School me on lever guns

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  • Bolts Rock

    Living in Free America!
    Apr 8, 2012
    6,123
    Northern Alabama
    One word of warning...

    In my experience, 38's do NOT fly well out of a lever gun...

    357's do fine, but the power of 38's is too low & most of the energy is used up getting the bullet out of the barrel...

    Aiming with 38's involves aiming well over the target...

    So my advice is to use 357's or better yet 30-30's...

    357's are accurate (5") to about 75 yards, 30-30 are much more accurate for 100+ yards...

    I have a Marlin 336 XLR in Stainless that is excellent, simple to clean & deadly accurate at 100 yards...

    Yeah sure, that's why cowboy shooters use .38 more than any other caliber. Yes it's up close with mousefarts for the main match but they'll stretch them out to 100 with speed and accuracy using factory .38s. The bugaboos with .38/.357 are first magazine tube diameter, it is usually the same as for the .45 Colt which allows the rounds to zig-zag and that screws with smooth feeding (tube insert with new spring and follower are the cure). The other big bugaboo is a .357 rifle requires a minimum COL or it has feed problems from the mag to the carrier, long seated .38s is the fix there.

    OP, best budget option is a Rossi 92, cheap (<$500), reliable. Past that you're into Marlin in the $800-900 range, Miroku made Winchester $900 and up, Uberti 1866 or 1873 (imported by Cimarron, Stoeger and Taylor's mostly) $800 if you're lucky but usually $900-1200 depending on variant.
     

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