What Lever Straight Wall Caliber?

A lot of people mentioned .22 LR. Nobody mentioned .22 Magnum yet. A bit more power if you want it for fat groundhogs, raccoons, coyotes. I guess people use them for hogs and alligators also.

Otherwise, I'll go with the .357 camp, or .44 Magnum if you want more power, but a .357 rifle will work on deer in most New England woods.
 
Coyote33 said:
A lot of people mentioned .22 LR. Nobody mentioned .22 Magnum yet. A bit more power if you want it for fat groundhogs, raccoons, coyotes. I guess people use them for hogs and alligators also.

Otherwise, I'll go with the .357 camp, or .44 Magnum if you want more power, but a .357 rifle will work on deer in most New England woods.
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I could see both of those.
 
Parker Schreiber said:
.360 Buckhammer was designed to meet your criteria. It's legal to hunt deer with it in Michigan (.45-70 is not) and is reasonable for black bear at moderate distances. The downside is that ammo is not easy to find and is only slightly less expensive than .45-70.
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Big downside on this....no handgun for it to match. And what...one gun to buy only. Just another caliber and set of dies if you reload. OP doesn't......but I'm very sensitive to getting new weird calibers.

I like 350 legend because it can transition into an AR upper or bolt gun, but there are no Levers that I know of for it, and it kills better than 357 mag.

Id stick to 357 or 44mag....it'll kill anything and its everywhere. Handguns are way available to match caliber. Believe me they are fun to shoot too. Talking bears...44mag

Right now Ruger/Marlin 1894's prices are down about as low as I've seen. Im thinking of picking up 44mag trapper or SBL myself. I already have the regular one I bought here used. Nothing much more handy and pleasing to carry in the woods than a short handgun caliber carbine, if your only talking short distance shots

I really should get rid of my Marlin 45-70 to fund it, but its just hard to do. I never shoot it though, but its a nice rifle. My point is, I would not go 45-70 at your age and situation. I download it to plink, but the hunting loads can be somewhat asskicking.
 
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Mark from ? said:
Big downside on this....no handgun for it to match. And what...one gun to buy only. Just another caliber and set of dies if you reload. OP doesn't......but I'm very sensitive to getting new weird calibers.
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I don't disagree. The issue is that the OP's requirements fall into the intersection of two niches -- lever action and straight walled cartridges. A few years ago, the same "new weird calibers" objections were valid for 350 legend, but it had the advantage of just being another AR build. While Remington claims the .360 outperforms the 350, 30-30 and 450 Bushmaster at 200 yards, it's not by much. And unlike the 350 Legend, there's no inexpensive commercial FMJ ammo on offer.

I don't think you'll see a 350 Legend lever action any time soon. While Henry does sell lever action rifles for rimless cartridges in their "Long Ranger" series, with a claimed effective range of 250 yards, the .350 is not a good fit for that brand. I think that's why they were the first to buy in to this new cartridge.
 
powerman said:
OP, same as the pistol you will have it paired with. Only carry one ammo type
So question is what the pistol caliber is.
Figured for me it would be 357 or 44mag. Since I have those pistols.
My first and only lever is 30-30, next would be one of those.
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You can get a 45-70 revolver.
 
1) do you reload
2) do you want to shoot it a lot?
3) how much money do you have?

If you reload, get whatever you want. You can load it for pennies on the dollar. Especially if it's a .44n or .45 cal gun and you can use standard handgun bullets, that are plentiful and cheap.

If you reload, I vote for .44 magnum or .45 Colt. You can make a beast. You can make a pussycat. Whatever you feel like.

I reload .44 mag on my Lee turret press. It works for me. A full caliber conversion for my Dillon 650 would cost $200+. For the Lee turret it cost $15+ dies. With the auto indexer in the Lee, I can make about 125 rounds/hour. Good enough. My .44 cal reloads are more powerful than .44 Spcl. but less powerful than .44 Mag. Just enough to feel good.

45-70 uses a .458 diameter bullet, so you can't use .45 ACP bullets in it. (.451"). Well, you could. But accuracy would be terrible.

If you didn't reload, I'd get 357 mag. .38 specials are cheap, easy to shoot and accurate. .357 mag could be used for serious business including taking a deer at 100 yards.
 
Broc Tuah said:
You can get a 45-70 revolver.
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Hell I don’t want to shoot that in a rifle much less a pistol. 😆

dcmdon said:
I'd get 357 mag. .38 specials are cheap, easy to shoot and accurate. .357 mag could be used for serious business including taking a deer at 100 yards.
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I don’t reload and don’t want to start so this is pretty much where I am at. Toying with 44mag but .357/38 makes the most sense.

Thanks for all the replies
 
HorizontalHunter said:
Hell I don’t want to shoot that in a rifle much less a pistol. 😆



I don’t reload and don’t want to start so this is pretty much where I am at. Toying with 44mag but .357/38 makes the most sense.

Thanks for all the replies
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Thing is...even if you wanted to...starting up for the 357 or 44 mag is not hard. One set of dies, a simple cheap Lee reloader and a box of bullets and a some Unique powder. I use a small charge of Unique for my 44 mag plinkers. Hunting loads I just buy off the shelf as you don't use that many. No cutting brass, no major resizing issues.

And I have Unique around for 20/28 shotshell reloading anyway. I keep an 8 pounder around.

My last guns I die with will be in 44mag and 20/28 gauge for shotgun and I'll just stock one powder and get rid of all the other bullshit. Im in the process of thinning now.....though, I will shoot 12 at sporting clays til I can't anymore.

The only other rifle I will keep is a 6.5 manbun or .243 for any distance hunting. No more 30-06 or anything bigger, that shit is going to my son. These calibers kill most shit plenty dead without recoil.

Of course my go bag (lol) will have the AR15 and mags, 9mm PCC with glock boomsticks, and a couple glock or glock compatable mag 9's in it. But that's all bought and paid for.....
 
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Mark from ? said:
Thing is...even if you wanted to...starting up for the 357 or 44 mag is not hard. One set of dies, a simple cheap Lee reloader and a box of bullets and a some Unique powder. I use a small charge of Unique for my 44 mag plinkers. Hunting loads I just buy off the shelf as you don't use that many. No cutting brass, no major resizing issues.

And I have Unique around for 20/28 shotshell reloading anyway. I keep an 8 pounder around.

My last guns I die with will be in 44mag and 20/28 gauge for shotgun and I'll just stock one powder and get rid of all the other bullshit. Im in the process of thinning now.....

The only other rifle I will keep is a 6.5 manbun or .243 for any distance hunting. No more 30-06 or anything bigger, that shit is going to my son. These calibers kill most shit plenty dead without recoil.

Of course my go bag (lol) will have the AR15 and mags, 9mm PCC with glock boomsticks, and a couple glock or glock compatable mag 9's in it. But that's all bought and paid for.....
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I have been thinking about getting a single stage setup but but haven’t seen the need yet. I already have too many hobbies.😆
 
HorizontalHunter said:
I have been thinking about getting a single stage setup but but haven’t seen the need yet. I already have too many hobbies.😆
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Thats all I use for 44 mag. Though I may put the dies into the progressive, I haven't bothered yet. I have an auto scale so not that bad just to bang 50 out at a time.

Just bought the 1894 SBL at LockedLoaded for 1080 with no tax........LOL! Tough to choose between that and the trapper, but I wanted something I could throw my warne ringed quick removable scope on and off, and has the peep as well built in. My walnut 1894 already has skinners on it and will never scope it.
 
I picked up a Browning 45/70 lever action. In 1986 Browning reproduced the Winchester 1886. They made 7000, mine is number 56, nice wood got it for 500 dollars in 1990. Have shot five deer with it. Now a safe queen, I have a ruger number 1 in 45/70 with a scope and a hair trigger
 
Stee said:
I picked up a Browning 45/70 lever action. In 1986 Browning reproduced the Winchester 1886. They made 7000, mine is number 56, nice wood got it for 500 dollars in 1990. Have shot five deer with it. Now a safe queen, I have a ruger number 1 in 45/70 with a scope and a hair trigger
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Seen a few of these used......had a hard time not picking one up or one of the new Winchesters 1886's Especially the high grades...........but I never shoot my Marlin 1895. So I don't do it.
 
HorizontalHunter said:
That’s where you am leaning but the problem is that I might have a hard time prying it out of my wife’s hands. She loves the .357 revolver so much she named it and claimed it. I never get to shoot it anymore. I might end up with the same problem with the new lever. First world problems for sure.😂
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My wife claimed the Marlin 1894 in .357 minutes after it arrived homed from Kag Arms… she loves it and it goes to the range with her every time.
 
Stee said:
I picked up a Browning 45/70 lever action. In 1986 Browning reproduced the Winchester 1886. They made 7000, mine is number 56, nice wood got it for 500 dollars in 1990. Have shot five deer with it. Now a safe queen, I have a ruger number 1 in 45/70 with a scope and a hair trigger
Click to expand...
They started making the 1886 again, and in 45-90.
 
When stuck between wanting a 357 or 44 lever gun the answer is alway "Get both"! Yeah, i know. Not helpful one bit.

A little bit ago I was looking over a beautiful 50-70 Lever Action. It was a sweet old lady. That is until I saw that 50-70 ammo is $85 a box of 20. Yikes! That's even to expensive for my blood.

And before anyone asks "RELOADING SUCKS!!!!"
 
Rockrivr1 said:
When stuck between wanting a 357 or 44 lever gun the answer is alway "Get both"! Yeah, i know. Not helpful one bit.

A little bit ago I was looking over a beautiful 50-70 Lever Action. It was a sweet old lady. That is until I saw that 50-70 ammo is $85 a box of 20. Yikes! That's even to expensive for my blood.

And before anyone asks "RELOADING SUCKS!!!!"
Click to expand...
Am I an idiot for since I didn't buy the Trapper version in .44mag.....I'm going to get one in .357??? .....probably.....but I've been thinking 1873 high grade or short rifle as well.....so many nice levers available now.
 
Rockrivr1 said:
When stuck between wanting a 357 or 44 lever gun the answer is alway "Get both"! Yeah, i know. Not helpful one bit.

A little bit ago I was looking over a beautiful 50-70 Lever Action. It was a sweet old lady. That is until I saw that 50-70 ammo is $85 a box of 20. Yikes! That's even to expensive for my blood.

And before anyone asks "RELOADING SUCKS!!!!"
Click to expand...
Not reloading must suck.
 

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