Lever Guns

[Lost River]

So this afternoon I ran out to pop a couple test rounds of .44 Russian through my Model 29 and see where the peep sights were hitting on the top eject Winchester 94. I had a limited number of rounds with me, as well as a very limited amount of time, so I stuck a target out at 25 yards, put an improvised rest on the hood and fired 2 rounds.


Those 2 rounds landed at about 7 o'clock on the target. They were close enough, to center, so I made an adjustment, pasted the target, and walked it out to roughly a hundred yards. At a hundred yards I noted I was really just centering up the whole sheet of paper more so than actually aiming at the bullseye.

I then fired two more rounds and walked out and checked.

Those two landed 10 o'clock, about 5-6 inches out, one being on the edge of the paper. Again, I pasted the target and adjusted the sights to where I estimated would be center.

The last two you can see where they hit, and I figure that is good enough for the day. I was running out of light and still needed to shoot the .44.

I was pretty impressed how the iron sights on this old thing shot, especially for shooting some generic Remington 150 grain ammo that is who knows how old.



I have some 150 grain Hornady projectiles coming from Mid-South Shooters Supply that I ordered a while back. I will do some load development here one of these days when I have a little bit of time. It looks sort of promising. I know you can't tell much from so little shooting, but so far, I am liking what I am seeing. It beats the heck out of " where in the heck did the rounds go?"

[CSW]

Nice shooting!

My 1969 Model 94 will not shoot 150's worth a hill-o-beans, but is very accurate with factory 170's. 150's, the best I can do is minute of barn door.
I've loaded 110's to teach my daughter years ago, and seem to recall that those shot well , for a 12 year old.

[Lost River]

It was not my intent to even handload for the 30-30, at least not for its primary loads, due to 30-30 ammo normally being found so inexpensively. That said, I ended up buying some cast bullets some years back just for kicks, plinking at small game, etc. I have always wanted to shoot some heavy for caliber projectiles in the cartridge, namely 200 grain bullets or something like the Sierra 220 grain ProHunter, figuring that once a load was worked up and reliable, it might make for a good "Run away to the Yukon and shoot Moose, Grizzly, Grouse, giant Beaver, etc to feed Henry and I, since we somehow fell through a time portal, back to 1901. The zoo called and pair of man eating lions escaped, and is shredding fair citizens by the scores, Help us Lost River you're our only hope! A Peterbuilt truck has come to life and needs put down, and other reasonable scenarios.


All of these seem like plausible reasons why I might need bullets heavier than a 170 grain in the 30-30, even though I am pretty sure a good 170 is big enough to kill anything I am likely to hunt at iron sight distances. Big bears do make me think a 190-200 is reasonable though, even if it is highly unlikely that I would use a 30-30 for such purposes.

On a side note, for whatever reason when I dream about Henry the Happy Hound and I running around in the Yukon, he is always wearing a satchel!

[WDR]

Unreasonable hypotheticals are why I still have some .308" 240gr Woodleigh Weldcore bullets in my wish list at Midway... So I wont cast any stones here.

[CSW]

I reload for the 30 ~ 30, but only 110 round nose or, as you do, hard cast.
I have found that Beartooth Bullets 165 flat nose perform exceptionally well, and also feed well. Marshall Stanton's bullet designs are spot on the money.
The last time I actually hunted with the 30-30 was over 10 years ago, but the HC bullet passed right thru the deer, leaving a fist sized exit wound... Dead where it stood.
I have found that they also perform well in the. 308.

An aside, hard cast, in the 45colt Trapper, are devastating

[NPV]

I’ve found myself as of late taking a hard look at the Henry All-Weather variants. Seems like there is a lot to like over the unobtainable Marlin 1894/1895. No safety, the right barrel twist for shooting heavy bullets, availability.

I’m starting to drift back into reality and a 357 mag or 44 mag would probably do everything I require. Anyone have experience with 357 mag for whitetail and black bear? I know it’d be fine for deer not sure about a bear though.

[newyork]

I’ve found myself as of late taking a hard look at the Henry All-Weather variants. Seems like there is a lot to like over the unobtainable Marlin 1894/1895. No safety, the right barrel twist for shooting heavy bullets, availability.

I’m starting to drift back into reality and a 357 mag or 44 mag would probably do everything I require. Anyone have experience with 357 mag for whitetail and black bear? I know it’d be fine for deer not sure about a bear though.

I’d be interested to know how a lever in 357 works on whitetail also and at what distances.

[NPV]

I’d be interested to know how a lever in 357 works on whitetail also and at what distances.

I talked with a few guys with experience on them and was told they do fine out to 75-100yards. Which for me is probably the absolute max distance I’d be taking a shot in CT.

But I’m open to hear more from others with more experience than me.

[CSW]

The 45colt Trapper is vetted out to about 80~100 yards, at 1000 fps. and a 265grain Keith bullet.

[Caballoflaco]

I’ve found myself as of late taking a hard look at the Henry All-Weather variants. Seems like there is a lot to like over the unobtainable Marlin 1894/1895. No safety, the right barrel twist for shooting heavy bullets, availability.

I’m starting to drift back into reality and a 357 mag or 44 mag would probably do everything I require. Anyone have experience with 357 mag for whitetail and black bear? I know it’d be fine for deer not sure about a bear though.

Not sure about rifles, but the couple of folks I’ve talked to who are serious about hunting black bears with recurve and/or longbows say they’re as easy if not easier to kill than a big white tail. On their advice I would feel perfectly well armed with a .357 with 180’s in a rifle and wouldn’t not shoot one with 158’s if that’s all I had and I wanted to shoot one.