Which? Marlin 45/70 or Puma 92???

[kentucky_smith]

Which? Marlin 45/70 or Puma 92???
Would rather have a light handy deer rifle for carry around and intrigued by the venerable 45/70.


I have a .45 Puma, dealer has a 1895 Marlin in great shape with a reciever peep sight. I could trade with little cash to boot.

Which would you rather have?

 

[Starter52]

My Marlin .45/70 is my favorite lever gun. I have never shot a Puma, but the Marlin is a top-notch gun.

The Marlin is not exactly a light-weight, but it's a great gun. I would go ahead and make the trade, keeping in mind the price of .45/70 factory ammo.

 

[el44vaquero]

I love my .357 magnum Puma 92.

 

[JohnKSa]

I think everyone should own at least one 45/70. That said, the Pumas are neat little rifles. They seem to me to be handier than the Marlins in terms of slimness. Don't know about the shooting characteristics. Accessories are going to be a bit harder to come by.

 

[pittspilot]

Love my Puma 92 in 44 MAG. So does everyone else who shoots it.

 

[Pumpkinheaver]

I have the guidegun in 45-70, it is my favorite deer rifle.

 

[DWARREN123]

I have/had Marlin lever guns, I would go with Marlin.

 

[AH-1]

my 92 navy arms(same as puma but with better wood) 44-40.handy light and with the 92 action level II loads excellent for deer.

 

[JShirley]

Would depend on my needs. For deer, the little Puma should work just fine- you say ".45"- which one? Anyway, it would probably work better as a close-range woods gun for deer.

The Marlin has got the oomph for elk or bear.

John

 

[fisi]

45/70 hands down.......

 

[Father Knows Best]

You say you want a "light handy deer rifle for carry around", and you have a .45 caliber Puma 92. It seems to me that you have what you need. I assume that by ".45" you mean it is .45 Colt. The 92 action is plenty strong, so you can shoot some very stout .45 Colt hunting loads out of that rifle, and the 92 is about the lightest, handiest repeating rifle around. With the right loads, you could easily take down large whitetails at up to 200 yards with that rifle.

The 45/70 is a much larger cartridge, and fires a much heavier bullet. While you theoretically have a longer reach with it, ask yourself whether you need or would ever use that reach. And keep in mind that the 45/70 doesn't really move significantly faster than a .45 Colt, so trajectory will be comparable -- the 45/70's extra hitting power comes from the massively heavy bullet.

So going to the 45/70, you get less mag capacity, a heavier and less handy rifle, and heavier recoil, and for what? The ability to throw a really heavy bullet you don't need.

Frankly, I think the Marlin 1894 in .44 Magnum is the best choice for a light, handy deer rifle. If you really dislike your Puma, look at one of those.

 

[bigger jon]

What to get?

I think you have to consider what the cost to shot them will be,Even if your well off the cost of the 45/70 can put a damper on your shooting. I have both a browning 1886 45/70 and a Browning 92 in 357 they both have seen hunting action with the 45/70 more so than the 357,I `m a reloader and that has alowed me to learn how to shot the 45/70 at a huge saving I still shoot 20 to 30 rounds a week just to keep sharp but the 357 still has a place for hunting and just plane fun the recoil can be handled by just abought every shooter even kids and it still has good stopping power for deer and its cheep to shoot you can defently shot the tar out of it, on the other hand the 45/70 even if the cost of shooting dosnt efect you your shoulder will you`ll be limited to the amount of rounds you can take at a time.
I would recomend you keep what you have, that 45 can do well for hunting and get a 357 later save the 45/70 for when you have more time and $ to learn how to shot it well.best of luck

 

[Nhsport]

I have shot several of the .357 Pumas and they seem to be fine guns , if yours is 45colt it should be a fine deer rifle , especially with reloads.
The 44mag is also fine but if you are reloading they are about the same power wise.
The 45/70 is of course a whole different power level, and really needs to be reloaded to get full potential.
The Marlin guide guns can be a real handfull with hot loads but some folks like that stuff. With the standard woosy 45/70 loads the guide gun still has some fine hunting potential.I very much like the full sized lever gun (model 1892?) and even more so the cowboy version with the heavy barrel. Of course this is not really in the "handy" catagory .

 

[roscoe]

Some of the new DoubleTap and Buffalo Bore and CorBon and Grizzley .45 Colt loads give plenty of power for deer - some even match the old Government 45-70 load or yore. If you want to hunt larger, toothier animals then you would need a 45-70.