Taylor’s & Company TC73 Lever Action Rifle Review

The Taylor’s TC73 in 9mm. Let’s check it out. (Available Here)

 

Guys, this past year at NRA, I came across the Taylor’s firearm booth, and they had the TC73, which is a lever action rifle.

It’s based on the Winchester 1873, which is considered the gun that won the West. The one key about the model 1873 is that it used pistol calibers for the rifle and then for your handgun, so it made things a lot easier if you were on the trail. That was in 4440, and they made other pistol calibers as well, but this is in 9mm, the most popular pistol caliber in the world.

This is the first 9mm lever action that I know of. It has the Taylor-tuned action, which means they have slicked up all the internals. It’s very smooth, has the case color-hardened receiver, blued barrel, and it’s just an absolutely beautiful rifle.

Now, Taylor’s Firearms is known for importing lever action rifles and single action revolvers, and this is their first American-made 1873. In fact, it’s been over 100 years since an 1873 has been manufactured here in the US. A big thank you to Taylor’s Firearms for sending the model TC-73 for this review.

Taylor’s and Company, they’ve been around for a number of years. They’re out of Winchester, Virginia, and their main business has been importing Italian-made single action revolvers, a lot of different replicas. Here we have what we call the Smoke Wagon, and this is a Colt .45, and it’s actually based on the Colt single action.

Even has the four clicks, case color-hardening, beautiful bluing, and a lot of cowboy action guys love the Taylor’s and Company firearms because this one in particular has had the Taylor-tuned action, which is one thing they do is they’ll import the firearms and then they upgrade them. This one has it. It is so smooth, and it has some beautiful walnut stocks, but then they also import a number of different really unusual replicas, and this is an old Schofield.

It doesn’t have a top strap, and this is just a beautiful gun. It even has engraving along the cylinder. Again, case color-hardening, beautiful walnut.

So there’s a number of firearms that they offer, but these have been imported, again, from Italy. You know, the spaghetti westerns. Those were very popular.

It brought a lot of interest to western firearms in Italy and in Europe, but now they’re offering their TC-73. Now, this is based on the 1873 action. Really, the big thing about the 1873 was it was in pistol caliber, so you could carry your handgun or your single action revolver along with your rifle and had the same ammunition, and back in the old west, that was a real problem with logistics and keeping up with ammunition, so it made it really simple.

They really started out with the .44-40 caliber, and there’s a number of different calibers that they ended up producing, but this one is in 9mm, which this is the first time I’ve seen a 9mm lever-action rifle, but this is 100% made in the U.S. by Taylors & Company, and that’s a big first as well. Again, we’re going with 10 rounds of 9mm because it is rounded off or even most of your jacketed hollow point. They’re not going to sit off the primer, so they can sit in the tube.

One thing, though, you need to be careful of is if it does have a point on the end, you’re not going to be able to carry it in this lever-action rifle because it could set off one of the primers, but most of your standard 9mm is going to be fine. All right, guys, let’s make sure the gun’s unloaded right here at the loading gate. Look down.

There’s no rounds in the tube. You’ll notice how short this loading gate is, and it has this little cup, but that’s because the 9mm is so short. Then back here, we have a little lever.

Just going to turn it, and that way we can release the lever. Now, right here is your carrier, and the carrier is brass. It has the T that’s from Taylor & Company, and as we open it, it goes up, and it carries that 9mm round up, and then here at the top, you can see that it’s just brass, and this feeds it.

You’ll notice this little rod right here, and it comes out the back. This is the action, so for 9mm, you know, it doesn’t have to be really a big carrier. Also, you’ll notice right here, we have a dust cover, and that dust cover goes back.

When you open up the action, it pushes it back, and then there’s some texturing right here, serrations, and you just push it forward. So you thought the AR-15 was the first to come up with a dust cover, but the 1873 had one as well. Now, the case color hardening is beautiful, and it really gets back to a vintage time, and then we have bluing on the barrel, and it’s very well done, and then right here at the top, we have Taylor & Company, and these are made in Winchester, Virginia.

We have that original side plate that came on the 1873, so it gives it kind of a different look, especially some of the more modern lever action rifles. It has the small loop. It is case color hardened, and then here at the back, you’ll notice this little lock, and this just pops open and keeps the lever in place, so it doesn’t shake open, and then you can just turn it.

With the hammer, the firing pin is not connected, so we have a floating firing pin, but I don’t think that there is a transfer bar in here, but you can half cock it, and it locks it into place, and it has that traditional checkering from the 1800s. We have a semi-buckhorn rear sight, and there is a diamond. This is traditional, and this is adjustable for your elevation.

The front sight has a white bead. It is dovetailed in. It goes really well with that rear buckhorn sight.

One thing you’ll notice is right here, this knurling on the cap, and this, yes, this is threaded. It’s 5H by 24, which is for your 9 millimeter, and a lot of times, especially with cowboy action, they don’t allow for you to have a threaded barrel, but if your thread cap is smooth, you can put it on, and they do offer a smooth thread cap for cowboy action, and then we have the tubular magazine, and again, this holds 10 rounds of 9 millimeter. Now, we have a lightened brass carrier block, and this is to accommodate the 9 millimeter.

It does have the T engraved for Taylors and Company. All the screws in the action are hardened. All the parts are machined.

There are no MIM parts on this rifle, and again, you have that side cover plate right here that matches the other side, and these actions are tailor-tuned actions. They are very slick. It’s kind of funny with this small little rod instead of your standard bolt carrier that comes back, but man, it is really smooth coming down.

These are actual true case coloring, and every receiver has been quenched one at a time. They really take a lot of care in putting these together. The barrel is 18 inches in length.

It weighs around 8 pounds, and overall, it’s 37.5 inches in length. Beautiful walnut American stock without the pistol grip. It’s just the straight line, and then we have a rubberized butt pad on the back.

The tang comes back through the stock, and it says model TC73 right on the tang, and where that lever comes out, this is also tanged all the way down, so it’s really attached to the stock very well, and again, we have our small little lock here to keep that lever in place, which is traditional with your 1873s. We have American walnut stock that is smooth, and it does match the buttstock, and then we have an end cap, and this is also case color hardened, and there’s a band right here to hold the tube into place. Now, we’re going to check the trigger pull, and it’s very smooth.

It is curved, and again, we have that tailor tuned action. This is supposed to be three to four pounds. You just hit a wall, and then it breaks.

Really nice break. Let’s try it again. Yeah, that is a very nice break.

Now, we were going to check the trigger pull weight with our trigger gauge, but the way we have to set this up, it doesn’t give us a true reading, but I’m going to tell you guys, it is definitely in that three to four pound range. Now, one of the things, again, about the 1873 is that it was designed to have a rifle in your pistol caliber, and of course, nine millimeter, there’s a ton of modern options, but Taylor also offers a single action revolver in nine millimeter in their lineup, and I believe they’re actually made by Uberti, which, again, makes really good quality firearms, so you still have that pairing with your lever action rifle and your single action, but then again, if you have this rifle with you and you have a Glock 19 on your side, that works as well too. You just have that ammo compatibility.

So, nine millimeter in an 18 inch barrel. First off, you’re going to have a longer sight radius. You have your sight from here to the end, and that’s just going to be easier to get on target at greater distances, but also, because of the longer barrel, the powder is burning off by the time it gets out of the end, and that just gives you a flatter trajectory.

Overall, it’s just going to give you considerably more ballistic performance and gives you more range to be accurate on target. Obviously, you’re not going to be able to attach a scope to this, but this is not what this is for. This is just to take out to the range.

Cowboy action shooting, it works really well, and it gets you back to those roots of the Model 1873, which is legendary. In fact, Model 1873 is considered the gun that won the West. All right, a big thank you to Fiocchi for sponsoring our ammo.

All made in the USA. One of biggest suppliers of ammunition in the country. This loading gate is really smooth.

I like it. Sometimes they’re stiff. This one has a lot of give to it.

It has a little cup. Allows you to kind of set the round. All right, guys.

Taylor’s Firearms nine millimeter lever action rifle. This is such a smooth firearm. I mean, the lever is really short stroke because the nine millimeter probably performs like a 38 special, and yet, you know, you’ve got that tubular magazine.

The gun itself is so smooth, and it’s absolutely beautiful. And really, lever actions have taken a huge upswing in popularity over the past few years. So it’s really cool to have a nine millimeter version, and you have a threaded barrel, so you can add suppressors, future subsonic nine millimeter.

Again, very smooth action, similar to your Winchester 94 because it’s top eject, but that stroke is like, I mean, it’s just barely. The buckhorn sights are great. You can see that bead at the front, but the great thing is it shoots very soft and very smooth.

I mean, it just barely kicks. It just has very little recoil, but the stock, very smooth, and yet, it just feels nice. I mean, it feels nice in your hands.

Very thin here. The walnut’s beautifully done. The case hardened receiver.

It just really looks like something with that old world craftsmanship. And these are being made right here in the US, which Taylor typically, you know, imports a lot of their single action revolvers and their lever actions. But again, saw this at NRA and I thought, man, I really want this to check it out.

And so it was really nice for Taylor to send it. Smooth like butter. What do you think? I love this.

I’ve always loved lever actions. It just makes me feel like a cowgirl, but this was really nice, especially considering a lot of lever actions are a little bit higher caliber. So this was a really nice, enjoyable, like it’s a little more than the 22, but oh, it just feels really nice.

And it’s got a real short stroke. Yeah. I mean, and I’ve got really short arms.

So a lot of times some of these lever actions, I can do it, but sometimes it like takes a little more, but this one was like perfect. Yeah, it’s very smooth. Guys, whenever you add a new optic to your firearm, you need to sight it in and you can walk it in.

You can bore sight it through the bore. But the easiest way we found is the Sight-Rite 2.0 by Tactical Elites. It’s a green laser bore sighter.

Put a collet on it that’ll fit the caliber. Then we slide it into the end of the barrel and then we turn on the green laser. Check out Tactical Elites for the Sight-Rite 2.0, an excellent addition to your range time, and it’ll save you time and money.

So go to tacticalelites.com. Now we’re not going to get into the disassembly. Again, the screws are hardened. All the parts are polished.

The interior parts are machined. The MSRP is $1,999. Of course, market price typically is going to be less.

I mean, the big thing here is you’re buying something that number one is nine millimeter. It’s made right here in the USA, and this is going to be great for cowboy action. Again, also a great companion with your nine millimeter, whether it’s a single action revolver or even a modern semi-automatic.

The 1873 was considered the most successful lever action ever made. And again, it was consigned to the gun that won the West. The quality that goes throughout with the true case color hardening, the beautiful bluing, the action’s very smooth, very nice trigger pull, beautiful American walnut stocks.

I mean, it just has a lot of pros. Are there any cons? Well, for what it is, there’s not really any cons. I mean, it’s that 1873 action.

It’s been just very well done. Again, the big pro is you’re going with nine millimeter and you have 10 round capacity. There are other more modern lever action designs, but this one is made to be true to the 1873.

And again, for cowboy action, that’s really what they’re looking for. So overall, a very beautiful rifle in a modern caliber and a lot of fun to take to the range. The recoil is about nil, so it’s just a lot of fun.

But again, great for competition, or if you just like the old West, this makes a great replica rifle of the 1873. To be honest, the 1873 in any design hasn’t been made in the U.S. for over a hundred years. Even Winchester has their 1873s made in Japan.

So a very elegant weapon for a more civilized time. Okay, maybe not so civilized. So guys, whether you’re a collector of really nice heirloom quality lever action rifles, or you’re in the cowboy action shooting, or you just like to go out and plink with one of those really beautiful designs from yesteryear.

I mean, the gun that won the West, I mean, you can’t go wrong. And again, a big thank you to Taylor’s Firearms for sending the TC-73 for this review.

 

Be strong, be of good courage. God bless America. Long live the Republic.

 

-Don