A leverific day

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Well….that happened:

A Winchester 94 in .44 Mag. (Pre-safety version), and a somewhat rare Browning BL92 in .44 Mag. Gotta say, that Browning is a smooth and slick action. Unfortunately it was only made for about eight years so if I need spare parts, I might have some issues. On the other hand, the Japs built some pretty solid guns in that Miroku brand.

For lever actions, I prefer Marlins (real ones, not that Remington-era crap). Don’t know if I’ll keep the BL92 or not yet. Probably not. I’ll have to see if I can trade it off for a nice Marlin .44 or .357.

But..yay leverguns.

19 thoughts on “A leverific day”

  1. FWIW, stick with the bigger calibers.
    Those long thin .38/.357s always had some feeding reliability issues.

    Only time (one, in twenty thousand rounds or so) I ever had a problem with .45LC in several years of SASS competition was when the first-time fired case split lengthwise in the chamber, and locked the thing up solid.
    YMMV, but that was my experience.

    • And the best news in 20 years was when Ruger bought the dead Marlin brand from defunct Remington.

      A decent SS .45LC, finally? We live in hope. I’ll take half a dozen, in shortie and full-length config, please.

  2. Nice to see some love for lever actions. Still have the Marlin 39d my grad da gave me a long time ago. Whish I’d kept the .444.

      • Kept all the brass (it went with the rifle when I sold it). Forget what it’s called, but there was an inexpensive reloading kit (loads all??). Got a friend that still uses the .348 Winchester his Dad gave him.

        • I have one of those Winchester model 71’s in .348 – my dad’s Pennsylvania deer rifle. Rarely shoot it as ammo is so expensive and I keep all the brass for possible reloads. Right now I think it’s about $9 for each trigger pull. I’m wanting a lightly used lever .45 and a western .45 dbl action that used the same ammo. Matched set.

      • If .444 was good enough for Mack Bolan, AKA The Executioner it’s should be good enough for anyone

  3. Sweet ! One of my Uncle’s friends had a BL92 in .357 Magnum. What a fine gun that was – only saw and shot it on that one time. I don’t think the Winchester is better built than the Browning, likely Japan wins this round. But your choice. Both are sought after by collectors, the BL92 was not made for very long at all. The Browning appears to show far more evidence of carry so not a safe queen. That should be a clue – this was taken out by choice !

  4. Love the Marlins and Brownings, excellent truck guns. Long ago, before the advent of AR’s a lever gun was usually the back-up long gun for LEO’s, especially out west.

    I’ve sort of ‘wound up’ with several Savage 99’s in .308, 30-30 (take down model) and .243. I like to carry one when traveling so I don’t have to worry about legality, in any of the western states at least.

  6. I bought a Chiappa 1892 a couple of years ago since it was faithful to the original design (No Safety!) in a .357 Mag. Aesop, I won’t disagreed with you, but I have found that using Hornady 140 grain XTP bullets over a stout charge of Win 296 ball powder works well out of it. With the long barrel and a slow powder, I’m getting between 1800 to 2000 FPS with that 140 grain slug. It make the 357 into something different. Something more.

    • Definitely “luck of the draw”, but I have a SS Rossi in .357 that has always eaten everything – .38, .357, hollow points, etc.

      I’m a lucky man šŸ™‚

      • LOL- the first gun I ever purchased was a Brazilian Rossi knock off Winchester in .357 (Still have that one). It’s a fun gun to shoot. Never had any feeding issues with it.

  7. Got a Winchester ’92 in 32-20; a fun little gun. Also 3 Marlin .357’s – in three different barrel lengths. The short one does make an interesting option for a truck gun.

  8. I have been to some General Purpose Rifle classes where we run magazine fed bolt action and lever guns HARD. Most have a fixed low power optic on them but some a red dot. I am always shocked at how capable they are when you know how to use them, spoiler: (re)loading fast is a developed skill. Why learn to run these guns like you would an AR? Because they are 50 state legal in most cases and having seen what I can do with one in class I would not feel under gunned with one of these properly setup with me.

    The Henry Long Ranger is a fantastic gun I’d love to pick up. How cool is it to be able to run a lever gun in 308 that I already have a ton of stored? I’d rather not try to stockpile 45-70 these days….or shoot 45-70 all day though its a great round. Lots of guys are tough on the internet until they put their 150th (or more) round through a 45-70 Lever gun in an 8 hour period.

  10. Happy w my just post 64 M94 in .30/30. I need to shoot it more. For a while I bought a box of ammo every time I couldn’t find something else to buy when i went to a LGS, so I have a bit in stock.

    • at the gun show Saturday they were asking $2/round of 30-30. Happened to get a call from someone that was liquidating all reloading supplies. Picked up four thousand primers, 5 gal. bucket ‘o assorted brass and a bunch of bullets. Was a few hundred primed 30-30 brass, time to get out the press.

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