Home Forums Lever Action Central Lever Actions - General What is your favorite lever action rifle.

99-A 250-3000 with a stove hot load of H4895 and 87gr Speer HotCor

Winchester 94 Legacy. 30-30 is a keeper!

Sherwood

You can't kill an elk with no stinkun terdy terdy!!!

just because I have had it longest my Winchester BB 375. nothing I have ever shot with it has needed second helpings.
and that's from yotes to moose with a blackie thrown in. I generally don't shoot what I don't eat but the blackie had nasty designs on my sweet not so young body.
next or maybe a tie is my JM guide gun in 45-70. hands down that is my favorite cartridge. then a savage 99 of any flavor.
I have 2 GG's and 2 99's so they are close.
oh the heck with it !! if it has a lever it makes my sticker peck out!

From what I have read from the gun gurus, 30-30 bullets just bounce off deer and elk. It's way to under powered to kill anything.

Its cool you elk hunt with a lever gun.

I've had a few favorites, among them a '92 in .38-40 and a '95 in .405 both of which I owned back in high school. I gave my mom the .38-40 and my dad talked me in to selling the .405. I had about 30 lever actions at the time but those were the two I shot most.

At the end of college I bought a '94 trapper in .30-30. That was a fun gun.

After that I switched to Marlin "cowboy" models. I had a .38-55, a .32 H&R mag, and a .45-70. For a few years I shot a stainless steel Marlin guide gun in .45-70.

Every one of those Marlins was capable of MOA accuracy from the bench if scoped and fed ammo it liked. That's pretty impressive IMHO.

Today my only lever action is a late 70s Winchester 94 big bore in .375 Winchester. Inch and a quarter at 100 yards with iron sights. A local gunsmith installed a 1" decelerator and did a trigger job, both of which help a lot. My buddy Mike, a gunsmith, added a taller front sight so I could use a Williams receiver sight.

Tom

back when they first came out fav was mod 94 375win took 2 moose, 1 black bear, 1 brown bear and many deer. The 250pp performed perfectly and was very accurate. Then winchester dropped the 250 was never happy with the 200pp both in performance and accuracy, couldn't find a bullet to reload that was on par with the 250 so sold the rifle, will always regret that especially now that kodiak makes a 250. Swithed to the 356win, took several moose, 1 brown bear at and a lot of deer would have no reservations having it if charged by a brownie again. Had great success with the 220 peer and the kodiak 250 the 250pp didn't expand even on brown bear/moose unless shoot in shoulder. Recently switched back to the mod 71 win, have a new prodution and an older one converted to carbine. Always loved the rifle but until recently wasn't aware of any good bullets that would expand on deer but still tough enough for a close encounter with a brownie. After extensive testing have settled on the 250 woodleigh, outstanding accuracy and perfomance. Recovered 2 from moose shoulders, perfect performance! Use peep sights on all my levers.

I'm a Winchester fan myself, I say my favorite is my model 94 30-30 AE with a peep sight. My close second is Winchester model 88 in 308!

336 ss ltd stainless walnut 35 guidegun.

My favs are grandpa's 1895 Winchester '06, a Marlin 30TK .30-30, and a Marlin 1894 "The limited" .44 mag with a 16" barrel.

Mark, I'm strongly considering have the .30-30 rebored to .356 Winchester. I'd love hear more of your experiences with this round.

my favorite lever rifle is a Winchester 1886 in 45-70 with full octagon barrel. the action is full of grease and the outside finish is worn but still has traces of case hardening on the receiver. I shot some mild loads in it, cleaned it and put it back into the safe. this rifle has some historical value being marked CGH 1933 on the butt.

Bad idea. The .307, .356, and .375 are on a slightly different action with beefed up sidewalls to handle the extra pressure. If you look down on one from above you'll see a bulge / beefed up area where the locking lugs ride which is not present on the standard model 94s.

If you want to mess around with a std .30-30 action, .38-55 is probably easiest. Either .30-30 or .38-55 could be necked to .35 ... it's been done. Stick with standard pressure.

An option would be to look into the ".35 Lever Power". Never seen one, read about it, intrigued. Brass is formed from a shortened .303 British or .30-40 Krag case.

It's going to get pretty expensive. I think you'd be ahead spending the ridiculous cost for a factory .356.

Tom

I had Wild West guns work over my 1895 45-70 to a guide gun, before those existed. It has a mat chrome finish, shortened barrel 18-1/2" upgraded recoil pad (Pachmayer decelerator) and XS sights. Nice rifle. I prefer the pistol grip shooting a hot 45-70 load I prefer buffalo bore 430 gr hc.

In addition I like my 1894's in 357 Mag, 44 Mag, and 45 Colt.
My other favorite is the 336 in 35 Remington. Plus some others that I can't really see getting rid of.

A 99 without a doubt!!!
Have a few.
Cheers

Except he is talking about a marlin. Simple rebore.

.

Marlin is a simple rebore as mogwai said above. I agree with Tom on a Winchester, I would not do it. JES has done dozens of Marlins with no issues.

The only one I have ever owned...Marlin 1894. I had the .357 Magnum. Wish I had it back.

BROWNING 1895, 30.06, USED IT FOR ALL OF MY DEER HUNTING FOR 25 YEARS, UNTIL I COULDN'T SEE THE SITES ANYMORE. EASIEST POINTING FASTEST LEVER I'VE EVER HAD. USING A MARLIN 1895 GUIDE GUN 45-70, ALMOST AS GOOD AS THE BROWNING BUT I HAVE A SCOPE ON IT.

Mine is a Rossi Puma .38 / .357. It has a 16" barrel. I am getting old and can't see the sights too well so I had a peep sight put on it. I really shoots now out to about 100 yards with almost any .357 load. A friend of mine watched me shoot it on one of our "shootout" weekends during the summer when there is not any game to chase. He wanted it badly so I screwed up and gave it to him on a trade. (He is a good friend!) He decided he didn't like the peep sight so much so I talked him into trading me back for a new Rossi with the safety that I bought as fast I could. Got lots of nice levers but this is my favorite and the one that almost got away.

#1: Savage 99F .308 (does just about everything)
#2: Winchester 94 Ranger .30-30 (first rifle I hunted with)
#3: to be determined, want list includes a BLR 270WSM and an Marlin 1895