POTD: Before Winchester – Volcanic Lever Action Pistol-Carbine

Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Here we have the missing link between a pistol and a Winchester. This is a Volcanic Repeating Arms Company lever action pistol-carbine in 41 Volcanic with its detachable shoulder stock.

The Volcanic story is short and it ends in failure, but everything Winchester built later came out of it. Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson took the Hunt and Jennings repeating rifle patents, cleaned up the toggle link action, and sold the operation to a group of investors in 1855. One of those investors was a shirt maker named Oliver Winchester. The company went under in 1857, Winchester picked up the pieces, renamed it New Haven Arms, and handed the design problem to Benjamin Tyler Henry.

The problem was the ammunition. Volcanic guns fired the Rocket Ball, a hollow based conical bullet with the powder packed into the cavity behind it and a cork disc over the back. No case, no good primer arrangement, and nowhere near enough room for powder. Velocity was pitiful and misfires were routine. The action itself was sound, which is why the Henry rifle looks the way it does once Henry gave that action a real rimfire cartridge to work with.

This one is the pistol-carbine version: a 16 1/2 inch octagon barrel with a 20 round magazine under it and a brass frame. Bolt the stock onto the backstrap lug and you have a rifle. Only about 300 were built with the stock arrangement.

Most of our POTDs utilize images from our friends at Rock Island Auction Company, the premier firearms auction in the United States. Take some time to browse their current auctions – who knows, maybe you’ll find a piece of history to take home!

“Well-Documented Volcanic Repeating Arms Company Pistol-Carbine.” Rock Island Auction, www.rockislandauction.com/detail/4097/13/welldocumented-volcanic-repeating-arms-company-pistolcarbine. Accessed 30 July 2026.

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