With all of the modern, feature-packed firearms on the market these days, I find it interesting that it’s the lever-action rifle that’s the most appealing to me. I’m not sure if that’s because of my childhood connection to old westerns on the big screen or just because I have a soul that was born a century too late. Either way, I’m always looking for the next one to try out and, for this review, that happens to be the new Smith & Wesson 1854 Stealth Hunter in .30-30.
Hybrid Hunter – A Modern Take With the Stealth Hunter
Most of the lever-action guns I’ve bought over the years have been in pistol calibers like .357 Magnum, .45 Colt, and .44 Magnum. I always like the ability to share the ammo with the revolvers that I’m wearing outdoors. That said, I’m obsessed with .45-70 lever guns, especially the hotter loads that have that extra thump for big game hunting or for close-up protection against dangerous wildlife. However, the .45-70 isn’t a very flat-shooting round, and it’s not particularly practical for many everyday applications. That’s where the .30-30 finds its niche.
Smith & Wesson’s new 1854 Stealth Hunter in .30-30 capitalizes on that caliber’s general utility with a design that straddles the fence between old-world chores—like hunting and tending to the farm—and more tactical use cases such as self-defense. The most radical departure from a traditional lever gun is the Stealth Hunter’s all-black appearance and its furniture, which consists of a polymer stock and an aluminum handguard that’s replete with M-LOK slots for your favorite accessories. Additionally, there’s a sizable loop that offers plenty of room for a gloved hand during cold-weather use.
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Lightweight
Weighing in at 6.95 pounds, the Stealth Hunter has an overall length of 34.3 inches and sports a 16.5-inch barrel. Smith offers another 1854 model in .30-30 with a stainless finish and a 20-inch barrel. While the longer barrel will help you pick up a bit more velocity for longer-distance shooting and hunting, the shorter 16.5-inch barrel of the Stealth Hunter is easier to manage in the dense brush and woods in the area where I live. The shorter barrel is also handier for vehicle loading and extraction, and the 13.35-inch length of pull makes it faster to the shoulder for quicker sight acquisition.
Despite its black Armornite finish, the 1854 Stealth Hunter features both a stainless-steel receiver and barrel, which is threaded (5/8 x 24) at the muzzle for use with a brake or suppressor of your choice. Another modern upgrade to the lever-action design is the addition of a full-length Picatinny rail that’s fantastic in its own right. It allows the user to mount basically any optic they like. Fancy a red dot for basic around-the-farm utility? No problem. Going hunting for whitetail and need a scope for longer reach and better shot placement? The 1854 Stealth hunter has you covered.
Mounting an Optic
There are some who believe mounting an optic on a lever gun is tantamount to blasphemy. Those folks can rest easy since the Stealth Hunter comes with a very nice sight arrangement you can use instead. At the rear, there’s a ghost-ring sight to aid in quickly picking up the target. Up front, there’s a HiViZ Litewave H3 fiber-optic sight that’s a big step up in visibility over the black blades and bead sights of yesteryear.
For those who would use the 1854 Stealth Hunter for, well, hunting, it’s worth taking notice of the fire-control arrangement that’s in place. The 1854 does not have any type of transfer bar safety, so carrying the rifle with the hammer down on a live round is not an option. There is a cross-bolt safety, but if the hammer is cocked and the trigger is pulled, the cross-bolt safety still allows the hammer to drop, and it will alert anything in the woods with a loud, metallic clack. If you forgot that the cross-bolt safety was engaged when you tried to take a shot, well, you just scared off the game you were stalking.
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Half-Cock Safety
The solution to this dilemma is the 1854’s half-cock safety. After cycling in a round, the user can gently lower the hammer while the cross-bolt safety is engaged. After that, the user can cock the hammer back slightly to the half-cock position and then disengage the cross-bolt safety. Pulling the trigger will not cause the hammer to drop when it’s in the half-cock position. When it’s time to take the shot, the hunter can simply cock the hammer fully back and then pull the trigger so that the freezer gets filled instead of scaring the game into the next county.
The 1854 does not feature a top-loading magazine tube, so rounds need to be fed in through the side gate, which works pretty well overall. There are no sharp edges, and there’s just enough resistance to make the aperture secure without creating difficulty for the user during the loading process. The magazine holds five rounds of .30-30 due to the shorter length of the Stealth Hunter. The 1854 version with the 20-inch barrel holds six rounds in the magazine.
Operational Observations
The flat-faced trigger on the 1854 isn’t bad either. There’s just about a quarter inch of pre-travel to the wall, and the crisp break averaged a touch over 4.5 pounds. It’s not a hair trigger as you can find on some bolt-action models, but it’s pretty good for a lever gun. It definitely had a lighter break than a new Ruger/Marlin 1895 trigger that I tried, which averaged around 5.25 pounds. On the flip side, however, the Ruger/Marlin SBL offered a slicker lever action than the 1854 thanks to its internal coatings. The 1854’s action was confident and fairly smooth overall, but it just wasn’t quite at the level of the 1895, though it was very close. Of course, the action might smooth out even more with time and a little use.
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After mounting a Leupold scope on the 1854, I settled in to do a little accuracy testing from the bench at a hundred yards. I had some great ammo on hand from Hornady, Remington, and Federal, including Hornady’s 140-grain Monoflex load and 150-grain Interlock load, as well as Remington’s 150-grain Core-Lokt round and Federal’s 150-grain Hammer Down load. I hadn’t shot the Hammer Down load before, but I was particularly impressed by it. The accuracy was on point in my test, and based on the research I did on the load, it yields superb penetration with excellent weight retention.
Rounds Tested
That said, it’s tough to go wrong with any of the loads I had on hand. Some are time-tested and proven, and all of them will get the job done. As far as accuracy goes, Federal’s Hammer Down load took the prize with a best group of just 1.06 inches. Whether that was a fluke or just a trick of the wind, the Hammer Down load still averaged just 1.48 inches for three, five-shot groups. Remember, the 1854 isn’t a bolt-action rifle. With off-the-shelf ammo for a lever gun, anything in the range of 1 to 2 inches is a pretty strong result.
Hornady’s 150-grain Interlock load wasn’t far behind with a best group of 1.25 inches and a three-group average of 1.74 inches. It actually surprised me because I expected Hornady’s Monoflex round to surpass the Interlock load for accuracy since the Monoflex load is a little more aerodynamic with its pointed flex tip. But that just wasn’t the case at all as the 140-grain Monoflex load averaged well over 2.5 inches. But that’s not necessarily a fault with the round itself, since some rifles like some rounds are better than others. That’s just how it works. We just test, measure the results, and find what works best for us.
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Last Thoughts
While the 1854 Stealth Hunter is a sleek and tacti-cool lever gun, it still leans more to the hunting side of things, even with the ability to mount your favorite accessories. The five-round capacity of the magazine is ideal for hunting or taking care of pests or varmints on the land, but that capacity doesn’t make it ideal for self-defense, especially with multiple aggressors. In that scenario, I’d want an 1854 Stealth Hunter in .357 or .44 Magnum for the extra rounds, though in the right hands, the Stealth Hunter would still be a superb problem solver.
That said, the 1854 Stealth Hunter in .30-30 is still a fast-handling rifle that can be easily adapted to a variety of tasks. Mount a light and throw a suppressor on it, and you’ve got a handy nighttime pest control machine that won’t spook the neighbors too much. Install a red-dot optic on the Pic rail, and you’ve got a hard-hitting carbine that’s quick to the eye for defense against dangerous critters on the trail like mountain lions, bears, and boar. And when that time for deer hunting rolls around each year, you’ve got a time-proven caliber in a rifle designed for easy movement and handling in brush and thickly wooded terrain. In my part of the country, that’s a definite bonus.
Hybrid Hunter
All in all, the 1854 Stealth Hunter is an excellent option for those looking for a lever gun that offers a lot of versatility along with solid performance metrics. It’s reliable, quite accurate, and it integrates a smooth action that makes it fast and easy to use in a variety of situations. With the Picatinny rail and the M-LOK slots, it’s a snap for the user to make the rifle their own by tailoring the 1854 to their own specific use case. On top of that, the 1854 is just a fun carbine to shoot, and, despite its appearance, it still maintains that link to our past with the venerable .30-30 caliber offering. If you’re in the market, I’d highly recommend it for your consideration.
For more information, visit Smith & Wesson.
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Specifications: Smith & Wesson 1854 Stealth Hutner
| Caliber: | .30-30 |
| Barrel: | 16.5 inches |
| Overall Length: | 34.3 inches |
| Weight: | 6.95 pounds |
| Stock: | Polymer, Fixed |
| Handguard: | Aluminum, M-LOK |
| Sights: | Ghost Right, Fiber-Optic Front |
| Finish: | Armornite |
| Capacity: | 5+1 |
| Action: | Lever |
| MSRP: | $1499 |
Performance
| Ammo | Velocity | Average | Best |
| Federal 150gr. Hammer Down | 2344 | 1.48 | 1.06 |
| Hornady 140gr. Leverevolution Monoflex | 2373 | 2.67 | 2.54 |
| Hornady 150gr. American Whitetail Interlock | 2249 | 1.74 | 1.25 |
| Remington 150gr. Core-Lokt | 2226 | 1.89 | 1.38 |
Bullet weight measured in grains, velocity in feet per second from the muzzle by a Garmin Xero C1 Pro Chronograph, and accuracy in inches for three, five-shot groups at 100 yards.
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