Lever Guns

[gato naranja]

If you haven't run a lever gun fast or done a lot of work with one, I suggest trying a .38/.357 gun first. Because you'll quickly realize that smaller cartridges are not better for tube-fed, loading gate, guns. Nothing sucks more than fumbling trying to get cartridges into the gun.

There is wisdom here. I proved to my own satisfaction that with leverguns, the loading and feeding of the .44 Magnum is less of a PITA than the .357 Magnum; I abandoned the former and still use the latter, but I have no illusions about it. I would imagine that their .32 analogs would be even more fiddly.

And a bottleneck round - even a slight one - also generally helps in leverguns; the old .44-40 and .38-40 rounds are more forgiving than straight-wall rounds. When the old-timers wanted one round for both levergun AND revolver use, they were making some compromises for the sake of logistics.

[OlongJohnson]

You guys might yet get me to pick up a .30-30 of some flavor.

[Wheeler]

You guys might yet get me to pick up a .30-30 of some flavor.

You’ve come to the right place for enabling.

[HeavyDuty]

You’ve come to the right place for enabling.

Boy howdy.

[CSW]

You guys might yet get me to pick up a .30-30 of some flavor.

Now there's a gun I'll never get rid of.
A good friend had a 1969 Winchester '94, in excellent shape, but could not get a good group with it, ever.
I traded him an SKS for it.
This particular 94 just will not shoot 150 grain ammo.... Like minute of barn.

170 grain factory, even my handloads of 165, and it shoots like a laser.

[Bigghoss]

You guys might yet get me to pick up a .30-30 of some flavor.

You know who doesn't own a .30-30? Commies.

[Duelist]

You guys might yet get me to pick up a .30-30 of some flavor.

You’ve come to the right place for enabling.

Now there's a gun I'll never get rid of.
A good friend had a 1969 Winchester '94, in excellent shape, but could not get a good group with it, ever.
I traded him an SKS for it.
This particular 94 just will not shoot 150 grain ammo.... Like minute of barn.

170 grain factory, even my handloads of 165, and it shoots like a laser.

You know who doesn't own a .30-30? Commies.

I’ve owned a .30-30 and enjoyed it. But I love my little Marlin 1894 .357, and do not miss the .30-30.

[Malamute]

I agree on the smaller cartridges not being as easy to handle and load. I recall a Marlin 357 carbine being a PIA after it was about half full. The Winchester 92 type actions also get a bit harder to load with pistol rounds when they get closer to full, but not as much of a nuisance as the older Marlin was.

I havent handled and shot a 92 type action in 357, the 44 Browning carbine isnt too bad, but I was pleasantly surprised at how easy the 1873 action is to load in 357. The magazine spring is softer and the gate is easier to operate than most other types. I believe the 1866 functions the same in all practical regards.

The 30-30 model 94 Winchesters are fairly easy to load and work. Theres been problems with some not liking to be topped off, which I believe is mostly poor finishing of the internal parts, the rear edge of the loading gate in particular, its a simple fix. Some try the work-around of not loading the rounds all the way in, but I feel thats a half-assed way to load and not an actual answer. On several occasions Ive had several rounds spit back out the gate when loading and leaving the base of the last round partially out. This is why i call it half-assed. When the guns function properly, its entirely unnecessary. Nicely fitted and worn older ones, pre-war, and well fitted later examples, its very easy to fully load every round and start another one without any problem. If they wont load smoothly they should be fixed, not try work arounds.

If you want easy to load, get a Browning/Winchester 1886. Big fat cartridges, very slick gate, and mag spring thats not fighting you. Its one of the reasons the marlin 45-70 fell from use after getting an 1886.

[entropy]

Now there's a gun I'll never get rid of.
A good friend had a 1969 Winchester '94, in excellent shape, but could not get a good group with it, ever.
I traded him an SKS for it.
This particular 94 just will not shoot 150 grain ammo.... Like minute of barn.

170 grain factory, even my handloads of 165, and it shoots like a laser.

My 1950 is the same way. 170s or nuffin’.

[Lester Polfus]

I’ve owned a .30-30 and enjoyed it. But I love my little Marlin 1894 .357, and do not miss the .30-30.

Me too. I get to shoot the 1894c a bunch more because reloading .357 is so much cheaper and easier. Couldn’t tell a bit of difference on this year’s deer either, although it was not but 15 yards away.