to lighten triggers ever since.