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

[zaitcev]

My 5.56 BLR was lasting with no issues in practice, but I don't bang it about all that much. The gears do not instill confidence. Also, the 5 round magazine and no chance of extension (someone made a 20-rounder for Savage IIRC, using a modified M14 magazine, but it's not going to work in BLR).

I have certain hopes for Bond's upcoming lever AR. It seems better architected than Fight Lite's implementation (which uses a gear like BLR).

[M2CattleCo]

I actually had this conversation today.

The only two I’d be comfortable with (with factory ammo) is a Winchester 1873 in 45 Colt or 357;
or a top eject Winchester ‘94 in 30-30. If you want to make your own ammo and are up for 44-40 or 38-40, the 1873 will not disappoint and now you can consider an 1892, but not a Rossi.

The ‘73 has reliability in spades over anything Marlin and it pains me to say it because the Marlín 1894 is such a cool gun. The only drawbacks are the size and weight, and they need a little more cleaning with a straight walled cartridge as the fouling that blows around the case will eventually cause the elevator to stick. Blow it out with gunscrubber, contact cleaner, or non-clorinated brake cleaner every hundred rounds or so.

There is a little art to running a Winchester ‘94. They need to be cycled briskly, but not hard, with care to completely bump the lever all the way down or it won’t lift the cartridge.

If you’ve never shot a ‘73, you need to…

[Velociginger]

I guess I’ll add my opinion, too.

I would echo some of the above suggestions that using a shotgun or even a bolt-action with detachable magazines is more effective as a “fighting gun” if a semi-auto isn’t an option. I live in the rural Mid-West(ish). I imagine the odds of needing to fend off an Al-Qaida flash mob or parasailing terrorist is barely above zero, so I don’t give it much thought. Lever actions have more limited capacity, they are a pain to cycle from certain positions(like prone), and don’t cycle well upside-down, taking away my Spetznaz backflipping head shot and shovel throw finishing move. If you dent a magazine tube, that could create some feeding problems that otherwise could be solved with a magazine change. Calibers are also, IMO, somewhat inferior to actual rifle cartridges.

That being said, the following is why a Rossi 92 is my most used rifle.

I have become a bit of a Rossi 92 fan; so much so that I’m debating starting my own cult centered around it. I got a R92 “Triple Black” for Father’s Day a while back. It started as a fun plinking toy and turned into somewhat of an obsession. I’ve killed deer at just over 100yds, a few hogs closer, and holocaust-like numbers of raccoons, beavers, and groundhogs. I’ve shot somewhere around 1200 rounds of 357 (mostly reloads) and around a 5 gallon bucket full of 38s (also reloads). I have had exactly 1 malfunction, when trying 148gr HBWC. The round flipped backwards and tried to feed primer-first. Since I shoot and reload more for revolvers than anything else, it’s logistically convenient. It’s become my go-to general purpose carbine. With a Swampfox Justice green dot sight and a cheap Sig pistol light mounted on a MI rail that I bought with PA bonus bucks, it’s much more useful than it has any right to be considering the non-serious accessories, inferior cartridge, and lackluster rate of fire. It looks like a shaved poodle with fetal alcohol syndrome, but carries well, doesn’t take up much room in a SxS, and always hits somewhere on the green dot out to 100yds and change. It’s fallen out of 2 tree stands(one of them a 17’ ladder stand) and out off a SxS into standing water/mud. I clean it occasionally by spraying break-free into the action and a pass with a bore snake, or 2 other times I had to punch mud out of the bore, I used a cleaning rod section.

All of that to say, a lever action can be wonderful, but probably less effective as a “fighting gun” than several other options. I do much more “rednecking” that gun fighting, so for me it works. Customer experiences may vary.

[Totem Polar]

For me, the bolt is slower than the lever and the lever is slower than the pump, but recoil levels are a limiting factor. One of my buddies had a Winchester Model 62 which I think was probably the fastest manually-operated rifle I ever used, but how much of that was the action and how much was due to the lack of recoil?

I grew up shooting a 61 and 62, and still have the same 61. A pump .22 is indeed about as fast as a manual action rifle gets.

My personal “Redneck assault weapon” is a Henry pump in .22 magnum, with some sort of round that I researched heavily upon first purchasing the rifle; maybe CCI 45 gr solid point? I’ll have a look when I get a minute. .22 mag out of a rifle, with round selected for penetration first and expansion second is no joke, close to 9mm service pistol ballistics, if I’m remembering things correctly.

And it has almost no recoil as well; definitely more than .22 LR, but not nearly enough to factor into, well, anything, really.

But I digress.

[gato naranja]

I grew up shooting a 61 and 62, and still have the same 61. A pump .22 is indeed about as fast as a manual action rifle gets.

Pump .22s have been passé for so long that even people with more time on the clock than myself may never have fooled with them, which is a pity, as they were a lot of fun when they weren't malfunctioning due to years of wear and tear.

I wanted to "go home again" with one of the Interarms/Rossi 62 SAC carbines back in the 1980's, but there were too many bills to pay, etc. The modern Braztech/Rossi's are too repellent in appearance for me to even consider now. Thus I remain .22 pump-free... and that's okay. Like finding genuinely neat trinkets in boxes of cereal, driving Plymouth Roadrunners, and watching the Chicago & North Western roll past the edge of town, I at least got to be there while the "being" was good.

[BobM]

I’ve long wanted a Remington 572 pump 22 but haven’t run across one at a price I wanted to pay