Are lever action carbines really just for fun?

[content]

Hello friends and neighbors // Yep, I have a lot of fun every time I pick up a lever gun hunting, plinking, teaching the young ones.

Sold my 336 short barrel .30-30 to a friend who owns the brush land we hunt on.( I use my Rem. 760 pump) It was perfect for the type of hunting and the guy lived there, I was glad to do it. He only had a .308 bolt, great rifle in its own right. One rainy day he took out the 336 and got two deer at one time down by the creek, not with one shot it did take two, one with the scope one with the see thru rings. His 13 year old nephew just got his first deer with it this fall. Probably the best $120.00 he ever spent on a rifle.

Yep they are just for fun many different kinds of fun.
I'd like to have a 45-70 but they seem to be made of gold around here.

 

[JustsayMo]

I have a lot of fun with my lever actions. I don't understand why some put range limitations on them. A couple of weeks ago we had a shooting fiesta at a friends place shooting out leverguns, 45-70, 30-30 and 32-40 at targets out to 560 yards (lasered).

Here's the 400 yard dinger - the firing line is back there at the shop.

With the wind (L to R) we needed to hold on the lower left corner - factory open sights, elevator all the way to the top notch

Off the sticks it was easy

Offhand was a bit more challenging but could be done with regularity.

The next day we had more fun knocking down these guys (offhand 200 yards) at the local silhouette match.

Yup, Leverguns sure are fun. Mine have made some meat too.

 

[Tirod]

Well, I got a lever gun because hunting was fun. The range - 22 years USAR - was a chore to be endured.

A Winchester 94 .30-30 is a good hunting rifle, accurate for most shots to 250, less drop with Leverevolution, and once I got over the Elmer Fudd dislike, easier to use, carry, handle, transport, feed, and store than a bolt gun or battle rifle like a HK91. It's now my got to hunting gun because the boys grab the bolt guns and stuff. Goooood.

Of course, it's not quite like carrying a AR, which I did regularly in the Reserves, or the HK for hunting almost 20 years. I won't sell the lever, I am building an AR, something that will functionally match in an improved way. It will likely be shorter, lighter, easier to use, even handier, and more fun hunting. The lever gun is a good baseline of standards, and it takes work to improve on it.

 

[CraigC]

Just about all I hunt with are leverguns. Even bought a late model Winchester 1895 .405WCF for an ill-fated trip to Africa. Not one stainless/synthetic boltgun in the stable. The lone centerfire boltgun that I own is a Ruger 77MKII .270 that I only bought because of the wood. Haven't shot it or hunted with it in at least five or six years.

 

[dom1104]

My state requires pistol caliber cartridges to hunt deer...


So yeah leverguns are pretty popular.

 

[huntsman]

Are lever action carbines really just for fun?

A Marlin .30/30 IS my assault rifle.

 

[flipajig]

lever guns fun YOU BET THEY ARE. A 30-30 was my first deer gun and now its my sons first deer gun. I now shoot a M94 in 44Mag for fun and hunting when im not useing my TC contender in 30-30 and 44 Mag

 

[wriggly]

In my neck of the woods the average deer is taken within 30 yards. Men lamented the demise of the first Ruger 44 Carbine and women cried. I have a few but a long Browning 44 is complimented by a very handy, useful, FUN Win. Trapper in 44 Mag too. You ask an odd question as far as I'm concerned...
Al

I was just at my local gun shop yesterday, and back in a corner, I spied something I had never seen before. A Ruger 44 magnum carbine, with a factory Mannlicher stock. I used to own a regular stocked Ruger 44 mag, and it was fun and yet still a serious game getter.

Seeing that Mannlicher stocked carbine got my wallet hand itchy. They want $800 for it. Just a tad too rich for me. If there was any manufacturer support for it anymore, I might have considered it more.

 

[paintballdude902]

i use a .30-30 marlin for deer. and i also have a .44mag wichester and a .45-70 marlin i use for bear

 

[One-Time]

They are great hunting guns, just remember they were the 'assault rifle' of their day and IMO have a very legitimate place still. I have wanted one for years but they are pricey

 

[foghornl]

Have had several over they years...still have the Marlin Mdl 30AW in .30-30


Love my "Smoky Mountian Machine Gun"

 

[BruceB]

Balrog's original post , whatever his motivation may have been, has given rise to a very entertaining and educational discussion about the "why" of owning lever-action rifles, and also the "why" of their very existence.

I have to confess that I've NEVER hunted with a lever-gun in over fifty years of pursuing various critters. So, WHY do I have a Winchester 64 in .32 Special, and a pair of Marlins...one being a M36 in .32 and the other an early 336 in .35 Remington?

Easy answer! I just like them. The history, the handling, the quality, the certain knowledge that they are the most "American" of all my rifles...yep, I just like them.

No better excuse for my ownership exists than that.

 

[Hanzerik]

Are lever action carbines really just for fun?
I have a Marlin 44mag and a 45-70, and enjoy shooting both at the range but dont have much use for them except as plinkers... does anyone really use these for hunting, and if so, what?

Well, seriously I have two leverguns in .44Mag. I use them for plinking, defense, and hunting. I own leverguns because I like them. They have a classic styling that many guns today just don't have. Most levergun calibers are easy to reload, and cheap to shoot. Some like the .357/.44/45-70 in modern guns can be loaded mild to wild depending on what you want to do. My plinking loads are a fun round to shoot at the range, but my heavy loads will put the hurt on whatever I'm aiming at downrange...and your shoulder

There is nothing a levergun properly loaded won't do. Sure it's not a wiz-bang 30rnd semi-auto, but in the hands of someone who knows how to use one, will do almost anything a modern styled semi-auto/bolt action will do. Don't put off a good levergun just because it may have a rainbow trajectory, shoot big heavy slow moving bullets, etc. They are still a potent firearms capable of taking any four legged animal in the world, and effective against two legged varmints also.

 

[MachIVshooter]

I have a Marlin 44mag and a 45-70, and enjoy shooting both at the range but dont have much use for them except as plinkers

Plinking and .45-70............does not compute

Seriously, the .44 Mag out of a 16-20" rifle is a formidable short range game getter, developing as much energy as a .30-30. I would confidently use my Marlin 1894 .44 mag on deer at reasonable ranges with an appropriate bullet (like 300 gr. XTP's).

And the .45-70? With loads suitable for Marlin Rifles, it is a sledgehammer cartridge. Not a long range number, but with 500 grain (or heavier) hard casts or solids, there's only a couple animals on the planet that it won't penetrate through and through. For normal big game hunting (deer, elk), the 405 gr. soft point at about 2,000 FPS gives a little better trajectory and delivers remarkable terminal performance on the animals.

If you're hunting on the plains, both of these cartridges are a bit handicapped (the .45-70 will still kill at 300, 400, 500 yards and more, but has a rainbow trajectory). But where shots will be inside of 150 or 200 yards, these fast handling leverguns are supreme critter slayers.

 

[ms6852]

I use my 30-30 for deer and wild pigs in thick brush or vegatation. It is also a good defense weapon for home. My 450 for bear/back up and I need to shoot through walls or cars my 450 is first choice. For plinking I use all my 22's.

 

[merlinfire]

Wow. Even just the lowly .30-30... if you laid all the deer taken with that caliber alone... you'd have... let's see... crunch the numbers... carry the three...

...A heckuva lot of deer.

I lol'ed at that. Good one.

I've been seriously considering a lever gun in .357

 

[content]

Hello friends and neighbors // Love my Inter Arms (Rossi) .357 lever, fun to shoot but you better take along some .22 rifles too or you'll go broke.

 

[ronto]

Any White Tail would answer this question in the negative.

 

[summerhelp]

Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't the Winchester 94 have the title as the rifle that has harvested more deer than any other gun.

 

[MachIVshooter]

Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't the Winchester 94 have the title as the rifle that has harvested more deer than any other gun.

Not really a verifiable claim, but I've no difficulty believing that was probably true for many years, if not into the present.

 

[lobo9er]

really you guys bit on this thats a troll question if i ever heard one

 

[Loosenock]

Well...now. The Volition Repeating rifle was 1848 and it is 2010 now.....so we have 162 years of lever actions. They tamed the west, fought in several wars, favored by the Texas Rangers and lawmen the world over. Also protected many a homesteads, cattle herds, banks and rail roads. And we haven't even began to talk about the eastern, canadian, western, alaskan and southern hunters. They are very popular south of border all the way to the bottom of the globe. The spread of the lever gun does not stop with our Australian friends and brothers but continues around back to where it all started.

Lever guns just for fun? I think fun is at the bottom of the list. Over 162 years of popularity...think about it.

'Loose