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

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False, try cocking a bolt while you are trying to put enough distance between you and that big brownie to raise the barrel enough to hit 'em. Of course this after he broke out of the thickets five yards form your right shoulder. A .444 Timber or 1895M gives you that extra inch and flat butt power to make 'em hesitate!
 
Here's Three Reasons

1. When trying to get a fencesitter or new shooter to look through the sights, nothing has the drawing power of a lever action. There's a mystique to them that no other action has.

2. A pistol caliber carbine (mine's 38/357) paired with a revolver simplifies my load.

3. Again, for the noobs and the blissninnies, a LA seems relatively unthreatening-unless you are staring down the barrel, of course.
 
Lever guns do have their place, I'd rather have a lever gun while hunting in pine plantations or tamarack swamps thany anything else. As far as speed and capacity goes I'm wondering if any of the posters on this thread have ever heard of an SMLE?:D
 
I'm wondering if any of the posters on this thread have ever heard of an SMLE?
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Got four of 'em. ;)

And I can't work any of 'em faster or with less sight picture perturbation than my Savage 99's or Marlin 336s.
 
I've read transcripts of this EXACT SAME DEBATE being waged ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO, in the years before the First World War, when the very first smokeless powder bolt actions were being put through their paces stateside. The one thing those guys all agreed on was that in 100 years nobody would be arguing about bolts vs. levers :D They figured we'd all have automatics at the very least. Or maybe laser blasters!
 
Ask Custer's men at Little Big Horn if they would have been better off with Henry repeaters or Springfield Trap Doors.
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Hmmm....... :scrutiny:

Try as I might, I can't for the life of me figure how they could have been any worse off.....??
 
"Anything a lever action can do, a pump or semi-auto can do better" true or false

Except compete in CAS. But other than that?
 
False. For starters, assuming you are referring to magazine-fed pumps and autos (most rifles of this type seem to me mag-fed), you can't "top-off" the tube like with a lever. That said, it's harder to work the action of a lever when prone...on the other hand, mag-fed guns may have higher ROF over the long haul...but then again, you need mags and in some cases, they are expensive... The list goes on. I am sure others will chime in...and possibly post a like to the "tactical lever action rifle" article I remember seeing some years back.... ;)

Anywho, while I own some of everything, I do have a soft spot for levers, esp. in 35 Rem flavor.
 
For my uses, this is true.
The only thing that my FAL won't do better than a lever action in the same caliber is hunt.
It is illegal to hunt with a semiauto in PA. If it weren't it would be my choice for hunting too.

I can shoot it better than any other rifle I have ever had. This includes a couple of pretty accurate bolt actions (Savages and a Finnish M-39 and an SMLE that was bloody accurate). If I had to cut it down to only one centerfire rifle it would be the FAL.
However, I say this for myself only. Others will undoubtely have differing views.
 
Quote:
Tubular lever guns are limited to flat nose bullets
Not any more thanks to the folks at Hornandy.
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:cool:
Amen to that.

I was drooling over a BLR the other day, lever action mid-range sniper rifle in stainless and laminated. Yeah, Brother!
Then, of course, the price tag brought me back to Earth and I picked up some LeveRevolution for my Marlin.
Still, a levergun in .308 woulda been sweet.
 
A bolt was my choice over a lever action this time.

I just purchased a new Remington 700 ADL .270 Laminated this week. It was a toss up between it and a Marlin 336 in 30.30. I decided on the 700 ADL because of the stock, and that someone said the end to the ADL model is near. That Remington is doing just BDL (B-Grade Guns), anymore. (Any truth to that statement? :confused: ). My next long gun will be one of these: CEMTE in .308 or a new Marlin 336 in 30.30. My next pistol purchase will be either a CZ83 SS or a STAR in .45 prefabley in Stainless Steel although they are hard to find.

So much for my .02 cents and wish list combined this morning. :D

Take a girl shooting - she will love you for it. :cool:
 
False. Well, at least with respect to a semi. As a handloader, one of my principle gripes with semis is their inability to deal with the same range of loads that a manual-feed system can. In my Marlin 1894c, I can shoot anything from 100-grain lead tadpoles that barely squeeze out of the barrel and make a ping against a cowboy target that's hard to hear through my plugs, up to a 180 gr. cast bullet that'll shoot through a big black bear.

Warriorsoc--look closer. They're similar threads/principles, but not identical at all.
 
OK,

I will play along...

How about Style Points

a well put together lever gun wins in that catagory for me.
 
Nobody's denying that leverguns just plain look cool...

Everytime I watch The Duke grab a Model 92 or Model 94 and head out the jailhouse door, making that carbine look so small, I'm glad I have a couple lever action Winchesters in the safes.

Regarding the rabid racoon thing, for one, I wouldn't be in that situation to begin with, and two, I usually have a S&W Model 696 or Caspian Officer's ACP on my belt per my Florida CCW. No rifle rack on my tractor, unfortunately.

Cosmo forgets this is a duplicate thread, with the same arguments. (ie, work a levergun from the prone w/ cheek weld, weak camming and extraction, low-pressure rounds until the Winchester Model 95 and Savage 99 came along, etc)

Leverguns are good at many things, but not all. Matter of fact, they're fairly benign in this anti-gun day and age, and definitely look less ominous in a sheriff's squad car than an AR-15 or HK variant. Myself, I've been playing with some wonderful cast-bullet loads in my own Model 94 carbines. I've also been loading 150gr FMJ spitzers for longer-range work, albeit single-loading them in the breech before closing the bolt.

Which reminds me, there's a nice Model 94 in .30-30 nearby that they've got tagged at $240. I should go grab it before somebody else does. ;)
 
Cosmo, perhaps you could recommend for me the appropriate levergun for popping prairie poodles at 400 yards.
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Yeah, the Winchester Model 65 in .218 Bee. It is nearly the ballistic twin of the modern .223 Remington.

pix2725717968-1.jpg
 
I've also been loading 150gr FMJ spitzers for longer-range work, albeit single-loading them in the breech before closing the bolt.
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Actually, doing that makes it a two shot repeater, not a single shot rifle. You load one in, chamber it by cocking, then load another in the mag for the quick follow up, if necessary. Now you have a rifle loaded with two spitzers for a fast follow up if needed, and how long does it take to slip a round from a cartridge holder on your belt into the side gate on the rifle's receiver in the very unlikely event that you need that shot number three (How often does a buck stand still for three shots from a bolt action rifle?).
 
I would wager that 75% + of hunters carrying a lever gun do so out of a sense of nostalgia, tradition and a romantic notion. The only advantages of the lever are its flat profile which is most useful (as I already noted) when mounted and its higher rate of fire which is rarely useful in hunting. The primary uses these days for most lever guns (the Savage 99 is something of a bridge between traditional and modern) is casual recreational rather than serious hunting. I know many hunters still pack 94s into the woods (particularly in the East where the cover is heavy and shooting ranges close) but I wonder how this number compares to the number of lever guns bought for cowboy matches or simple collecting?

One of the more intriguing suggestions regarding the usefulness of the lever gun comes from Jeff Cooper who advocates it as a personal defensive arm for those who can't have a handgun or prefer a shoulder arm. I would quite comfortable using my .44 magnum Trapper 94 as a defensive arm. Powerful, rapid fire, but compact for a rifle. Like I said earlier, I have a number of various lever guns and I like them all but I don't fool myself into thinking they can outshine the bolt gun for most uses.

The quality bolt gun is superior in every way in terms of power and accuracy and is, I think, the better choice for 90% of hunting situations. It's really not even arguable except by those who are so biased that they refuse to accept reality.

There are some instances in which a Model 94 will shine, and many more where it will do. But most times a hunter is better served by a modern bolt action rifle.

But I would never tell a man what gun to use. If asked, as I was here, I might offer my opinion but any hunter who feels his needs are met with a lever gun doesn't need my permission to choose it as his arm except to point out that as responsible hunters we owe the game animals the quickest possible kill and most times a 30-30 type lever gun isn't the best insurance of this. As for me, I don't hunt anymore but if I did I would certainly choose a bolt action 30-06 with a decent scope over a 30-30 anytime and everytime.
 
Tried that, it doesn't work.

Actually, doing that makes it a two shot repeater, not a single shot rifle. You load one in, chamber it by cocking, then load another in the mag for the quick follow up, if necessary. Now you have a rifle loaded with two spitzers for a fast follow up if needed, and how long does it take to slip a round from a cartridge holder on your belt into the side gate on the rifle's receiver in the very unlikely event that you need that shot number three (How often does a buck stand still for three shots from a bolt action rifle?).
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Won't work - bullet ogive is too long to cycle through the action. Maybe a lightweight spitzer with a short nose, like the 110gr Speer bullet I used to load for my now ex-wife's Savage 340, but otherwise, it's a single-shot for the Model 94 with 150gr FMJBT surplus FN-FAL bullets. ;)
 
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