The Winchester Model 94 Trails End Takedown is a walnut-stocked lever-action .30-30 Winchester built for hunting thick brush and traveling light. It has an MSRP of $1,719.99. The barrel comes off it by hand, splitting the rifle into a barrel assembly and a stocked receiver assembly, each short enough for a pack frame or the space behind a truck seat.

It comes sighted with a Marble Arms front bead and an adjustable semi-buckhorn rear, and the receiver is drilled and tapped for optional mounts. The hammer is drilled and tapped from the factory for the knurled spur extension that ships with the rifle, so the hammer can be cocked and decocked with a scope overhead. Reassembly is seating the two halves and giving the end of the magazine tube a few turns, with no tools involved. Because the magazine tube unscrews as part of that joint, the tube holds six where a fixed-barrel Model 94 holds seven. The muzzle is not threaded.

If you're cross-shopping, the Winchester 94 has an MSRP of $1,449.99 and matches this rifle on barrel length, overall length and weight while holding one more round, so the extra money buys the takedown joint. The Henry Side Gate has an MSRP of $1,135, loads through the receiver as well as the tube, and gives you a 14-inch length of pull against 13.5 inches here at 0.25 lbs more weight. A takedown rifle is stored apart and assembled in the field, which puts the zero on a joint you have to seat the same way every time.