I believe one problem was the way it was loaded. Other repeating rifles such as the Winchester could be loaded with any number of cartridges up to their capacity and immediately have a round ready to fire. With the Evans, if you had a 28-shot model but only wanted to load and fire a single round, you would have to put in the round then work the action 28 times to get it into the chamber to fire. While the firepower was impressive, not many people truly needed all those rounds at once, so the pain in short-loading it would have been a detriment to its sales.

By the way, an Evans figures prominently in a Tom Selleck made-for-TV Western, "Crossfire Trail." It is carried by Wilford Brimley as Joe Gill. When someone asks him why he carries the Evans, Joe replies, "Well, it's got 28 bullets, and I ain't a very good shot."