School me on Lever Actions (please?)

Bought a Marlin 357 a couple years ago. Shot it quite a bit. With the Fastfire on it steel plates offhand at 100 are no problem. Full load of H110 or Lil' Gun with a 158 XTP. It's real handy to carry and would be great for short range whitetail if I didn't already have a 30/30. I haven't fired any 38 brass, carbon ring and all, but it cycles the 357 length very smoothly. Great blueing, and good looking wood, although the fit isn't great at the rear of the receiver. Only problem I've had is the screw thru the support band for the mag tube needs a little purple Loc Tite. Thinking about, the tube of Loc Tite is on the bench probably about 10 feet from where the gun sits in the safe....but it hasn't gotten done in a couple years....

Great gun, fun to shoot and looks great. At the range more comment on the appearance of that gun than all the others combined. Would definitely buy again, in fact a .44 version is on the short list. Suggest the 357 to start...even if you roll your own it's considerably cheaper to shoot than the .44
 
I have a few levers from various manufacturers, Winchester, Marlin, Rossi Puma. I don't own any Henries as I prefer a loading gate over tubes though my 39A has a tube. I wouldn't mind Henries pump 22 and may pick one up.

The Winchesters are safe queens. They are pre 64's and minty and what the hell, I have others.

Pumas aren't bad, mediocre wood and have a rough action at first. As they are most like Winchesters, they can be a real PITA to dissasemble if you're new to levers.

I like Marlins over many others but I can't speak of the quaility since being sold to Cerebus. All mine are JM stamped bullseye models and it is the brand I own most of. Marlin makes (made?) varying levels of quality and thier top ones have a bullseye in the stock. A white and black plug in the stock. You'll see the ones that were sold at Wall-mart won't have it as the stocks are Birch not Black walnut and a couple different springs. At one time, they also had a white spacer on the butt-plate. Marlins also side eject as opposed to top eject, a bit better if you someday want to scope it. I never scope my levers so for me that's mute.

The first thing I do when getting a new lever is disassemble it (like all my guns) and clean it well. I reassemble it, put on a pair of shooting gloves, walk around, watch the tube, or just hang out throwing the lever a couple thousand times over the course of a few days. I stop about every 500 and clean it again, rinse wash repeat. It wears all the parts together and will become the mysterious "buttery smooth" you read about.

As for using a loading gate vs tubes. As someone mentioned earlier, I really don't care to put my hands near the business end of a firearm. There is also the possibility of losing that tube at some point. I can also top of on the fly. When you load, just push the first round in half way then use the next round to push it in the rest of the way and repeat. It'll save your fingers. On saving body parts, levers are the only firearms I use shooting gloves with. The lever starts to get to be a bit much on the back of my hand after hours of firing.

Of all the levers, I dislike Marlins sights the most. Though they all have buckhorns, all Marlins have a sort of lopsided front sight hood. Winchesters are nice and round and pumas don't have one. I find it a distraction and use it only for travel or storage and remove them when firing. I also dislike buck horns so on Marlins, I mount Williams (FP preferred) peeps. They mount using the existing mounting screw slots sans one. On Pumas, I mount Marbles tang sights. They are better then other brands.

You may want to get into reloading. Most revolver/pistols cartridges are straight walled and are very simple to do. Magnums and others like 45LC can be pretty pricey for quailty rounds that you can do yourself. I even replicate the LeverLution ammunition. I never use (except in .22's) shorter rounds in my chambers say a 38 special in a 357. I don't have to as I can load up the 357's anyway I want from powder puffs to rip snorting.

Couple other things that may not get mentioned. Get a carry sling. Make it a comfortable one as you don't want to use a sling as a support on levers. It won't help. I use cobra type slings. On levers, practice never taking the rifle off your shoulder when you throw the lever for your next follow-up shot. A .22 caliber lever helps a lot with this.

There's other things but that'd be for later.

Not sure where the image will place but these are some of my levers. Top down is an 1895 45/70 JM (unfired), 336C 30-30 JM (unfired), 1894SS JM with a fire-sight front sight in 44 Mag, A puma 92 in 357 with a Marbles tang and a 39A JM. The unfired ones I picked up in 2004. I have others in those calibers that I use. Just haven't gotten around to them.

I said sans one above about Williams peeps. That would be the 44 shown center. It will mount but it hung of the rear by a half inch. It wasn't flush like the others. It looked awful. I ended up buying a couple replacement SS plug screws just to have from Numrich and drilled a third hole, tapped it to match the others 1/2" forward of the front plug. I was sweating it as there is no room for error. to shallow and it would thread, to deep and you go into the chamber. I did notice they also have replacement bullseye plug if you're into forgery.
 

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Never owned a lever myself, but I suppose it would give me a platform to blow off the .35 Remington that I've collected/reloaded over the years.
That said, I have a friend that would like to sell his Rossi lever in .44 Magnum. He wants to go the .45 Colt route apparently (this would be a CT owner). PM me if interested in a swap or purchase.
If any of you seek .32-40, .25-35 and other obscure WCF ammo, don't hesitate to call Warren over by Foxwoods (M&B Sports). He often has older boxes of this ammo.
 
NavelOfficer said:
Never owned a lever myself, but I suppose it would give me a platform to blow off the .35 Remington that I've collected/reloaded over the years.
That said, I have a friend that would like to sell his Rossi lever in .44 Magnum. He wants to go the .45 Colt route apparently (this would be a CT owner). PM me if interested in a swap or purchase.
If any of you seek .32-40, .25-35 and other obscure WCF ammo, don't hesitate to call Warren over by Foxwoods (M&B Sports). He often has older boxes of this ammo.
Click to expand...

Oops, forgot that about Rossies and probably should mention it. That receiver on the 357, the 44 mentioned in the quote from NavelOfficer is also the same used on their .454 Cas. model. You can really peak out the lesser rounds if you'd want to.
 
Got myself a ‘97 JM 1894 in .44 from Old Glory for under $600 in phenomenal shape. Bullseye with the black walnut. The sights are mediocre and I intend to get the Skinner peeps or the Williams ones.

Took it to the range the other day and put 50 rounds of Federal 240 grain through it without a hiccup. Man I love this gun! First shots ever in this vid and it took me some time to get used the lever action.
 
djbradles said:
Got myself a ‘97 JM 1894 in .44 from Old Glory for under $600 in phenomenal shape. Bullseye with the black walnut. The sights are mediocre and I intend to get the Skinner peeps or the Williams ones.

Took it to the range the other day and put 50 rounds of Federal 240 grain through it without a hiccup. Man I love this gun! First shots ever in this vid and it took me some time to get used the lever action.
Click to expand...

Very nice
 
Lots of nice parts for Henry's, Marlin's, and Winchester's here:
Shop All - Page 1 - Ranger Point Precision

Make the loading gate easier to use:
Marlin Loading Gate Spring - Flyweight Fast, Easy, Smooth

Rail with a peep sight for use under a scope:
CloverLeaf Adjustable Peep Sight Picatinny Rail Scope Mount | Marlin and Henry Lever-actions

Adjustable aperture peep sight:
CloverLeaf Adjustable Aperture Peep Sights | Marlin and Henry | Brass, Black, Stainless

They sell fillers for the dovetail when you remove the buckhorn sights.

Quick takedown screw:
Marlin Lever Quick Takedown Screw

Aluminum tube followers:
Marlin Aluminum Magazine Followers, Self Cleaning

Hammer spur extension if your thumb hates the stock hammer:
Hammer Spur Extension for Marlin Firearms
 
djbradles said:
Once I get a chance this weekend I’ll look into that. I need to take it apart for a good bore cleaning and sighting too.
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Uh oh, now I've done it

It's a joke son; I say, it's a joke!

The Rifleman's prop gun
(well, it's a real gun, but it was used on a TV show)
had a machine screw and locknut added to cause the lever
to trip the trigger.

They oughtn't ever come from the factory that way,
but if it was an option, frigging MA would ban it like
adjustable stocks on assault weapons.

For a good time, read the article I linked, but don't go modding your rifle.
 
lol, that went right over my head and I didn’t even check that link .....Just saw it now and I’m had.


Great content and of course that shootin is quite nice by Conners and DiMuzio!
 
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djbradles said:
lol, that went right over my head and I didn’t even check that link .....Just saw it now and I’m had.


Great content and of course that shootin is quite nice by Conners and DiMuzio!
Click to expand...

Thank God you didn't call the manufacturer help line to ask "where is this set-screw?". Or crank down some structural fastener and strip threads.

Nothing personal but I can imagine the joke going pear-shaped:

I read that the Heathkit service manager hated the annual April issue of 73 Magazine after they wrote a joke article showing how to clean your (tube) radio in the sink. Some gullible kid washed his (only) radio and ruined it. His mom wrote to inquire about radio washing and they shipped a whole new kit because it was a kid and he was totally devastated. One fancies he'd spent a year's allowance or paper route money, not to mention the hours of soldering.

I'm glad they said that guy was a trick shot artist, because I looked at that video and thought, "I must really suck, because I can't hit 5 out of 5 balloons shooting from the hip".
 
I got a stainless Rossi 92 in .357 that was then worked on by the guy at Steve's Gunz | "The Rossi 92 Specialist"

It got bead blasted, and the action smoothed up to an amazing degree. It's action feels it's working on ball bearings now.
It also got a metal magazine tube plug and skinner sight.

I had one problem which was they reduced the magazine spring so much that the last round sometimes doesn't load. I need to
get a slightly stiffer spring. In the meantime I stuffed a small section of extra spring in behind the main magazine spring, which
works fine for now.
 

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meh said:
I'm just going to ramble a bit. No advice here, at least not as such.

I have a Rossi 92 Trapper that I like a lot after

1. Replacing the safety with a peep sight (and removed the original rear sight).
2. Installing the Palo Verde spring kit.
3. Cutting down the excessively long magazine tube spring.
4. Polishing the edges around the loading gate.
5. Shortening one of the receiver screws that was binding on the bolt.
6. Refinishing the wood (felt like a chalkboard before and looked a depressing shade of dull brown).

I also replaced the plastic follower with a stainless steel one, but I'm not sure that helped anything. I just ordered a custom leather stock cover for that gun, as I find something needed to prevent the stock from slipping around on the shoulder when trying to run the gun without lowering it.

But the thing that gives me pause about the Rossi's is the lack of customer service, not that I've really tried. I've just read stories about their only solution to any problem being sending the gun in. I could really use a new screw for the barrel band near the muzzle.

I do not like the loading gates. Sorry. It's OK if I'm not shooting much, but after about the 100th round or so that I shove in there on a given day, I'm really start to miss how easy it is to load a Henry Big Boy. All the time I hear how a loading gate is a deal breaker for folks. I just don't get it. With the Henry, I just clear it, close the bolt and lower the hammer, flip it over to hold at a 30 degree angle (or whatever), draw out the reloading tube far enough to reveal the loading port, drop the rounds in and stop when I can no longer insert any rounds. Then I lower the magazine tube back into place and start shooting. With the Rossi, I have to fight the loading gate and slide the rounds in against the spring tension of the magazine tube spring. Unless I count, I don't know when it's full until I can't shove the last one in. It's more effort with no payoff that I can see. Give me a rifle with a detachable box magazine for fighting, not that I'm ever likely to do that sort of thing or even think much about it, but for target shooting at the range, tube loading RULEZ! Not a close thing.

Speaking of Henry Big Boys...there are 5 in my house (not all mine). Most of them needed the screw on the left side of the receiver to be shortened slightly (fraction of a mm), just like on the Rossi but nowhere near as bad. If the screw is a little too long, it rubs against the lever internally. My first Big Boy was the 44 magnum, and after I don't know how many rounds, the firing pin broke. Called them up. They sent me a new one free of charge. Heard lots of stories like that. I feel like the company will help me keep my rifles in service as long as the company survives.

Thought a lot about an Uberti 1866 or 1873 but have never been able to convince myself to buy one. If I can get a good deal on a JM Marlin 1894 at some point, I might go for it. I don't plan on buying a new Marlin 1894. MFS's 1894 felt like junk to me when it was very new. Even if it had functioned well, I probably wouldn't have liked it. How do they find wood that looks so much like brown plastic?
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A agree on the tube vs loading gate. If you hunt with a lever the tube is a bonus in my experience as well. With a loading gate to unload when you get to the truck you have to cycle the lever till it's empty then pick the carteridges up out of the dirt. With the Henry I just open the lever to clear one......then remove the tube and dump the carteridges into my hand.

As far as loading a lever for a hunt I've never been in a hurry. If a "hunter" claims the loading gate is better because it's faster to load.......he's doing it wrong.
 
Just as a PSA for those who have an 1892, I recently realized how to unload my 1892 easily without ever closing the bolt on a live round and without tossing the rounds anywhere. I just open the action to put a round on the carrier, turn the rifle over with the action still open, and shake the gun a little to make the round drop into my hand. Then I just cycle the action (closing the bolt on an empty chamber) to put a new round on the carrier and repeat until the gun is empty.

A guy once claimed to me that he could unload his lever gun by coaxing the rounds out of the loading gate. That probably does work on some rifles. Doesn't work on my 1892.
 
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