What are the Most Durable, Reliable, Robust Lever Action Rifles?

[Malamute]

That's some pretty high praise for the Winchester 94. Is this the one you're talking about? I think these are Miroku: https://www.guns.com/firearms/rifles...m_medium=df_NA

How do modern/recent production Miroku Winchester 94s compare to previous ones in terms of reliability? I can't recall hearing much issue with the Japanese-made Winchesters. I could be wrong but I would think QC would be reasonably high over there.

I dont think Ive ever seen a Miroku 94. The 94s ive had have been a mix of pre-64, pre-war, and a dozen or more post 64 top ejects. The early post-64 guns had stamped carriers (lifters), I replaced them with the forged or whatever they were in the 80s period just out of caution, but I dont know how the stamped ones held up over time. That was only for a few years in the 60s. I have an angle eject, probably made in the 1980s or early 90s, no crossbolt, has a tang safety, other than some parts having sharp edges, it seems to work about like any of the others with the benefit of a low centrally mounted scope. Choose mounts wisely, many set the scope too high. Leupold did it right with their two piece mounts and low rings. An older Leupold 1-4 works really well on it.

The Miroku made Brownings Ive had and seen have all been excellent quality guns. I have a 92 and 1886. The magazine spring failed on the 92 after leaving it loaded for 10 or 15 years, It got wimpy. I tossed it and replaced with one from a Winchester 94. Probably my favorite is a 94 made in 1927, it was a ranch gun in Az, was used heavily and severely abused, but still worked. I doubt it had been cleaned in any way on 30 or more years when i got it in the 1980s. I replaced a few odd parts that were damaged or lost, cleaned it in a vat of carb cleaner, and it was crisp and functioning perfectly, just not sludgey feeling like when I started. Looks like garbage, but works. I carry it a fair amount.

[03RN]

I have two rossi m92s. They have never missed a beat and are so handy

[SwampDweller]

What about the Uberti or Miroku/Winchester 1873's? Wonder how reliability would compare to a Winchester 94.

I don't care for much of this guy's stuff, but he does shoot lever rifles a hell of a lot more than I have and says the Uberti 73 in .357 is the way to go: https://youtu.be/KASqS__regU?si=iRL1C7-vbwJxK26t

[SwampDweller]

I have two rossi m92s. They have never missed a beat and are so handy

They seem like neat little rifles. How many rounds have you got through each one?

[03RN]

They seem like neat little rifles. How many rounds have you got through each one?

Several thousand rounds each. The 16" .45 colt one has accounted for a lot of deer and has spent a lot of time with me in a canoe or on trails.

[SwampDweller]

Several thousand rounds each. The 16" .45 colt one has accounted for a lot of deer and has spent a lot of time with me in a canoe or on trails.

That's pretty impressive. From the impression I've gotten on the internet, lever actions are notoriously finicky and unreliable, but I gotta think there's a way to get a good, reliable one, so long as one doesn't expect it to blast through 1000 rounds in a range day or something.

[03RN]

That's pretty impressive. From the impression I've gotten on the internet, lever actions are notoriously finicky and unreliable, but I gotta think there's a way to get a good, reliable one, so long as one doesn't expect it to blast through 1000 rounds in a range day or something.

Yeah, I've never had a problem with my m92s, any m94 or the 444 I had but I wasn't running them hard. Maybe a few mag tubes worth of rapid fire on basketballs bouncing down a hill but for the most part just slow fire.

[diananike]

I just got a new R92, 16” .44.
From what I’ve read the quality control on the Rossis has increased significantly over the past few years. The price certainly has.

It’s smooth as can be right out of the box. I think the only thing I’ll do to it is smooth out the edge of the loading port so it doesn’t scrape my brass quite so much.

I was debating getting a Miroku 92 but couldn’t find any 16” ones. The Rossi was also very easy to mount a red dot sight to with the barrel coming drilled and tapped from the factory. The skinner rails are fairly low profile and I didnt need a cheek riser.

[Malamute]

I just got a new R92, 16” .44.
From what I’ve read the quality control on the Rossis has increased significantly over the past few years. The price certainly has.

It’s smooth as can be right out of the box. I think the only thing I’ll do to it is smooth out the edge of the loading port so it doesn’t scrape my brass quite so much.

I was debating getting a Miroku 92 but couldn’t find any 16” ones. The Rossi was also very easy to mount a red dot sight to with the barrel coming drilled and tapped from the factory. The skinner rails are fairly low profile and I didnt need a cheek riser.

I think this is certainly the case. I knew a theater group that had a rossi/puma 357 92 as a prop gun for their show. The guy in charge asked me to look at it once, as something fell out of it. The ejector had come out. Im absolutely certain nobody in their circle had the slightest idea how or ability to take one apart, the ejector had apparently gotten past its retaining pin. I took it apart, put the ejector and spring back in the bolt, and put the gun back together, seeing absolutely no obvious way it could have escaped, it seemed to function fine afterwards. Most unusual. It left me feeling very hesitant about them since, but of course most of them work fine.

My Browning 92 carbine is a peach. Id like it to be shorter. I was going to trade John L some parts for the cut down work, but he passed before we completed the deal. I miss John, we used to have lunch at the Proud Cut once in a while when we ran into each other in town. He was always interesting to talk to.

[SwampDweller]

I've been talking with some Cowboy Action Shooting guys. Overwhelmingly it seems the lever gun of choice is some sort of 1873 reproduction, mostly Ubertis in .357/.38. Reports of reliability seem to be high, though wouldn't a 92 clone be moreso since it's a stronger action? Then again the 1873 is all pistol caliber. The prevailing preference seems to be for Ubertis for '73s, apparently for ease of parts compatibility. There are also Miroku/Winchesters, but I can't find many reports on how those do in regular use.