Birthday gun for myself.

[JasmineHart]

I've been dreaming of buying a new gun for a long time, but every time saved money, I have to spend on something else. I hope this year I will finally realize my dream and will not find any reason to deny myself from this. I have already chosen a few options that I liked the most. It remains only to choose which one to buy By the way, this article helped me a lot with the choice of ammunition https://bulkmunitions.com/9mm-vs-45-which-is-better/. I think it will be useful to read for both beginners and advanced shooters.

 

[axlesandantennas]

Lever gun guys, I have a question:

I have two, a Golden Boy 22 (most accurate 22 I have ever owned!) and a Winchester 30/30 Ranger.

The 30/30 is a nice gun and is reasonably accurate, but it kills my shoulder. Apparently I have some shoulder injury from long ago that has made itself apparent now.

I am very experienced shooter, so I know it is not placement. It's a narrow and light rifle that puts a lot of recoil in a small area.

Anyway, how do the lever guns handle chambered in either, 357/38 or 44 mag? I would like to get something like this, but if the recoil is anywhere near the 30/30, it's going to collect dust.

 

[BritKLR]

Lever gun guys, I have a question:

I have two, a Golden Boy 22 (most accurate 22 I have ever owned!) and a Winchester 30/30 Ranger.

The 30/30 is a nice gun and is reasonably accurate, but it kills my shoulder. Apparently I have some shoulder injury from long ago that has made itself apparent now.

I am very experienced shooter, so I know it is not placement. It's a narrow and light rifle that puts a lot of recoil in a small area.

Anyway, how do the lever guns handle chambered in either, 357/38 or 44 mag? I would like to get something like this, but if the recoil is anywhere near the 30/30, it's going to collect dust.

Sorry to hear about your shoulder. I have both, Marlin lever action in 357/38 and Winchester in 30/30. As for felt recoil the Marlin is noticeably less then the Winchester, one of the many reasons it's so fun to shoot. Unfortunately, not knowing how sensitive your shoulder is I can't say definitely if it's the rifle for you. If your close to Nederland, Colorado I'll let you shoot both to see. Good luck.

 

[axlesandantennas]

Sorry to hear about your shoulder. I have both, Marlin lever action in 357/38 and Winchester in 30/30. As for felt recoil the Marlin is noticeably less then the Winchester, one of the many reasons it's so fun to shoot. Unfortunately, not knowing how sensitive your shoulder is I can't say definitely if it's the rifle for you. If your close to Nederland, Colorado I'll let you shoot both to see. Good luck.

Dude, thanks for the offer! But, I live in East Tennessee, so that would be a bit out of the way...

Yeah, my should is a mess, but I pretty much refuse to get surgery for it and just work around the pain.

The 30/30 is a awesome round for this area, but shooting for fun is painful (wallet too!)

What would be rad is if they could figure out a way to get 9mm to work in tradition lever gun. I can see a concept in my mind, but the nose on the primer is the issue I can't work around. Personally, I don't think it would be that big a deal as primers are not as sensitive as they use to be. But 10 or so rounds in a tube fed lever gun would be the bees knees.

 

[BritKLR]

Dude, thanks for the offer! But, I live in East Tennessee, so that would be a bit out of the way...

Yeah, my should is a mess, but I pretty much refuse to get surgery for it and just work around the pain.

The 30/30 is a awesome round for this area, but shooting for fun is painful (wallet too!)

What would be rad is if they could figure out a way to get 9mm to work in tradition lever gun. I can see a concept in my mind, but the nose on the primer is the issue I can't work around. Personally, I don't think it would be that big a deal as primers are not as sensitive as they use to be. But 10 or so rounds in a tube fed lever gun would be the bees knees.

Sounds like the same tight hunting environment (hills, dense woods, draws, etc....) that I used the Marlin in to hunt white tail for 20 years (Ozarks, Missouri) It's a nice short, easily handled rifle for dense woods upto 75-100 yards. That little rifle harvested a lot of white tails over those years. Cheers.

 

[Wose]

Lever gun guys, I have a question:

I have two, a Golden Boy 22 (most accurate 22 I have ever owned!) and a Winchester 30/30 Ranger.

The 30/30 is a nice gun and is reasonably accurate, but it kills my shoulder. Apparently I have some shoulder injury from long ago that has made itself apparent now.

I am very experienced shooter, so I know it is not placement. It's a narrow and light rifle that puts a lot of recoil in a small area.

Anyway, how do the lever guns handle chambered in either, 357/38 or 44 mag? I would like to get something like this, but if the recoil is anywhere near the 30/30, it's going to collect dust.

First, what kind of recoil pad does your Winchester have? If it's a hard plastic butt plate, or if it has a rubber recoil pad that is compressed from sitting in a safe for decades, you may have a really different shooting experience by fitting a new Limbsaver recoil pad or something similar.

Second, there are some reduced recoil/managed recoil 30-30 loads out there. With modern bullets they are still great deer loads at reasonable ranges. Good luck finding them right now, but it's something you might want to look out for when things go back to "normal."

Finally, I love my .357 lever gun. I was a gun nerd for a long time, and I've kind of grown out of it, so I just have a few things that work really well for the way I live my rural life. My Marlin 1894c in .357 is one of the most useful things I own, period. The recoil even with full power .357 loads is noticeably lower than a .30-30. Mine feeds .38 Specials reasonably well, so lower recoil practice is a thing. I'm a handloader so I can tuneammo however I want, but you can find factory ammo loaded to all sorts of levels.

Marlin is on hiatus right now. They were bought by Ruger, which I think is a good thing, and are supposed to be producing guns again by the end of the year. The Miroku produced Winchesters are beautiful rifles, albeit spendy. The Rossis are a little rough but functional.

 

[Rovertrader]

I’ve had both shoulders replaced, and love my Henry .44 mag lever pistol!! My son uses a 30-30 for hunting here in the woods, and I’m not a fan given my shoulders. But, the Henry has zero recoil- seriously, nil!! It has become one of my favorites- and I’m about 4 hours from you should you want to try it...

 

[axlesandantennas]

First, what kind of recoil pad does your Winchester have? If it's a hard plastic butt plate, or if it has a rubber recoil pad that is compressed from sitting in a safe for decades, you may have a really different shooting experience by fitting a new Limbsaver recoil pad or something similar.

Second, there are some reduced recoil/managed recoil 30-30 loads out there. With modern bullets they are still great deer loads at reasonable ranges. Good luck finding them right now, but it's something you might want to look out for when things go back to "normal."

Finally, I love my .357 lever gun. I was a gun nerd for a long time, and I've kind of grown out of it, so I just have a few things that work really well for the way I live my rural life. My Marlin 1894c in .357 is one of the most useful things I own, period. The recoil even with full power .357 loads is noticeably lower than a .30-30. Mine feeds .38 Specials reasonably well, so lower recoil practice is a thing. I'm a handloader so I can tuneammo however I want, but you can find factory ammo loaded to all sorts of levels.

Marlin is on hiatus right now. They were bought by Ruger, which I think is a good thing, and are supposed to be producing guns again by the end of the year. The Miroku produced Winchesters are beautiful rifles, albeit spendy. The Rossis are a little rough but functional.

The recoil pad is the nice thin black piece of plastic. Which means all the recoil all the time!

I was fortunate enough to get a few boxes of 175 gr 30/30 at big box for 16 buck before all the flippers bought them all and put them on arms list for 30-40 dollars per box (that's a whole other rant for me).

I've been a life long gun nerd as well. But I'm down to so few firearms that most people are really surprised at how few I have, given my background. As much as I like bolt actions, Lever Guns just have a better feel to them when working the action.

About the only limitation to them is the inherent inaccuracy of the rounded nose of the bullet. In the past, when I hand loaded, I made a few loads for the 30/30 with 175g Sierra HPBT Match King. At 100 yards, it went from 2-3 MOA with factory loads down to under 1 MOA with my load. Could only load one in the chamber and one in the tube safely. I did notice that Henry has some lever actions that have an internal vertical magazine for rounds like 556. I am kicking around the idea of picking one up sometime this year. I think it would a very fun gun!

Thanks for the info for the 357/38.

 

[axlesandantennas]

I’ve had both shoulders replaced, and love my Henry .44 mag lever pistol!! My son uses a 30-30 for hunting here in the woods, and I’m not a fan given my shoulders. But, the Henry has zero recoil- seriously, nil!! It has become one of my favorites- and I’m about 4 hours from you should you want to try it...

Hmmm...may have to do a overlanding/ shooting meet up!

 

[robert]

For sheer fun, it's hard to beat a lever gun in .38/.357. You can load it mild or to the top of the specs for .357 and it's still not bad (although you'll definitely know the difference between a mild 110gr .38 and and a hot 180gr .357). A .357 from a 16" barrel is almost like a different cartridge than when fired from a 4"; you can get over 2000fps from it. The large bore guns are equally fun but more expensive to shoot even if you reload. The '73/'92 size frames (i.e. Rossi 92) will more reliably feed .38s than the 1894 sized guns (i.e. Winchester 94) which were designed from the start for rifle rounds.

As for the 30-30, I'd start by getting a recoil pad of whatever flavor you like. Personally I'd get or make a leather lace on style with a foam insert; if you get one of the gel style remember that gel gets hard when it gets cold. I'd use a lighter bullet as well like one of the 150gr loads or the Hornady Leverevolution (their 160gr FTX is a 200yrds loading)

 

[Grassland]

The .357 is pretty tame in my 12" barrel
.38 is like shooting .22 LR and even plus P just sounds louder

 

[Grassland]

So the take down still has issues with some .357 cartridges. Extraction in particular that causes double feeds.
Shooting one particular cartridge that was steel worked amazing and flawless. I just don't want to shoot solely $1 + per cartridge ammo.

I ordered a non take down and will send the take down in for some Smith work to find out the issues.

 

[Grassland]

The non take down cycles way better. It took six kinds of ammo without issue, and only had trouble feeding the shortest of the .38 rounds. Which happened to be blazer FMJ target/Plinker rounds.
Three types of .357 ranging from SJHP to hard nose lead, a boring LRD .38, an FMJ .38 and a .38+ P.
Really hope to get the take down figured out.
The black non take down is such a fun thing to have, especially cycling cheaper low power .38.
The heavy hunting .357 aren't at all unpleast to shoot except for the wallet aspect. The rifle handles nicely and is light enough to carry on hikes.

 

[Bodybag]

Hmmm...may have to do a overlanding/ shooting meet up!

that sounds like fun, did a couple in my chevy avalanche club.

 

[DieselRanger]

Lever gun guys, I have a question:

I have two, a Golden Boy 22 (most accurate 22 I have ever owned!) and a Winchester 30/30 Ranger.

The 30/30 is a nice gun and is reasonably accurate, but it kills my shoulder. Apparently I have some shoulder injury from long ago that has made itself apparent now.

I am very experienced shooter, so I know it is not placement. It's a narrow and light rifle that puts a lot of recoil in a small area.

Anyway, how do the lever guns handle chambered in either, 357/38 or 44 mag? I would like to get something like this, but if the recoil is anywhere near the 30/30, it's going to collect dust.

I have a JM-stamped Marlin 1894S in .44Mag/.44spl and .44mag will punish your shoulder as well. The 1980's era one I have has a hard rubber recoil pad which is replaceable - I just haven't. But I love shooting it - so much fun. I don't shoot it much but when I do, I can consistently hit an 8" steel at 200 yards, and it's a great brush gun / ranch gun. But - .44mag is only now beginning to show back up on the shelves and online, and it's still quite expensive. Haven't been able to find any .44spl but I have never really shot it anyway so I don't look very hard.