Opinions on a Lever Shotgun?

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If1HitU

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I'm thinking about buying a Lever Shotgun,and would like the get some advice,and opinions.What can you tell me about about Lever Shotguns?
 
What are you going to use it for? They didn't become popular for a reason. If you want to actually use it for hunting or personal defense there is also a reason pump actions dominate manual operated shotguns. If just for nostalgia, or to look like the Terminator, then one of the original Winchesters or reproductions would be cool to own.
 
They are usable if pressed into service, they have seen their biggest usage arguably in Australia more than anywhere else, they do have a nostalgia factor due to several movies and video games but as said before they fall short compared to most pump guns. They're mostly made only in 2.75 inch chambers, while this may not matter to some I prefer 3 inch mags for waterfowl and hunting slug purposes, if used for self defense most defensive ammo is 2.75 inches anyway, but they can be a bit of a pain to reload especially in a defensive situation. it can be done just harder than needed. If its just for fun than have at it. I would recommend sticking to originals or the italian reproductions the chinese ones are lacking in quality and take more "work" to get them running smoothly.
 
The Winchesters are collector pieces, the copies are range toys. They are not easy to load or shoot. The Ithaca 66 is the only lever action shotgun I'd own, and that purely for nostalgic reasons.
 
My brother bought one of the Winchester .410 reissues when they made them many (like 20 or 25?) years ago. Looked kind of like a model 94, as I recall. Very cool looking gun. Wish I'd bought one.
 
So why are lever shotguns not popular and also pump action rifles?
It’s funny
I never even heard of a lever shot gun until this thread. So I decided to wait and see what folks had to say.
I’m with you in that if they’re extremely rare there must be reasons why.
 
So why are lever shotguns not popular and also pump action rifles?

I owned a Remington 572 .22 slide action for many years, and it was the smoothest and most accurate .22 I ever shot, bar none for field use (and I owned a Remington Nylon 66 at the same time which shot flawlessly, and a Remington 510A single shot bolt action which was a tackdriver).

The cost of a new one is astronomic, but I bought my BDL decades ago for $125. My son has it now as my cataracts obviate seeing anything more than 50 yards out, and I can hit with a 1911 .22 semi-auto pistol very well at that 50 yard range or less.

https://www.remington.com/rifles/rimfire/model-572-fieldmaster

Jim
 
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My brother bought one of the Winchester .410 reissues when they made them many (like 20 or 25?) years ago. Looked kind of like a model 94, as I recall. Very cool looking gun. Wish I'd bought one.

Henry is currently making a .410 lever action shot gun. I think they are running around $750 retail.

H018-Lever-Shotgun-410-Hero.jpg
 
My brother bought one of the Winchester .410 reissues when they made them many (like 20 or 25?) years ago. Looked kind of like a model 94, as I recall. Very cool looking gun. Wish I'd bought one.
Friend has one out West when I lived - going on about your time frame. Brought it out to shoot some skeet and the poor trapper kid thought the guy was going to use a rifle to shoot skeet........the look on his face was priceless.
 
I never even heard of a lever shot gun until this thread. So I decided to wait and see what folks had to say.
I’m with you in that if they’re extremely rare there must be reasons why.
Well now, hasn't everybody seen Terminator 2 and Arnie's famous flip-reload with a sawed off Winchester 1893?

In any case, the limited experience I have of these isn't good. At least the one I shot was very heavy to operate and the lever bruised my fingers. I can't imagine putting too many rounds through one voluntarily, one box was painful enough. As a shotgun it's IMO cool as heck, though.
 
I have one of the Winchester 9410 (looks just like a 30-30 Win 94) from 2003 and its is the most fun shotgun I own. Its a lot of fun but challenging on the skeet field. I have hunted everything from dove to whitetail deer with it back when I lived in Ohio that at the time was a shotgun only state.
 
Well now, hasn't everybody seen Terminator 2 and Arnie's famous flip-reload with a sawed off Winchester 1893?

In any case, the limited experience I have of these isn't good. At least the one I shot was very heavy to operate and the lever bruised my fingers. I can't imagine putting too many rounds through one voluntarily, one box was painful enough. As a shotgun it's IMO cool as heck, though.

Terminators 2? Wasn’t that movie releaseda hundred years ago? I recall seeing it. Just don’t recall when or with whom. And I don’t recall anything about it.
 
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Opinions on a lever? Terminator used one and he was...i don't know...only from the future! terminator-2-sd-screencapture-shotgun-movie-prop-10.jpg Joking aside, I don't see the appeal of one personally. I suppose if i came across a smoking deal on one, i'd pick it up. Some have said "slow" but so? So is a single. If you want one buy one. Something different anyways. Good luck.
 
Terminators 2? Wasn’t that movie releaseda hundred years ago? I recall seeing it. Just don’t recall when or with whom. And I don’t recall anything about it.
1991? Arnold Schwarzenegger. Machine sent back from time to stop the apocalypse. Great movie I thought. For Arnold anyways.
 
Well I've got the Chinese Model 1883 Lever Action 12GA. Shotgun, however it is closer to the 1901 Model, as far as the innards go. BTW it came with a really rough action, as well as the wood to metal fit was terrible. The upside is it only cost $300.00, and the clean up (polishing those rough innards, and re-arranging the wood to metal fit) made me feel like a real pro. After taking it out shooting for the first time, and experiencing frustration, not only trying to reload the dang thing, but having shot shells hanging up on the shell lifter, I thought at first I wasted $300.00. Wrong after disassembling the firearm, and cleaning everything up, like I already noted, I took it out for a second trip and that cheap little shotgun performed like a champion, restoring my faith in JM Browning. One of the dirty little secrets is in when operating the lever, you have to do it with real meaning, don't baby it, and take the that lever all the way down. You might wrap some rawhide around that lever if you've got fragile knuckles. All in all it is a fun gun to shoot, and is designed for the Cowboy Action Shooting type of people. Granted I do believe there is an Italian model that is all slicked out, with really nice looking wood, but it costs right at $1000.00. So to each his own, I've derived a bundle of fun shooting this little gun. BTW the polishing and re-arranging the wood to metal fit, took me all of 2-3 hours to do. What really was time consuming was removing the Chinese City of Origin off of the left side plate, that took an additional 2 hours, and not to mention matching the blue. Further the bluing on the metal parts that are exposed looks pretty good for a cheap gun. Oh also it holds 7 rounds, 5 in the tubular magazine, 1 in the chamber, and one on the shell lifter. Once you get the hang of loading it, and you have everything polished out believe me it 's the most fun you can have with your pants on.
 
Thats one I cant wrap my head around, ok make a lever action shotgun, but make it load from a tube like Henry does and make it in .410? thats really weird.
They can make it in .410 and still use most of the same parts they use for their .45-70 rifle. It's a pretty cheap way to broaden their product line. Given that possibly the only part that's different is the barrel, the numbers of people who'd buy it just for novelty probably doesn't have to be large to turn a profit. And shotgun barrels are probably cheaper to make than rifle barrels, so the profit on the shotgun might actually be HIGHER.
 
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