.357mag lever action rifles

g3ninfinite

Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
Dec 21, 2007
912
15
Los Angeles County
Really couldn't figure out where to put this thread.

Looking for a good quality .357 magnum lever gun.

Recently purchased a S&W R8 and I'm looking for a carbine to pair it up with. trying to stay in the 16-18inch barrel range. What are you guys using?
 
Re: .357mag lever action rifles

recently seen a marlin in the for sale section, otherwise rossi is the main other choice but the rossi varies a lot in price/ quality by when it was made, I have a video on simple improvements on the rossi
 
Re: .357mag lever action rifles

Rossi 92 matches what you want but be prepared to replace almost every spring in the rifle and get out your stones to hone. I recently got a stainless .45LC version and the first thing I did was strip and clean the action. I lubed the heck out of it and started working the lever. Stripped again to clean and could not believe all the filing and shavings that came out. After looking at the wear patterns it was easy to see what needed to be cleaned up, just dont mess with the locking lugs. Use the Lee Springer kit from Brownells or at the minimum replace the ejector spring and mainspring and it completly changes the feel of the gun.

Bore on mine was not the smoothest but it cleaned up quickly firelapping per the Beartooth bullet guidelines. It gives me 2" groups at 75 yards and thats about as well as I can see with open sights.

This is after I bead blasted to get rid of the shine, the magazine tube hammer and trigger are original finish, also the stocks were stripped to bare wood and refinished with tru oil. The targets show the same load before and after firelapping 50 rounds through it.

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Re: .357mag lever action rifles

I'm a Winchester guy, so I run Win94 Trappers. The 94 action is designed as a long action for rifle cartridges, but works fine for me with my handgun cartridges. I have them in .357mag, .44mag, .45LC, and a .30-30. The 92 action is better suited for the handgun cartridges, but I don't run mine balls out for speed, and I have never had problems. At 16" they are very handy, and a joy to carry. I love mine.
Now for customs... The sky is the limit. I had a smith build me a couple of big bore Marlins. They are custom take downs in .45-70 and .450 Marlin. These are also 16" and way, way sweet, but then they cost me about 7 grand for the pair.
 
Re: .357mag lever action rifles

Marlin has issued various 1894 versions in .357 with barrel lengths as short as 16 1/2". Depending on when they were built, they will or will not have a hammer-block safety.

Browning had Miroku build Win. '92s in both .44 and .357. I believe these are all 20". They have no tang safety and they are of the same high build quality as seen in the B-78, 1886, 1895. etc. These have also been built under the Win. trademark but all have the tang safety. I have one of the Brownings in .44 and it is very handy and very well put together with the best materials.

I had only handled the Win. 94 version until last week when a neighbor brought his Trapper to shoot It was in .44 and shot lights-out at forty yards with factory .44 Special. If you can find an early one I think they were built before the intrusion of hammmer-block or tang safeties.
 
Re: .357mag lever action rifles

I was able to shoot a 2" 5 shot group at 100 yards with a navy arms with open sights. The problem is the front sight is huge and the dovetail grove is way horribly machined. There are finer lever guns out there but it still works.