Cheapest lever action to shoot?

[Macchina]

I'm looking to buy a lever gun as my next rifle (will be able to buy it next year...). I want a gun that is capible of killing deer in the brush (.22 is out), but is also cheap and fun to shoot at the range. I do reload, so if the carbines are as much $ to shoot as the .30-30, I will simply reload that. Also, what kind of accuracy can I expect with the cartridge you reccomend. Finally, I am thinking of getting a Marlin, should look at a different gun?

Whoops, there is a post just like this going on right now...

 

[Monkeybear]

The Marlin is a fine gun, Id get one. The cheapest lever action to shoot is likely the .357 but I could be wrong. If I was deer hunting I would get a 30-30. People have been using the 30-30 to hunt deer for a long time.

 

[MCgunner]

I killed a deer at 80 yards with my Rossi M92 lever carbine in .357 Mag. It's plenty for smallish Texas deer in heavy cover where shots are 100 yards or less. The .30-30 is a much better deer caliber and worth the extra expense of ammo IMHO. With the leverlution or whatever it is new spitzer bullet Hornady ammo, it WILL reach out there far enough to justify a 4x scope or my favorite 1.5x4.5 variable. A 250 to 300 yard shot is not out of the question with that ammo in .30-30. The old .30-30 has been doin' it for a long, long time and is showing no signs of age as a whitetail round.

 

[DonP]

Another Rossi M92 vote

Mine's in 45 Colt, 20 inch barrel with a large loop, (just for the heck of it).

I reload, so the ammo is not only not that much of a cost issue, it's a VERY flexible round in terms of the loads you can use.

There is some great information over at Levergunners.com on different loads for .45 Colt, as well as .38/.357 loads and bullet/powder combinations.

The nice part for me is being able to take a Pistol caliber carbine to the indoor ranges to sight it in and play with it during the long cold winters hereabouts.

 

[KaceCoyote]

30/30 is a fine round, but not cheap.

 

[GreenFurniture]

Can you fit a 30/30 on a GS1200 ADV?

...oh, wrong forum.

 

[Hoppy590]

cheapest to shoot? m1895 russian contract in 7.62X54r. ammo is cheap. but the rifle itself costs a bundle

cheapest to buy, 30-30 rifle ( marlin 336)
cheapest to shoot, 357/38

just an uneducated opinion

 

[MrDig]

I posted in the other thread and will reitterate Good Choice on the Marlin. Get a 1894 in 44 mag, an 1894C in .357 or the 336 in 30-30. Since you reload ammo costs are not an issue and the Marlins are by far the better gun.

 

[dmftoy1]

My 1895CB in 45/70 is pretty cheap to shoot once you've got the brass.

$ .02 Primer
$ .04 Powder (14 Grains of Trailboss)
$ .05 Homemade Bullet cast of Wheelweights

The satisfaction of hearing your .11 cent round knock down the steel at the other end of the range . . . .priceless.

Shoots nice and accurate as well.

Have a good one,
Dave

 

[Macchina]

Okay, so I decided to go with the Marlin 1894. Now the decision: .357 or .44... I really like the 10 shot capacity of the carbine rounds, so .30-30 is out. Here's the dillema: .44 would be better for hunting, but .357 would be cheaper to shoot at the range (.38). With either one, I plan on loading my hunting rounds. What does a hot .357 do to a 150 pound whitetail (at under 100 yards, most likely under 50 yards). Also, does the .44 have cheap range ammo like the .357 does? I hear these rifles are pretty accurate, should I upgrade the sights? And what is ballard rifling?

 

[NailGun]

michaelmcgo, I think a Marlin 1894 in .357 would be a real "do it all" rifle for you.

First, for targets, you could load it with .38 spl. factory loads for cheeep! Or, scrounge up brass at the range to reload for free. Point being, brass is cheep and available.

Second, if you are going to reload, there are many varieties of bullet weights and types to choose from. 110 gr. HP for small game and 180 gr. Partitions for the big stuff. My hand load of choice for deer would be a Oregon Trail Lasercast 158 gr. lead round nose over 18 gr. (**max. load**) of Lil-Gun.
For up to 100 yards, a .357 with the right load can be very effective. Remember, shot placement is always the key.

Ballard Rifling is just standard rifling, as far as I have been able to determine. Marlin uses "MicroGroove" rifling on some of it's .22's and 30-30's. There are claims that the MicroGroove rifling works better on jacketed bullets and Ballard works better on lead. With the 1894's, I can say mine shoots jacketed or lead bullets equally well, once I have developed a specific load tuned for that gun.

Sights: I have good results shooting with factory open sites. A "red dot" sight would probably be really handy with a gun like this. Oooh....
..ACOG....ooooh. A fixed 4x scope would be adequate for most anything that gun is capable of too.

As far as cheep to shoot....I can reload for between $0.097 and $0.13 per round, depending on the round. Even at 13 cents per each, that is $6.50 per 50, not too bad! Now go to the range and shoot several hundred of them, and see if you "save" any money. :banghead: No matter how many hundreds of rounds I have brought to the range, I don't think we ever returned with any...just empty brass to reload for next time.
Save Money...HAAAA!

Hope this helps a bit. Best of luck with your decision.
NailGun.

 

[tubeshooter]

Cheapest to shoot all-around? Especially not counting reloads? .357, especially if it feeds .38 well also.


That's your short answer, but the other information in the thread is very good to have too.

 

[Macchina]

How well does the .357 1894 feed .38 specials?

 

[MrDig]

Extremely well, but use reg 38's not +p or +p+ the hotter loads will burn the chamber. At least I've been lead to believe that. Personally I plan on just shooting .357 and reloading them.

 

[rockstar.esq]

As an unabashed fan of any .44 Caliber I'd say the "cheap" alternative to the .44 mag is the .44 special. Sad to say, factory offerings aren't any less expensive than the magnum fodder however if you're reloading, the costs are on par with a .45ACP. Interestingly the ballistics are very close to the ACP as well...

Should Hornady ever deem us worthy to sell it's leverution bullets as components, the .444 marlin has the same bore diameter thus making them usefull for the .44 mag. Now whether the velocity will make them open or not is still unknown. Personally I'd say the .44 mag just because your rifle's capacity would be the same either way (because the OAL for the .357,.41 and .44 Mags are all the same) but you'd be hitting a LOT harder with the .44 Magnum. Plus then you could tell the (dead) deer that it was shot by the most powerful handgun caliber in the world (circa 1960)!

 

[mustanger98]

Here's my $.02 having dealt with .357mag and .30-30Win.

BTW, As much as I like my old '94 .30-30, IMO you also can't go wrong with a 1894 or 336 Marlin.

Me and Daddy... we shoot both handloads and factory depending on what we're doing and what's available. I'm only telling my experience as YMMV.

.357mag- For a deer load, we're testing a 180gr Hornady HP-XTP that's running nearly 1800fps according to the book. This load hits hard and it'll hold a clay pigeon on the 100yd berm. For plinking though, we use a Hornady 3-D 158gr LFN running more like 1300fps loaded somewhat like the hotter CAS loads.

.30-30Win.- We've loaded 150gr Hornady round nose soft points to run about 2200fps to deer hunt. They're quite accurate. But for plinking and match use, we're testing a 170gr LFP with gas check. I'm not yet quite sure how fast it's going to run. I do know it'll be quite mild.

I know plenty of folks will tell you not to run cast lead in the Marlin's Microgroove barrel, but gas checks should surely alleiviate most if not all the problem. That's what they're for.

I hope this helps.

 

[ArfinGreebly]

Cheap to shoot, but takes deer?

That would be the .357 (Marlin 1894C).

Cheap = shoots .38 special.

Power = shoots .357 loads.

I was finally persuaded by a photo of a guy hunting in Utah, having brought down a bison with a 4-inch S&W 686 and generic gun show bag-o-bullets ammo. Photo shows him standing over the catch-of-the-day with a stainless 686 and the biggest grin you ever saw.

I figure if a guy can bring down a half-ton of beef at 70 yards with a stinkin' PISTOL shooting .357, then a fella could reasonably be expected to do the same or better with a carbine shooting the same stuff.

This subject seems to come up now and then.

http://www.thehighroad.org/showpost.php?p=2842070&postcount=39
http://www.thehighroad.org/showpost.php?p=2844857&postcount=74
http://www.thehighroad.org/showpost.php?p=2918620&postcount=17
http://www.thehighroad.org/showpost.php?p=2970357&postcount=23

So I keep those links handy.

 

[MCgunner]

What does a hot .357 do to a 150 pound whitetail (at under 100 yards, most likely under 50 yards)

With a good lung or shoulder/heart hit, kills it. I killed a sub 100 lbs doe at 80 yards with a lung shot behind the shoulder. It went about 30 feet and fell dead. I was shooting a 158 grain cast SWC gas checked from a Lee mold over 14.5 grains of 2400 pushing about 1850 fps at the muzzle. That's my general purpose utility .357 hand load and it performs well from handgun or rifle.

I've taken a 120 lb 8 point at 50 yards with a Ruger Blackhawk 6.5" using the same load 300 fps slower out of that tube, so you can see the rifle can push 100 yards on deer and is accurate enough at that range.

 

[DWARREN123]

Marlin 1894, 357 mag. Will be happy I believe.
I have a Marlin 1894CB in 357 mag and it feeds wad cutters, all 357 mag I have tried and 38 spl.
Also have same in 32 H&R mag and it's a hoot!

 

[qajaq59]

30-30 is fine

The 30-30 is a good hunting rifle. They are generally light and fast. And I dropped a hog a while back that never moved an inch after the hit with a hand load. They're also pretty accurate at the range. However, don't expect them to be bench rest rifles. I prefer to shoot mine standing up instead of off the bags. It's a lot harder, but a whole lot more fun.