This sub forum is new for me, just asking on options an a lever stainless in 357?

Marlin.......pre Remington $$$$$$$$$$ even a blue/walnut 357 will start at $900

Henry.........probably the easiest to locate....just remember the tube loading

Rossi......strong......C/S sucks......357 in any lever is tough to find

https://www.henryusa.com/rifles/all-weather-big-boy/

I've had trouble with the Marlin .357 lever actions, both blued and steel.

I had the blued gun on a mid winter jackrabbit hunt, temps around zero. The loading gate is on a long spring. The little screw that holds the spring to the frame broke mid-hunt. End of that. I don't know if it was defective or didn't handle the pretty intense cold well.

The stainless gun was one of the big loop carbines with picatinny rail. I bought it for a bedroom gun mostly with maybe some hunting later. I got it home. It would not accept a 2nd shell into the magazine. Rather than wait weeks for Marlin to maybe fix it, I told them to give me my money back and I bought an AR for that job instead.

I can't speak to the other options.

Tom

I’ve got a Marlin 1894 CSBL in .357 and love it, no issues. I did take it apart and smooth out the edges around the loading port and took some of the spring pressure off the loading gate by bending it a little. Feeds and functions fine and accuracy is great.

Have owned 3 Rossi's and 2 Marlins in stainless, all good shooters. No experience with the hard chrome finish on the Henry model.

I have my ffl trying to locate a Henry 357. Seen in short supply currently.

Buds shows the Henry 357 in stock. I've got one. Great gun. Wouldn't mind getting the one with the side loading gate, but other guns have priority right now.

is this junk?

Those Rossis are not junk. The local store has that model in stock. The safety on the bolt is a bit of an eye sore. The wood could be finished better. The action is not buttery smooth like the Henry but it does work as designed when you handle it with authority.

trying to find it in stock locally and I can't, I found a blued one, but not stainless

Steves Gunz makes a replacement filler for that eyesore safety, its a snap to change.

...he also makes a filler that uses a Skinner peep to replace the safety lever. It's the cat's meow.

Middle son recently bought a threaded Henry 38/357. I sent him a 4x Weaver Classic and a box of 180 gr XTP 357 handloads. A trip to his future family's property resulted in a dead whitetail and hog. He advises it shoots very well.

Rossi 92's very popular here in Australia for shooting pigs mostly. Both blued and stainless. Be wary of the 24" versions with the octagonal barrels. Great shooters, but heavy. Original octagonal barrels had a lot more taper, Rossis seem almost paralell sided

Has their popularity increased since the Port Arthur gun control or have they always been popular?

Not trying to hyjack this thread, but what is a Marlin SBL in 44 worth? Are all of these made in CT? Or were some made in NC?

It looks like I shoudla bought one when i could. (Wry grimace).

Man i had it in my hands. Should have just bought it.

I have a Rossi and a Marlin.The Rossi stayed with me and I still have it. They are far some junnk. Some take a little internal polishing though.The only pro pf the Marlin is it is drilled and tapped for a scope.The Model 92 Rossi fits nicely in a small scabbard under the stirrup fender if you are a horse rider.

With about any brand some will feed 38 Special along with .357. Some won't. Some will fed semi wad cutters some won't

I don't have much use for anything stainless, except a couple of handguns., but I am just old fashion

Bought a new Rossi R92 .357, 16" round barrel, blued, two months ago. Cleaned out the sticky factory lube and applied a light coat of white lithium grease to the internals. Mine functions well with .38 and .357 ammo, HP, FP, round nose and SWC.

The main problem with the Rossi is that the ejector spring is about five times stronger than it needs to be. It causes the bolt to close harder than it should and it will put undue pressure on the cartridge and raise the nose a hair causing feeding problems. It is easily replace with almost anything. I ran mine for a couple of years and shot a couple thousand rounds through it with the spring from a ball point pen. The empties would literally pile up at my feet. I eventually changed that out for a spring designed for an actual Winchester 92 and it works better than the Rossi original. The original Rossi would throw empties over your head and so far back that you couldn’t even them.

Fix that spring and 95% of what ails a Rossi 92 is fixed.

I recently bought a stainless Rossi in .357 mag with a 16” barrel. I love the little bastard.

Son Jake bought one, we don't need two.

Thanks all!

Always moderately popular. When the US was having its wild west so were we or rather 'wild everywhere', we still had lawless regions into the 1930's. Thousands of 1873 , 1892 etc were imported, some of our prisons used 38-40 as a service calibre. Still a lot of original guns around, always a few 1892's for sale in any gunstore, 1873's are much rarer. The 30-30 is one of the most popular calibres in my state , since I was a kid anyway. What did increase popularity was the cowboy action shooting scene from the 2000's onwards.

Had a .357 Rossi 92. Great little gun. Had the 20" Barrel, would like a shorter one, think they make a 16"

Sold my R92 .357 to guy in Cal, normally I say no due to reams of paper, but he set up my FFL and paid him directly

My old InterArms stainless Rossi 92 (about 1990s?) has been reliable and accurate, especially if I crank the action with vigor. It came to me second-hand, so it was well broken in and smooth. I feed it truncated cone lead bullets most of the time and heavy XTPs when bigger chores are presented. One thing I was warned about has proven good advice: ammo length is optimum at 1.550".

If you like iron sights, the standard issue works OK. I put a Marble tang peep on mine, which suits me well, and Skinner makes some lovely sights also if you want to replace the original equipment.

There’s quite a few 357’s on Gunsinternational. A lot of 1873’s, Rossi’s and others.

https://www.chiappafirearms.com/product.php?id=80

I got one of the Rossi R92 SBL's last year. Haven't had a chance to shoot it yet, but have cycled some rounds through it. The action is a little stiff, not surprising for a new gun, and the loading gate is a little sharp. I plan to polish up a few bits and might see about lightening the trigger. I figure it should be a dandy cast bullets in the 150-170 gr range.