New Winchester Ranger: .22 LR Lever-Action Shooting Fun

Winchester finally brings back a lever-action .22, and the new Ranger is a winner.

January 06, 2026 By Layne Simpson

The new Ranger is the fourth lever-action rifle in .22 Long Rifle to wear the Winchester name during the past 152 years. While the Model 1873, introduced that year, became a big hit among deer hunters due to its .44-40 chambering, it was also the first repeating rifle to be chambered for the .22 Short and .22 Long cartridges; the .22 Long Rifle did not exist at the time.

Next up in 1965 was the Winchester Model 250. The Model 94/22, introduced in 1972, was built first by Winchester Repeating Arms Company and later by U. S. Repeating Arms Company. I had the pleasure of owning several through the years and managed to hang onto the XTR variant with its fancy wood and nice checkering. Around 800,000 Model 94/22 rifles in .22 Long Rifle and .22 Mag. were built prior to it being discontinued in 2005.

I devoted a bit of space to the Model 94/22 because when lifting the new Winchester Ranger from its box I initially thought the old rifle was back. Closer examination revealed a number of differences, understandable since production of the two rifles is separated by 20 years of inflation.

According to Winchester, the light operating forces designed into the Ranger action make it easy for both old and young shooters to operate. A friend’s young daughter—who, for her age, is quite experienced at small game hunting and target shooting—loved the Ranger. While firing rapidly at a Cabela’s Rimfre Dueling Tree placed 20 yards downrange, she held her own against her father and me.

Attention to Detail

rifle broken down — Zero is not lost when the Ranger is taken down and put back together because the scope remains attached to the receiver/barrel assembly. (Photo courtesy of Layne Simpson)

The Ranger is built to Winchester’s stringent specifications by Istanbul Silah, a family-run small arms factory in Istanbul, Turkey, where rifles and shotguns have been manufactured for more than three decades. The receiver is CNC-machined from a bar of 6061-T6 aluminum alloy and given a durable black anodized finish. Measuring only 1.040 inches thick and 2.050 inches tall there, the trim little Ranger carries in the hand like, well, like a Winchester. The top of the receiver is grooved 3/8 inch for scope mounting.

All other parts including the finger lever, hammer, trigger and bolt are steel. The hammer has the traditional three positions: cocked, half-cocked and all the way forward in the resting position.

The firing pin, with its coiled return spring, is inertia-driven so its nose does not contact the rim of a chambered round when the hammer is resting against its rear end. The bolt has dual opposed extractors and, due to a slippery nickel coating, it glides to and fro in the receiver smoothly and it resists rusting as well.

Breech bolt locking and unlocking was explained to me by Jared Evenson, the Winchester engineer who was in charge of designing the Ranger.

Design

barrel — A black rubber O-ring prevents the magazine from inadvertently coming unlatched while the Ranger is being carried in the field. (Photo courtesy of Layne Simpson)

To begin, a spring-tensioned steel locking bolt rotates on a transverse steel pin at the rear of the receiver. Closing the finger lever pushes the breech bolt forward, and as it reaches the limit of its travel, a radius on the lever cams the locking bolt upward to engage a deep recess in the bottom of the breech bolt.

Pushing the finger lever forward withdraws the locking bolt while retracting the breech bolt to the rear. Such a strong and durable lockup indicates to me that the Ranger could potentially be offered in .22 Mag. and .17 HMR sometime in the future. A fired case is tossed through the port as the bolt’s dual opposed extractors impact it against a fixed ejector.

The carbon steel barrel has a blued finish and is 20.25 inches long with the usual 1:16 rifling twist for the .22 Long Rifle. Diameters are 0.760 inch at the receiver and 0.670 inch at the muzzle, where the barrel is given a target-style crown.

The buckhorn rear sight is elevator-adjusted for elevation and drifted in its dovetail slot in the barrel for windage. The ramped black blade at the front and the front barrel band are a one-piece casting held in place by a screw down through the top and into the barrel. A protective hood is included.

The straight-grip stock is attached by a machine screw down through the upper tang of the receiver and into the lower tang. Removing the stock reveals the traditional coiled hammer spring and its guide rod. A pair of Phillips head screws are used to attach a plastic buttplate. The fore-end is held in place by a barrel band.

Taking down the rifle begins with making sure no cartridge is lurking inside, removing the tubular magazine and pushing the finger lever all the way forward. Now place the rifle left side up on a soft padded surface.

To avoid buggering the slotted screw and gouging the nice finish on the side of the receiver with an ill-fitting screwdriver, the Ranger deserves nothing less than a No. 8, hollow-ground, gunsmith-grade screwdriver.

Breakdown

After about eight rotations, the screw disengages from the threads in the receiver and is ready to be pulled out with thumb and forefinger. Now separate the rifle by grasping its grip with one hand while using the other to pivot the front section downward and away from the receiver. The breech bolt is now free for removal from the receiver.

If the Ranger is taken down and stored or carried in a case, locking the breech bolt inside the receiver will prevent it from going astray. Doing so is easy. Position the receiver upside down, push in the bolt as far it will go and push down on the front of the locking bolt.

When the time comes to put the rifle back together, free the breech bolt by pressing down on the rear of the locking bolt.

It’s ingenious to say the least, and since the scope remains attached to the receiver/barrel assembly, zero is not lost when the gun is taken down and put back together.

Plinking Fun

The Ranger’s 15-round tubular magazine assembly is the familiar steel outer tube accepting a rustproof brass inner tube with a spring-loaded cartridge follower. Turning its knurled cap releases the inner tube to slide forward, allowing cartridges to be dropped into a slot in the side of the outer tube. A small rubber O-ring at the front of the inner tube prevents it from inadvertently becoming unlatched in the field.

During a plinking session with the open sights of the Ranger, I found the drop in its stock to be perfect for a comfortable cheek weld.

A dot of red nail polish applied to the front sight improved the picture. Balance point of the rifle is a half-inch beyond the front of the receiver.

Due to the drop in the stock along with the short ring spacing on the receiver, a fairly small scope with a one-inch tube is the logical choice. A faithful old 1.5-4.5X Bushnell Scopechief VII proved to be perfect when mounted in Talley low rings—although the rear sight’s elevator had to be removed entirely in order for the scope to clear.

From the Bench

accuracy results — (Accuracy results provided by the author)

When shooting the Ranger from a benchrest, I nestled it in a Lyman Match Bag/Bag Jack combo and placed a bunny-ear sandbag at the rear. As measured by a Lyman digital gauge, average trigger pull weight was an ounce shy of seven pounds, and my finger detected just a trace of creep with no overtravel. The owner’s manual indicates that overtravel can be adjusted at a Winchester authorized repair center, but the trigger of the test rifle needed no adjustment.

With paper-punching behind me, I filled the magazine with two rounds each of the seven test loads and fired the rifle from the standing position as fast as I could pull the trigger and operate the lever. My stopwatch indicated just under 11 seconds. The little rifle never missed a beat and kept begging for more.