Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters best of the modern lever guns ?

Witch do you like best ?
When I say modern lever guns, I mean ones without tubular magazines.
There are not many, we could almost do a poll.
You have the Winchester 95 and 88 savage 95 & 99 The browning lever witch to me are all variants of what I call the model 81 and the scarce but I bet very nice sako finwolf.
I have never used a browning, or a finwolf, But i like all the rest.
But in my opinion the best of the breed has to be the savage 99. Light acurate reliable, can shoot all the rounds best suited to the rifle type.
88s are good, but to heavy. 95 winchesters are handicaped beacuse anyone who would mount a scope on a real one needs to be punished !
I think I would like a browning well enough, but I don't care for detachable mags. But I would like to try one out just for grins.
Witch are your favorites...tj3006

I have a Browning Model 81 in .308. I've hunted with that rifle more than any other over the last 4 years.

I would like to shoot a Savage 99. I have always heard good things about them, but I have only held one.

I had a Win. 1895 that I used in Cowboy Long Range Matches and I really liked it, but I prefer the Browning for hunting.

Best,

JM.

One of my first rifles I hunted with was a '94 Win in 30.30, with a Williams peep. It was issued to my Dad during WW2 when he joined the local defense militia in the Fraser Valley, brand new for $10. (These were specially marked, and are a collectors item now.)

Currently own a Marlin 336 in 30.30. Just a better made rifle.

Never used anything else, we all tend to favor the one we own, eh?

Yes that 30/30 is a collectors item.
FYI there was some out here in the west coast , that were used to guard sawmills or some other part of the logging industy.
they are called spruce guns.
But they really dont fit in my discription of a modern lever.
But i love the old browning designed winchesters too !
...tj3006

When I got to use it in the late 60s it was in pristine condition, had never seen any hunting duty. Sat in the closet since the war. And has seen little action since. X-brother-in-law has it...would dearly love to have it back one of these days. (Long story...)

The BLR will hands down shoot with off the rack bolt guns for accuracy. I have an 81 in .308 and it will shoot groups under a nickel at 100 yards all day long. It is light, easy handling, and comes the shoulder easily. The straight comb stock makes recoil very negligible in my opinion. Mine has accounted for more deer than I can count in the last 20 years.

Savage 99.. no doubt about it. Heck, it wins on looks alone.

Modern in 308..



Or older in 250 Savage..

Browning 1895 with tang sight is my big game gun last 8 years. For modern guns-BLR. Bought my .308 used in 1974. Bought my .223 and .257 both new in the early 80's. The .223 is pure fun. You could substitute the still-listed .22-250. Something on the order of 7mm-08 or .308 would be the all around piece. For the loose nut with a steel frame BLR, a custom barrel in .260 Remington could be the one-gun dream for a handloader. It would handle the entire range from .243, .257, 7-08 to .308. 85-100gr varmint loads for the summer and 125-140 grainers for fall. W. D. M. Bell used 160gr (6.5 Mannlicher)loads for elephant.

With the 81's, the flush magazine feels more like a floorplate. Personally, I like having a couple of extra mags for when I chase feral goats or hogs.

Savage 99 for me.

I would vote for the Savage 99, a great rifle by any measure.

Several friends have Browning BLR's, mostly in .308. They seem to be good shooters. My brother has hunted with one, almost exclusively, since the late '70's. I don't care for them. I've had to restore his and a couple others to functioning too many times. They seem pretty high maintenance. Also, the chambers seem awfully tight, either that or they lack camming power. I'm not a big fan of typical Browning styling, either, the glossy stocks and gold-plated triggers. To each his own, I guess.

I can't believe you would say something like that about a model 81.

your not my friend anymore..

JM.

Calhoun, I'll trade you my 99C .308 clip for your rotary .308 straight up ... after all, you wouldn't want me going to my grave judging the 99 based on the newer clip version ... .

The balance of any Savage 99 is remarkable, especially the model EG.

My dad was searching for the perfect lever gun in 308 and so he has several savage 99's, Win 88's and Sako Finwolf's. He wanted a handy rifle he could cycle quickly, but that gave him more reach than a 30-30. I as a result got to shoot and hunt all of them a fair amount over the years. The 99's shot okay, but were not the most accurate. One of them was very finicky about handloads with cases sticking regularly. I never tried small base dies, but it exposed what I felt was marginal primary extraction. My dad's 99F has accounted for as much or more meat than any rifle at either of our houses.

The 88's were better grouping, but I never liked the trigger. Huge amounts of creep.

The Finnwolf's shoot phenomenally. Think Sako bolt action accurate. But they were big and heavy like a bolt action too. Very similar to the 88 in function, but executed with Sako quality. I pulled off some long shots with deer with this rifle. Unfortunately, while hunting in rockpiles in the rain, I fell and busted the stock at the wrist. Don't break your Finnwolf stock. You'll never find a replacement. MPI's fiberglass stock is about your only option short of duplicating a stock. Ask me why I now have a Finnwolf of my own.

You said modern, but who ever listens to original posters anyway?

Savage 99 - out of production so demands collector prices. Had one in .308, an F model IIRC with the rotary mag, straight pistol grip and schnabel forend. It shot okay but not as good as my BLR. Lots like'em but I never could get used to the extra length and the l-o-n-g lever throw. The tang safety models were kind to us southpaws at least.

BLR '81 - really okay, had one of the second generation models in .308 with straight grip, steel receiver and relatively flush mag. It shot good and handled pretty good too but the LOP always seemed too long. Have to agree with "too shiny, too whatever". Also don't care for the way the lever feels. With that rack and pinion steering thingamajig up there under the hood they work good in practice but don't work too good in theory.

Winchester 88 - bad trigger, otherwise kind of a neat rifle.
Finnwolf - expensive, other stuff as noted.

So, back to ignoring the modern admonition - I like the .308 Marlin Express even though I don't have one (have other Marlins and have owned a bunch).

With the factory ammo you have a .300 Savage, Marlin has apparently worked hard to make this accurate enough to be a true 300 yard rifle. Easy take down to clean, reliable, easy to mount a scope, easy handling.

That's what I'd pick as the best of the "modern" lever guns.

Your opinion may differ, which is okay. It'd be wrong, but that's okay too.

While chambered in the .308MX LeverEvolution the Marlin begins to approach the others' performance, can you say, "limited ammo selection?"

All of the spitzer firing, high pressure rated levers are expensive though, with the Finnwolf leading the pack (pun in there somewhere). It's the only one in this class I haven't handled or shot. They are all interesting in the unique way each manufacturer realized their designs.

That's a sweet looking R you have there, Calhoun. I had one in 300 Sav but foolishly traded it away. The Rs have a sweet balance.

I have never owned or fired a W88 or 95, nor a Finnwolf. But I have owned many 99s and a few Brownings, and I have yet to encounter one that doesn't shoot very well. Most Savages shoot very, VERY well. Even the one with the bent barrel grouped nicely. They were 3 feet right at 100 yards, but they grouped well.

-

Mike

My first big game rifle was a Winchester 94 Big Bore in 375 Winchester that I bought with the help of my Dad and my chore money. A major case of buck fever allowed a very large Mule Deer buck to live another day on my first outing. Later, my Grandfather gave me his Browning Blr' 81; it is very accurate with a load of 748 and a Speer 150 grain BTSP. Another favorite is a Browning 71 in 348 Winchester.

You might want to heed your own admonision

Modern could mean different things to different people, and the original poster defined it as such;
"When I say modern lever guns, I mean ones without tubular magazines."