Smith & Wesson's New Model 1854 Stealth Hunter Lever-Action Rifle

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When Smith & Wesson came out with its Model 1854 lever-action rifle in 2024, it raised a flag to the past, present, and future. Past, in acknowledging its roots in the Volcanic lever gun that spawned many of Winchester’s successful designs. Present, in recognizing how trendy lever actions are among current shooters. Future, in designing a historically rooted rifle that blends seamlessly into the modern world of stainless steel, composite stocks, suppressors, and bolt-on accessories.

The company’s new Model 1854 Stealth Hunter model leans to the futuristic side. It has a high-tech matte black finish on the stainless-steel action and barrel, a composite buttstock, and a machined aluminum forearm with M-LOK slots. The trigger is a flat-faced affair, the front sight has a fiber-optic insert, and the action sports an optic-ready Picatinny rail with a built-in aperture rear sight.

Let’s take a step back and examine the fundamental design of the Model 1854 rifle. Then we can explore all the bells and whistles that I anticipate will make it a hot item with young, modern lever-gun shooters.

The Design

At its core the Model 1854 is quite similar to Marlin’s legendary Model 1894 action. It’s designed specifically for revolver cartridges, such as the .357 Magnum, .44 Magnum, and .45 Colt. Compact, strong, and ergonomic, the carbine is easy loading, operating, and shooting. It easily handles the pressures of magnum revolver cartridges. Plus, the basic action is super easy to mount a peep sight or a scope on because it has a solid top.

Unlike traditional lever actions, the Model 1854 Stealth Hunter is fitted with a straight trigger, similar to semiautomatic pistols and AR-15s tricked out for competitive shooting. This provides shooters with excellent sensitivity and trigger “feel.” One feature borrowed from lever-action tradition is the oversize lever loop, which accommodates gloved fingers comfortably. It’s advantageous to anyone hunting in cold weather and to folks with beefy fingers.

Also like most traditional lever actions, the Model 1854 is fed by a tubular magazine that’s housed beneath the barrel. It’s loaded via a side gate in the right side of the action. However, Smith & Wesson designed the tube to be removed, so if you need to offload a magazine full of live cartridges, you don’t have to run them through the chamber and eject them, which is always a dicey activity. Just pull the mag tube and dump the rounds out. I’ll explain how to do it further on in this report.

Aside from those unique features, the 1854 Stealth Hunter has a pretty typical modern lever-gun action, including the presence of a crossbolt-type safety in the rear of the receiver. It’s required by the legal department, I’m told, but like most purists, I consider it a nuisance and a travesty.

Up front, the barrel is a straight-tapered tube that’s threaded 11/16-24 at the muzzle, making it easy to attach a suppressor. It’s nice and short—just 16.3 inches—so the carbine is perfect as a handy truck gun or home-defense tool. The high-­profile front sight with a fiber-optic insert enables fast sighting and—most importantly—allows the sights to be used with a suppressor installed.

As I mentioned earlier, atop the Stealth Hunter’s action is a long section of rail with an aperture-type rear sight installed at the rear. The aperture sight is a good one that’s fast to use, and it increases accuracy compared to a barrel-mounted iron sight. Shooters can mount a traditional scope with common eye relief over the action or a forward-mounted scout-type scope, thanks to the length of the rail.

If opting for a scope in the traditional location atop the receiver, I’d mount something like a lightweight 1-4X in quick-detach rings. That’s all the magnification needed for the ranges a .44 Magnum lever action like the one I am reviewing here is suitable for. Such scopes are sleek and compact and allow a hunter to take advantage of the carbine’s quick-handling, well-balanced characteristics.

That said, forward-mounted scout scopes are extremely popular among those who use them. I’ve had tremendous good luck with such scopes on my .45-70 Marlin, so when I received the .44 Magnum Model 1854 Stealth Hunter to wring out on my home shooting range, that’s what I chose to put on it. To be specific, it’s a Leupold 1.5-5X VX-R.

Although the carbine’s buttstock is rather unremarkable to look at, it’s actually very well thought out. It’s made of a sturdy composite, so it’s impervious to damage from moisture and immune to all but the most aggressive scratches. It has a pistol grip, which will help make the carbine feel natural to shooters accustomed to pistol-grip stocks on their shotguns and bolt-action rifles. A grippy stippled-type texture provides a slip-resistant surface, even with wet hands. And the good, rubbery recoil pad tames what little bite the .44 Magnum has and helps keep the carbine from sliding when leaned on “guard duty” in the kitchen corner.

I was first introduced to the Model 1854 Stealth Hunter at an industry event in Texas, where a few writers gathered for an early look at the model and to put it through its paces hunting fallow deer and whitetails. Design and execution were impressive, even on those pre-production guns.

Oddly, the handy little 16-inch-barreled carbines issued to us in Texas were all mounted with great big 3-15X Vortex scopes with large objective bells up front. It’s a nice scope and would be at home on a good high-power bolt action configured for precision shooting, but I think it was as out of place on the Model 1854 Stealth Hunter as a bootlegger at a teetotalers’ picnic.

Not to worry; we were there to hunt, and any day afield in pursuit of big game is a good day. We checked zero on the scopes, made a few refinements, and loaded our carbines before going hunting.

Federal provided ammo, and the .44 Magnum 270-grain HammerDown load has impressive specs. It’s advertised to produce 1,615 fps of velocity and 1,564 ft-lbs of energy at the muzzle. Its effectiveness on whitetails and fallow deer over the next couple days quickly turned me into a disciple. We saw pass-throughs on broadside shots and collected a few picture-perfect mushroomed bullets from quartering shots.

When my chance came, it was on a nice Texas 10-point that made the mistake of looking back over its shoulder after start-ling at just 50 yards or so. The bullet I sent downrange took it exactly behind the shoulder. On impact the deer leaped spasmodically, easily going six feet or more in the air. Then he ran less than 20 yards before piling up, and a massive blood trail was left thanks to the pass-through performance of the HammerDown bullet.

Previously, while at the range while refining scope settings, I had observed that most of the Stealth Hunter carbines S&W had brought to the event produced groups ranging from about 2.5 to 5.0 inches. That’s not bad for carbines with short barrels, but I suspected that they’d do better if sandbagged on a good concrete benchrest and tested with a variety of good ammunition.

Once home after the hunt, I waited impatiently for the test sample S&W had promised to send on loan for accuracy testing. When it arrived, I lost no time in gathering up a handful of different .44 Magnum factory loads and heading to the range.

Range Results

As much as I wanted to just shoot the lively handling little Trapper-­size carbine with its iron sights, I restrained myself with a promise to do so after clinical testing was complete. With the tried-and-true Leupold 1.5-5X VX-R scout scope I mentioned earlier installed, I went to work firing groups for average. Even though no Trapper-size, revolver-caliber carbine is at its best at 100 yards, it’s certainly capable for hunting to that distance and a bit farther, so that’s the distance at which I chose to shoot test groups. I fired three consecutive five-shot groups for average with each type of ammunition.

The results are listed in the accompanying chart, and as I expected, some loads shot better than others. Hornady’s 300-grain XTP ammo bested its contenders by shooting tiny (for a lever action) groups that averaged just 1.35 inches. So impressive! Most other ammo produced averages of double that or more.

Velocity out of the short 16.3-inch barrel was good, with multiple loads producing north of 1,750 fps with 240-grain bullets. Standard deviations were wide, as is common when pairing revolver cartridges with carbine-­length barrels. However, American Eagle’s load posted an astonishing standard deviation of just 4 fps over a nine-round string.

Contrary to what some folks anticipate, the .44 Magnum has little recoil when housed in a lever-action rifle. In comparison, a 6.5-pound .30-30 carbine shooting a 170-grain bullet at 2,200 fps generates about 16 ft-lbs of recoil energy at the shoulder. A .44 Magnum carbine of the same weight, shooting 270-grain HammerDown bullets at 1,600 fps generates less than 14 ft-lbs. In contrast, a 7.5-pound .45-70 lever action shooting a 325-grain Hornady FTX bullet at 2,000 fps generates more than 34 ft-lbs of recoil energy. That’s nearly three times as much as the .44 Magnum.

My point is S&W’s Model 1854 Stealth Hunter is super easy and super fun to shoot. Reliability while hunting with it and while testing for accuracy at the range was boring—which is just the way you want it.

Ergonomics are pretty good. I confess the Stealth Hunter—what with its cold aluminum fore-end and plastic stock—doesn’t have that nostalgic warm wood feel that draws me to lever actions. Likewise, its looks weren’t appealing in a classic sense, but they were practical and functional—just not elegant, but that’s okay. Modern shooters don’t seem concerned about firearm elegance.

There was only one feature that I found a bit awkward, and that was the removable magazine tube. Unlike traditional magazine tubes like those on .22 rimfires and on most Henry tube-loaded models, the Model 1854 does not have an internal tube that slides inside a fixed exterior tube. There’s just one tube, and when you turn the knurled endcap and pull on it, the entire thing comes out of the action. The first time I went to offload a magazine full of live .44 Magnum cartridges, I was disconcerted to have them all dump out of the tube inside of the aluminum forearm. Not to worry; I just turned the carbine muzzle down and shook the loose cartridges out. It just felt a bit odd to have them all gush out inside the forearm.

Because the Stealth Hunter is so ideal for use with a suppressor, I installed my Banish 46 made by Silencer Central and ran a handful of shots through it. The recoil reduction made the .44 Magnum carbine even smoother to shoot, and the suppressor deadened the report.

Curious about whether the Stealth Hunter would feed and fire .44 Special cartridges (as is safe in .44 Magnum revolvers), I tried some Winchester Cowboy Action ammo loaded with 240-grain cast lead bullets. I was hoping it would work for two reasons. One, it would make a fantastic light practice load. Two, at subsonic speeds it would be wonderfully quiet when shooting suppressed.

Sure enough, the Stealth Hunter fed and fired .44 Special ammo without a hitch. I didn’t shoot that ammo for accuracy, but I did chronograph how fast the bullets exited the muzzle of the 16.3-inch-barreled carbine. At 863 fps, they were mild in kick and in sound. With the suppressor in place, I couldn’t quite hear the firing pin strike, but the report was just a loud “clack” sound.

Before wrapping up the report, it bears mentioning that the Model 1854 Stealth Hunter lever action would make a very good home-defense firearm in areas where AR-15s are restricted. Smith & Wesson’s smooth-functioning lever gun is fast-handling, hard-hitting, and easy to mount accessories on, such as a weapon light and a red-dot optic.

Judging by the number of pseudo-tactical lever actions being introduced by all the companies currently building lever guns, the type is not only here to stay, but it’s probably going to dominate in the future. While I can’t love it in the same way I love a fine walnut-stocked lever action with midnight-deep bluing and classic lines, I appreciate the Stealth Hunter’s awesome functionality. You’ll never catch me tossing one of my fine classic lever-action rifles behind the seat of my ranch truck, but the S&W Model 1854 Stealth Hunter can and will handle that sort of hard use. As a result, it’ll be there when I need it—and that’s a tremendously valuable characteristic in a firearm.

MODEL 1854 STEALTH HUNTER SPECS

• MANUFACTURER: Smith & Wesson, smith-wesson.com
• TYPE: Lever-action repeater
• CALIBER: .44 Magnum
• MAGAZINE CAPACITY: 8 rounds
• BARREL: 16.3 in., 1:20 twist
• OVERALL LENGTH: 33.4 in.
• WEIGHT, EMPTY: 6.38 lbs.
• STOCK: Composite buttstock, 6061-T6 aluminum forearm
• LENGTH OF PULL: 13.36 in.
• FINISH: Matte black Armornite receiver, lever, and barrel; black hard- coat anodized forearm
• SIGHTS: Adjustable aperture rear, fiber-optic front, Picatinny rail
• TRIGGER: 4-lb. pull (as tested)
• SAFETY: Crossbolt
• MSRP $1,399

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