I have five Marlin 1894's, one in .32-20, three in .357 Magnum and one in .44 Magnum. The .32-20 was made in 1895 and has a 24" Otagonal barrel and it is just a very cool old rifle to shoot and hunt small game with. It just has got to be the favorite of my Marlins.
Of the .357's, one is from 1983, pre-safety, one from 1990, and one is a Remlin from 2012. With a visit to Marauder's website,
http://marauder.homestead.com/files/TUNING_M_1894.htm, and some spring kits from the Smith Shop,
http://www.thesmithshop.com/marlin_spring.html, I got them very smooth and they are the main match rifles that me, my wife, and my daughter shoot for Cowboy Action.
The '83 .357 was my original Marlin 1894 and it is my main match rifle for CAS. I shoot the .44 as my main match rifle for Wild Bunch. The .44 is a Remlin from November 2015. I slicked it up just like the others and I have never had a problem with it.
I have three Rossi R92's. I have a 24" Octagonal barreled .357, a 24" Octagonal barreled .44, and a .44 20" Puma Saddle Ring Carbine with the Puma medallion. I have shot them all in CAS and Wild Bunch matches.
I slicked all of them up with visits to Marauder's website,
http://marauder.homestead.com/Rifles.html, with Steve's Gunz DVD,
https://store.stevesgunz.com/index.php?http, and with springs from the Smith Shop,
http://www.thesmithshop.com/rossispringkits.html.
The reason that the Marlins became our main match rifles is that the 1894 Marlins have a shorter stroke than the R92 Rossi's and you can work their lever actions just a little bit quicker. A little bit quicker matters in CAS and Wild Bunch.
The Rossi's are still very good rifles and I have no problem whatsoever carrying one of them when I need a pistol caliber rifle.