Home Forums Lever Action Central Lever Actions - General Marlin .357 and .44 magnum

Haven't shot much factory out of mine but American Eagle 158 grain JSP ammo did very well.

Sounds like a heck of a lot of scope. Too much for me personally, but you may find it differently for you..

I thought to much scope myself but both scope and gun are in great condition and I got them for a little more then the price of the scope. Let you know on Tuesday after the range trip how I did.

Look forward to it! At least you'll be able to see you holes in the target from the bench.

The .357 will be much nicer, recoil wise, than the trip-4.

If I were to hunt with that rifle and considering where a rifle like that would be used, I'd go 1-4X20 or fixed 2.5X20. Field of view would more than likely be more important than magnification.

Hell, I use a reflex sight on one of my "brush guns". It's not precise at 400 yards, but I can flat smoke a whitetail at 50 that's on the move through timber.....pigs hate it, too.

Those Marlin .357s are sweet..

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My neighbors regularly take deer out to around 200 yards with their 357's with Winchester white box ammo. If you look at the velocities you will see that the 357 is right on the heels of the 30-30 in speed and performance.

As Blackheart said above, the limitation is the shooter not the gun.

I have a Leopold 3X on my stainless 1894 357 shooting the 180gr. Hornday XTP....a perfect bullet for the 18 1/2 inch barrel.

Doc

Finally got my new to me Marlin 357 to the range yesterday. What a great gun to shoot. I was using 38 cal. reloads I bought at a gun show a while back and even with them I was shooting 5" groups at 100 yds. No kick at all and not to heavy. I thought it would act more like my 444 and imprint the butt plate lines into my shoulder, but that didn,t happen. Almost makes me want to sell the 444.
(only kidding)

I like my Skinner sights. Kinda makes the lever gus a bit more sexy.

That should be GUNS

I've got 2 loads for my 1894C. A fairly light load pushing a 125 RNFP cast bullet from a .38Spl case for small game & a fairly healthy dose behind a 158 JHP from a .357 case. Oddly enough both print the same to about 45 yards so there's no need for sight adjustment when shooting the 125's for squirrels & bunnies. I've shot a number of loads for a cast 158 but haven't found a load that doesn't lead up the barrel terribly that I find suitable for deer. I've killed several with the 158 JHP's & all but one were pass thru's but I limit my shots on deer sized game to 75 yards. I know it'll kill farther but I'm not willing to risk it. Me & a buddy shoot 12" plates at 300 with them & hit more than we miss but there's not much steam left out there. A long time favorite rifle/round combo of mine but you gotta know it's limitations. Have fun!!!