I love mine. Marlin 189C. The Winchesters felt like BB guns to me, the Marlin's a bit heavier and studier-feeling. Feels more like a gun, if that makes sense. I prefer American-made leverguns and revolvers, but that's just me.
Mine feeds everything I've shoved into it, and shoots them all better than I do. With a full wadcutter, it takes a slower hand on the lever, just to allow the shell time to settle into the carrier. If you work it too fast, they hang up going into the chamber. Doesn't tie up the gun, but stops the lever dead.
.38s are like shooting a big .22. In a good way. With full-tilt magnums, it's still a light-kicking gun. using slow powders, folks with chrony's report a gain of 300-500 fps over a service-sized revolver. 180s at over 1800 are quite doable, and 158s can break 2k with the right loads. Not all of them will shoot that fast, but most people seem to get around there.
It'll cover everything from small game to deer, within it's range envelope. I see no reason to scope mine, the iron sights cover any range at which it'd be responsible to shoot at an animal with it. The power within the gun's natural range, is quite good, but a scope would just encourage me to take longer shots than I should. If eyes are a problem, maybe a fixed 2-4 power would be appropriate.
As a home-defense weapon, it's pretty good, too. Holds 10 rounds of full-power .357s, can be reloaded from a pocket while still being ready to fire, accurate and easy to shoot. Others have commented on lawyerly aspects before, but I'm not really sure that's a real issue.
The only downside is the rate at which it eats ammo. If you shoot it like a big .22, and you will, you'll go through rounds like it was a .22. If you don't reload now, you'll start. You'll have to.
Get one. You'll understand.
--Shannon