Anything a lever action can do, a pump or semi-auto can do better" true or false?

Status
Not open for further replies.
P

PaladinX13

Member
Joined
Dec 29, 2002
Messages
747
"Anything a lever action can do, a bolt could do better." - True or False?

Other than sentimental factors like the historical allure of lever actions, the joy of working the action, etc. are there any objective factors in which a lever action is superior to a bolt action rifle?

As it stands I have too many lever actions (is there such a thing?) and no bolts (just a .22) and I'm wondering if I'm really missing out on anything...

Edit: Not sure why but the mods changed my subject to include pumps and semis when my thread was specifically about BOLTS compared to LEVERS, not any of the other actions.
 
Last edited:
False. There are plenty of applications where a lever is better than a bolt. At ranges less than 150 yards, there is no applicable difference in accuracy, and with the Winchester 1895 and Browning lever guns, power of the rounds available is not relevent. But, if you keep with just a 30-30, then the vast majority of game can easily be taken by a levergun. As far as on the farm, the lever gun is suitable against any vermin (like rabid racoons). They are generally lighter, handier, and more versitile than the bolt action rifle.

Now, for long-range shooting or sitting in a stand hunting, a bolt gun is better. What is odd, for me, is the fact that synthetic stocked bolt action rifles cost more than wood stocked lever guns as a general rule, even though the bolt gun would be much cheaper to produce. Go figure.

Ash
 
I dunno, but I think that its not the biggest motor that wins the race, but what handles best.

I can't imagine a better handling forest rifle than the Mdl '92 carbine.

salty.
 
true, except

firing fast. True some people can work a bolt pretty fast, but if I needed to fire fast at close to medium range targets, and I had a choice, I'd take the lever action. Also in a SHTF situation, you can reload the lever on the run.
 
The lever action rifle/carbine was originally designed around handgun cartridges. It was mainly intended as an anti-personell weapon at relatively close range. It was fast-firing, It served as the "assault weapon" of its day to some degree.

Ask Custer's men at Little Big Horn if they would have been better off with Henry repeaters or Springfield Trap Doors.

When you are surrounded by enemies at close range, a 10-15 round pistol caliber lever acton rifle would be much better than a 4 or 5 round high powered bolt rifle.
 
false, in so many ways, yet true in others.

For a CQB rifle, a lever has a lot of pluses. reload without taking it out of battery, most carry more magazine capacity than a bolt, really fast repeat shots with a more convenient motion, has plenty of pop for it's uses.

As a farm ranch gun, the pistol cartridge levers are terrific, they lay flat in scabbard or against a rear window. If you are more ranch than farm moving up to a 3030 or a 7 waters gives you some more reach.

I really do not think there is a better black timber elk gun than a 71 winchester.

Guiding for big bear or other dangerous game, I know a few who are much satisfied with hard cast and heavy loads in 45-70 and a model 1886. Winchester has been selling new model 95's in .405 win, loaded with modern powders and good bullets, it is a lever gun equivalent to a .375 H&H.

I dare say 95% of deer hunters would be best served with a 308 or a 300 savage model 99. The one exception would be the beanfield or powerline rifle.

Bolts are better at absolute accuracy. Bolts are better at getting dirty and or deformed cases in and out of the action, because of the camming.

But the man who says "anything a lever can do a bolt can do better" just has not used enough GOOD levers.
 
Levers are far more ambidextrious. This might seem like a small point until one takes into consideration something like what I face. I am left handed and my son is right handed. I think he'd rather get my levers one day than my two "wrong-handed" bolt rifles.

So whether he suspects it or not, he is being trained for rifle shooting on the platform we can both use in rapid turns and that ain't a bolt gun.
 
The lever gun was most popular during the days of mounted travel due to its flat nature. It fit in a saddle scabbard and rode close to the horse without a bolt sticking out. It can also be fired more rapidly than a bolt. I have seen an average cowboy shooter fire 10 rounds in about three seconds on target.

After that the bolt is superior in just about every way. Tubular lever guns are limited to flat nose bullets and the bolt gun has much greater accuracy potential and an almost unlimited variety of available calibers. Plus the ease of adding optics makes the bolt gun more versatile.

I have several lever guns in different calibers and I like them but the bolt gun has more potential for most serious uses.
 
Leverguns are by definition ambidextrous, and they carry much better than a boltie since they're slabsided and don't have a knob sticking out the side of the action.

They are often not QUITE as accurate as a good bolt gun, due in part because it's very difficult to free-float the barrel on a levergun.
 
You can store a heck of a lot more lever guns in your safe than you can bolt guns, unless you remove the bolts, but that's an inconvenience. Also, lever guns usually handle a little better, and operate faster than bolt actions. It's also easier to take a lever gun on horseback than a bolt gun. Also, you can keep the mag full without working the action. Accuracy, strength of action (in terms both of what chamberings you can have and the camming strength for extraction) and ease of maintenance go to the bolt gun. As for me, I have about equal numbers of bolt guns to lever guns. I think of my lever guns as closer in hunting guns, like for boar with dogs, bear over bait, or hunting any animal in thick woods. That's why none of my lever guns bear scopes, though many bear aperture sights. Most, but not all of my bolt guns have scopes, but some have aperture sights instead, and those are the ones I use for the same things I'd use the lever guns for.
 
If we all used the "superior" action, barrel length, caliber, case, powder, primer, bullet.....then everybody would be toting the same gun with the same ammo and the same sling, carried in the same case, and on and on we could go.
That would be pretty boring wouldn't it? Somebody has to tote a Ruger #1 single shot, or a lever action, or a muzzle loader, or whatever else you find enjoyable.
I say if you dig lever actions then who cares if there are slight measurable differences that say the bolt action is better in some circumstances, carry what makes you happy:)
If you want to be the only guy in the country shooting at 1000 yard bullseye paper targets with a lever action then go for it ;) Who cares if you're not the world record holder? It's about burning powder and having a good time, ignore the "gun snobs" and fling some lead downrange with whatever firearm you want!
That's my take.

JTMcC.
 
Hey, I'm not disparaging the lever guns. Last time I looked I had five of them. I also have a couple of the Ruger #1s you mentioned plus some Martinis, a Rolling Block, a Trapdoor Springfield and numerous other non-bolt action rifles.

But the question was asked...
 
Hee-hee-hee!

You can't shoot CAS with a bolt gun.
Click to expand...

Don't see many benchrest or long-range shooters using leverguns, either.

Each has their own specific application, none is king at all shooting disciplines.
 
I have several lever guns in different calibers and I like them but the bolt gun has more potential for most serious uses.
Click to expand...

This is the CW on the matter, no doubt. But it's also completely wrong. Most game that's taken today is still taken well with in 150 yards, and could be taken just as well with a properly iron sighted levergun. The notion that leverguns aren't "serious" rifles but rather something for fun plinking has been ingrained in a generation of shooters, without any real support. Bolts are better in some respects, but not many. And some of their advantages, such as being easy to strip down and repair with no tools in the field, have been destroyed by introduction of more complex safety devices and trigger systems with umpteen little springs and levers inside them.

Plus, leverguns such as the Savage '99 and Win '95 can certainly fire high pressure spitzer loaded cartridges.
 
levers are superior in every way, they handle better, they balance better, they carry better, they hold more rounds, they are cool looking, you get the ooo aaah factor, they are fast, etc. ...except that bolts are better. now if someone made levers that fed two ways, with a tube that dropped into a box, and then made this lever in say 243, 308, 6.5 swede, and the like, I think levers would fly off the shelves.
 
My two bits wasn't directed at anybody in particular Mr. SaxonPig. I like these discussions as much as anyone. I'm just pointing out that if it burns powder and flings lead downrange, I'm all for it. Even if (probably more so) it defies conventional wisdom.
And I have no problem seeing people using "less than optimal" firearms for the use intended. Or "non traditional" use of lever actions, ect.
To borrow a phrase that I never use, but it fits here perfectly, "It really IS all good"!
By the way I've got a beautiful #1 in 45-70 that belonged to my Late Dad. He took pleasure in loading those 45-70 cases to the limit and sometimes a grain or two beyond :) , he could have easily bought or built a .458 Win. or .577 Nitro Express for that matter. It would have made more sense, but he wanted a 45-70 and it entertained him to no end.
I'm kind of a born and bred bolt action guy but the older I get the more my tastes branch out. I'm also a hard core born and bred 1911 guy, but I'm carrying my neat little snub nose .357 more and more :)

Have a day!
JTMcC.
 
Cosmo, perhaps you could recommend for me...

The appropriate levergun for popping prairie poodles at 400 yards. It would appear that the bolt action, scope-sighted .220 Swift I've been using just ain't right for the job, don'tcha know?

I'm thinking a Winchester Model 92 or clone, perhaps in .44-40. Should be a real tack-driving varmint getter, right?

BTW, I see the 2006 Quigley Shoot in Forsyth, MT will allow lever actions this year, fired in single-shot mode only. I'll have to pay attention to the numbers when I'm out there, and see just how badly my Sharps Business Rifle and I get thrashed by the Winchester, Marlin, and Burgess lever action repeaters. Should give the Rolling Blocks and Ballards a reason to fear daylight, too. ;)
 
"The sale of the .30-.30 has decreased dramatically."

Everybody and their brother has at least one, so this is no surprise. It's not like you're going to wear one out in a decade or two. And they've been making them for so long that there're plenty of used ones available.

"prairie poodles at 400 yards"

You need to get a little closer. The walk won't hurt - most leverguns are fairly light. ;)

John
 
The appropriate levergun for popping prairie poodles at 400 yards. It would appear that the bolt action, scope-sighted .220 Swift I've been using just ain't right for the job, don'tcha know?
Click to expand...

Yeah, the Savage '99 in .250-3000 or even better in .22 Savage Hi-Power. But obviously the bolt actions have an advantage for varmint shooting at long ranges. My point was that MOST GAME is still taken within 150 yards or less, not that most varmints are shot at that range.
 
Hows about a rabit racoon at 25 yards? Suppose that .220 Swift bolt gun would be ideal? And yes, I have shot rabid racoons from a tractor in the panhandle of Florida (including one that decided to bite the tractor tire).

Ash
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

WrongHanded
  • Locked
.44 Mag Lever Action: Felt Recoil
2 3
Replies
62
Views
20K
roo_ster
roo_ster
R
  • Locked
.22 Hornet in a pump gun or Lever Action?
Replies
9
Views
8K
rc135
R
C
  • Locked
Semi, bolt, or lever action .22 LR?
2 3
Replies
52
Views
5K
BigG
B
K
  • Locked
  • Poll
Lever action or semi-auto .22?
2 3 4
Replies
75
Views
11K
grant1265
G
BCRider
  • Locked
Why are pump action rifles not popular any more?
2 3 4 5
Replies
107
Views
11K
Berserker
Berserker
Back
Top