Colt’s only lever action rifle, the Colt BurgessDuring the 19th century Colt was known for the

Colt’s only lever action rifle, the Colt BurgessDuring the 19th century Colt was known for their revolvers and Winchester was known for their lever action rifles.  For the most part both companies did not try to step on each other’s toes.  However in 1883 an improved model of lever action rifle was presented to Colt by a man named Andrew Burgess.Burgess, a gunsmith and photographer, had created a lever action rifle similar to the Winchester Model 1873.  From outward appearances the rifles look very similar.  However Burgess had made several improvements to the design that made it more accurate, reliable, and tougher.  All in all the Burgess Model 1883 surpassed the original Winchester in performance.Winchester was not very happy about having competition from Colt. Shortly after production began representatives from Winchester met with representatives from Colt.  From there the Winchester reps presented a number of pistol prototypes they intended to manufacture.  An agreement was made that if Colt stayed out of rifles Winchester would stay out of pistols.  Production of Colt Burgess rifle’s ended after only 16 months of production.  As a result only 6,403 rifles were produced.Anthony Burgess left Colt and designed firearms in partnership with the Whitney Company.  Later he would found his own company from which he sold his own designs of rifles and shotguns. -- source link

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