Lever Action 357 . . . ?

Hellcat1 said:
FYI, not all .357 lever action rifles are made to shoot .38 Special. I own modern Winchesters, Henrys, Rossis and one Marlin .357. Winchesters actually say right on the barrel ".357 Magnum Only", but before I realized that, I tried shooting .38s, and had difficulty feeding many of the rounds. And the Henry owner's manuals state this: ".357 Magnum is designed with .357 Magnum cartridges in mind. While you can use .38SPL loads, you must ensure they are 158GR with an overall length that closely mimics the .357 Magnum cartridge. Due to the shoulder location on the carrier, the gun will not feed: 110GR,125GR, 130GR, etc. .38 special loads reliably."

My Rossis can be a bit finicky with the types of ammo I use, but it's not necessarily a .357 vs. .38 Special thing. The Marlin is brand new so I haven't had a chance to take that to the range yet; I'm waiting for the weather to get a little warmer and dryer here in the northeast.


Frank
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Your comment on the use of lighter bullets in a Henry made me wonder. I’ve only ever tried it with 158 gr bullets and it was fine. So I dug out some I loaded with 125 gr Truncated Cone shaped bullets and they sort of worked. About 40% fed okay while about 60% would hang up a bit. If they would catch you could just relax your grip on the lever and then give them another little nudge and they would feed okay. I’ve only previously shot maybe 100 rounds of .38 before with 158 gr bullets just to do a little testing, otherwise I’ve only shot .357 with 158 and 180gr bullets.
 
Not just Marlins that may not like too long or too short

That is pretty much true of any tube magazine lever action. Hornady leverevolution 357 mag ammo use 357 magnum cases that are cut down due to the longer bullet length of a 357 bullet, leading to COAL that exceeds max spec length of the 357 magnum round.

So it's not just Marlins that can have this issue. Also applies to Henry.
 
In 1966 (before the Cowboy action interest in leverguns) I had a friend convert a 32-20 SRC into a .357/.38 carbine for me. I carried this gun on patrol as a Michigan Trooper at the Flint Post. The gun was perfect as a patrol rifle since we could use our .38 Special rounds if we had to as well as the .357 rounds.

In the mid 90’s after I retired, I got back into lever guns and discovered that the Cowboy action shooting sport was responsible for the creation of many fantastic lever guns and renewed interest in them.

Trooper Joe
 
There is something no one has yet brought to the discussion, and that is the common (and flawed) belief that every gun should run properly with every kind of ammo you put into it.

IF your gun doesn't feed short rounds or short light bullets, use what it does feed.

Can't put 8 people in the cab of your pickup?? Get a minivan.

Can't haul a cord of firewood in your minivan?? Get a pickup truck.

No one seems to think that an odd idea, why do they think all guns should run perfectly with all the different possible combinations of ammo??
 
44 AMP said:
There is something no one has yet brought to the discussion, and that is the common (and flawed) belief that every gun should run properly with every kind of ammo you put into it.

IF your gun doesn't feed short rounds or short light bullets, use what it does feed.

Can't put 8 people in the cab of your pickup?? Get a minivan.

Can't haul a cord of firewood in your minivan?? Get a pickup truck.

No one seems to think that an odd idea, why do they think all guns should run perfectly with all the different possible combinations of ammo??
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You're clouding the issue with logic.
 
I'm blessed that my Marlin 1894 will feed LSWC rounds like a fat kid eating M&Ms. The only issue I had was that my home cast (RCBS 150 SWC) was slightly long in magnum brass and wouldn't clear the mag tube without a nudge. I solved that by dressing the shell stop on the lifter back a little bit.
 
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44 AMP said:
There is something no one has yet brought to the discussion, and that is the common (and flawed) belief that every gun should run properly with every kind of ammo you put into it.

IF your gun doesn't feed short rounds or short light bullets, use what it does feed.

Can't put 8 people in the cab of your pickup?? Get a minivan.

Can't haul a cord of firewood in your minivan?? Get a pickup truck.

No one seems to think that an odd idea, why do they think all guns should run perfectly with all the different possible combinations of ammo??
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Which is why I only shoot.357 ammo in my .357’s and have separate.38’s for that ammo.
 
(I have pushed 125gr JHPs to 2200fps from a Marlin carbine and that is just too fast for that bullet.)

just a thought on that, the difference in distance that "generally" occurs between pistole and rifle shooting will degrade most of that extra velocity,

the lighter slugs, they do fall off pretty quickly.
 
Yes, the lighter slugs do loose speed faster and particularly at high velocities.

However, a .357 125gr slug doing 1500fps at the muzzle is still just about 1100fps at 100yds, and slugs fired appreciably faster than that will still be faster at range.

(I used 1500fps because that's as high as my table goes)
 
Just 2¢ worth from a guy that admittedly, doesn't shoot lever actions a lot and is not a lever action guru or expert. I've had a Marlin .44 for years, never shot anything but Magnum ammo in it, and it has always worked reliably. Fast forward about 25 years, and now I have a new Henry .357. It says .357 and .38 on the barrel. I've only used one type of .357, but several types of .38 Spcl., including a 158 grain SWC, all factory. The Henry feeds everything I've tried thus far. I didn't give much thought to shooting .38 Spcl. in the Henry, but nice to know it seems to work fine with .38s..
 
radom said:
I like .357 carbines but just one field lever gun why not get a .44?
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I certainly agree on that 100%; I have one 357Mag rifle (mostly for 38Spl capability), but have a rather embarrassing number of 44Mag rifles.

Nearly as inexpensive to reload, but more than double the power on the high end /if needed/ - in a pkg the same overall size as a 357Mag rifle.
 
I like .357 carbines but just one field lever gun why not get a .44?
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because, sometimes, a .44 is just too much. And not just its power. It can also be too much cost.

For example, if you already have a .357 pistol, and don't have a .44 and the rifle isn't going to be your primary deer gun anyway....

.44 is just more expensive. Brass and bullets mostly but also powder charges are bigger so fewer rounds per pound there as well.

Cost, and no real need are the main reasons I never bothered with 10mm rounds. Have .357, have .44s and .45s, 10mms don't do anything I don't already have covered either above or below, so the cost of a different caliber (dies, & components, along with the cost of the firearm) just wasn't worth it, for me.
 
44 AMP said:
because, sometimes, a .44 is just too much. And not just its power. It can also be too much cost.

For example, if you already have a .357 pistol, and don't have a .44 and the rifle isn't going to be your primary deer gun anyway....

.44 is just more expensive. Brass and bullets mostly but also powder charges are bigger so fewer rounds per pound there as well.

Cost, and no real need are the main reasons I never bothered with 10mm rounds. Have .357, have .44s and .45s, 10mms don't do anything I don't already have covered either above or below, so the cost of a different caliber (dies, & components, along with the cost of the firearm) just wasn't worth it, for me.
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Agreed, 100%

I own a dozen guns that shoot .357, and probably 10K+ rounds of ammo for them (between .357 and .38 Spec.). I absolutely don't need a .44, and am very hesitant getting into another caliber that I currently don't own. The ONLY reason I would consider getting a .44 is because it seems to be a pretty popular caliber these days, and I would imagine that it MIGHT be easier to sell down the road, if I ever wanted to. But that doesn't seem like a good enough reason to me to do so, especially since most of my .357s are range "toys" for me, and strictly for my own shooting enjoyment.


Frank
 
I have .357 and .44 pistols, have had the Marlin .357 and .44 Mag carbines.

If you're only going to have one, and you want a woods deer rifle, the .44 is superior but the .357 is not inadequate. The .44 I had, felt recoil very nearly the same as a .30-30. The .357 has very light feeling recoil, even with full house loads, and with .38s almost no recoil.

I find the .357 to be a better overall light utility rifle, I use other guns for deer hunting.
 
As 44 AMP said use is a big issue with lever guns in revolver calibers. I do prefer the 44 but have a ahh more than one .357 5 and six guns here and a .357 carbine would work fine too. I have killed elk with the .357 revolvers but brush hunt short range head shots so a carbine in the brush in .357 would work for me too.
 
Why not a .44 instead of a .357? OK, I admit it; Recoil. My .44 Marlin seems to kick a lot more than it did when I was younger, same with .44 revolvers. In my dotage, I no longer shoot .44 Magnum, or .454, in revolvers but do shoot .357 once in a while. The lever action .357s, even with Magnum ammo, are just a pleasure to shoot in comparison. It's a geriatric thing;)
 
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