Shawnee
member
Was looking at a Ruger .22 lever-action at the local gun shop and happened into a conversation about rifles with a fellow there who said he had no idea why they even made lever-actions anymore. Turns out he is a bolt-action fan and has a couple acres of assorted bolt-action rifles and his primary sport is shooting tiny groups at 100yds. from a bench. That got me thinking about the popularity (and unpopularity) of lever rifles.
The sport of bench shooting is popular (and fun) and bolt guns are much more convenient to fire from a bench than lever rifles. Also, though a few lever rifles have been made with detachable box magazines, the more common levers all require the shooter to unload by working all the ammo through the action - which is a.) slow, b.) makes the rifle "live" several times while unloading, c.) can batter the tips of the bullets, and d.) gives the shooter the chore of catching the rounds as they are ejected. And too, it's a bit easier to load/unload a single round in a bolt than in most lever rifles. So, yeah, I can see how some folks could find the lever-actions less appealing.
But on the other side of the coin - there are folks like me whose Zodiac sign is The Plinker and the lever-actions are so much fun to shoot offhand at plinking-type targets it's hard to imagine why anyone would want some fuddy-duddy bolt gun. And of course there is the sex appeal of the lever rifle which is TOTAL as opposed to ZERO for any other rifle action (except the single-shot).
Also, a practiced lever-man will fire much faster than the any bolt-action boy and, while that may or may not be important when hunting, it is crucial when defending one's self against empty shotgun hulls, large wood chips, plastic soda bottles, poker chips and similar dangerous game. I think it is a very telling thing too that the "mostly for Fun" centerfire cartridges (.357 magnum and .44 magnum) are now always chambered in lever-guns - never bolt-guns - simply because the lever-action rifle is a Natural for the Fun Shooting people love to do with those Fun Calibers.
Scoped bolt-actions came along with the "magnum-itis" movement - after all, no one was going to buy a rifle that would shoot farther than they could aim well, and now we have a couple generations of hunters/shooters who have no idea of how effective iron sights can be.... and methinks that is another reason they shun the lever guns - simply because the classics weren't designed to be so "scope-friendly". What they lose, though, is the absolutely wonderful "portability" of an iron-sighted lever rifle. Slogging around with an overweight scoped bolt-gun all day has become so much the norm that it is always a hoot to listen to someone who has spent their first day hunting with a Winnie 94 or Marlin 336 because invariably they think they have just discovered the sweetest handing rifle on the planet. It's like they just found out the difference between dancing with the homecoming queen instead of all the fat girls.
And even though everyone jaws on and on ad nauseum about those 300-1000yd. shots, the fact is most game harvested cleanly is shot well within the range of the calibers commonly chambered for lever-action rifles and those calibers are imminently suited for such shots - much more so than the rocket-launchers many people hunt with today. The exception, of course, is varminting and the dedicated varmint sniper is rightfully wedded to the bolt-gun - absolutely no question about that even though some lever-guns can be found in the usual varmint calibers.
Though my Remington 700 VLS with it's high-power scope and exquisite trigger is a purely grand rifle and I am constantly tempted to get a Remington Model 7 bolt-gun - I gotta say - for sheer "shootability", "huntability" and pure Fun, the lever-action rifle is still Da Man.
The sport of bench shooting is popular (and fun) and bolt guns are much more convenient to fire from a bench than lever rifles. Also, though a few lever rifles have been made with detachable box magazines, the more common levers all require the shooter to unload by working all the ammo through the action - which is a.) slow, b.) makes the rifle "live" several times while unloading, c.) can batter the tips of the bullets, and d.) gives the shooter the chore of catching the rounds as they are ejected. And too, it's a bit easier to load/unload a single round in a bolt than in most lever rifles. So, yeah, I can see how some folks could find the lever-actions less appealing.
But on the other side of the coin - there are folks like me whose Zodiac sign is The Plinker and the lever-actions are so much fun to shoot offhand at plinking-type targets it's hard to imagine why anyone would want some fuddy-duddy bolt gun. And of course there is the sex appeal of the lever rifle which is TOTAL as opposed to ZERO for any other rifle action (except the single-shot).
Also, a practiced lever-man will fire much faster than the any bolt-action boy and, while that may or may not be important when hunting, it is crucial when defending one's self against empty shotgun hulls, large wood chips, plastic soda bottles, poker chips and similar dangerous game. I think it is a very telling thing too that the "mostly for Fun" centerfire cartridges (.357 magnum and .44 magnum) are now always chambered in lever-guns - never bolt-guns - simply because the lever-action rifle is a Natural for the Fun Shooting people love to do with those Fun Calibers.
Scoped bolt-actions came along with the "magnum-itis" movement - after all, no one was going to buy a rifle that would shoot farther than they could aim well, and now we have a couple generations of hunters/shooters who have no idea of how effective iron sights can be.... and methinks that is another reason they shun the lever guns - simply because the classics weren't designed to be so "scope-friendly". What they lose, though, is the absolutely wonderful "portability" of an iron-sighted lever rifle. Slogging around with an overweight scoped bolt-gun all day has become so much the norm that it is always a hoot to listen to someone who has spent their first day hunting with a Winnie 94 or Marlin 336 because invariably they think they have just discovered the sweetest handing rifle on the planet. It's like they just found out the difference between dancing with the homecoming queen instead of all the fat girls.
And even though everyone jaws on and on ad nauseum about those 300-1000yd. shots, the fact is most game harvested cleanly is shot well within the range of the calibers commonly chambered for lever-action rifles and those calibers are imminently suited for such shots - much more so than the rocket-launchers many people hunt with today. The exception, of course, is varminting and the dedicated varmint sniper is rightfully wedded to the bolt-gun - absolutely no question about that even though some lever-guns can be found in the usual varmint calibers.
Though my Remington 700 VLS with it's high-power scope and exquisite trigger is a purely grand rifle and I am constantly tempted to get a Remington Model 7 bolt-gun - I gotta say - for sheer "shootability", "huntability" and pure Fun, the lever-action rifle is still Da Man.
