Lever action

levers

Gearhound, that is a very nice looking .44, you did a good job of salvaging a mess some gun butcher created.

Deerhunt, from your OP, you mention using your anticipated lever rifle as a GP sort of tool, for in the truck/tractor and around the farm. For that sort of thing,and from the calibers you list, I would choose the .357 without hesitation. The other calibers are somewhat less common and certainly more expensive.

The .357 is not a powerhouse compared to real deer cartridges, or even its stablemate, the .44 mag, but the .357 will surely suffice at 50 yds +/- as you describe. There is the added benefit of shooting .38's in it as well, and a carbine so loaded is a hoot and very modest too shoot.

There is a lot of utility in a .357 carbine.
 
Anybody know what calibers you can rechamber a 32 special for?
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Nothing to RECHAMBER for. You could rebore to .38-55 or if a recent gun, .375 Win. You could rebarrel to .30-30.
As said, it would run the total cost up way beyond what you pay for a gun in a caliber you liked.

I could keep it in 32 but I couldn't use it for deer
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Why not? It is just as good as a .30-30, and one of the long time standard "deer and black bear" rifles. Does your area have some sort of weird restriction on hunting guns?
 
I have one of the older Interarms Rossi 357's and it always beings a smile to my face when we shoot 38spl out of it.
 
Jim,
Why not? It is just as good as a .30-30, and one of the long time standard "deer and black bear" rifles. Does your area have some sort of weird restriction on hunting guns?
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He's in a restricted zone. It has been a shotgun zone for years but now they extended some parts to pistol caliber. If he were to travel 100 miles north he could use whatever he wanted.

Most of my friends in his area deer hunt with a muzzleloader so they don't have to change guns from the firearm season into the 10 day muzzleloader season.
 
I almost got the Henry .357, but wounded up getting the .44 instead. The carbine version actually.

Henrysling.jpg
 
I've got the whole set. .357, .44Mag, .45Colt, and the big Thumper .45-70. All Marlins. My idea for the first three was having matching revolvers for all of them. Trouble is other than a T/C Contender in .44Mag, I never bothered with a handgun in that caliber.

I like the handgun calibers in Lever Actions. The most versatile IMO is the .357Mag. The .44Mag gets your attention and if I were to use it for hunting, I'd probably use it the most. Since I reload though all are easily adaptable from plinking to hunting uses.

I always wanted a BLR back in the day, but now they've got a little too expensive and they are in rifle calibers.
 
I might get blasted for what I am about to say, as I can see there are several fans of the Rossi on here, but be careful of the older Rossi's and maybe it has something to do with different runs or years of production, etc.
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While I'm obviously a fan of the Rossis as I have two 357mags and love them, what Blue Duck said here has some merit. According to Steve Young of Steve's Guns (Rossi Specialist), Rossi acquired brand new CNC machines in early 2000 and that addressed some issues with the older Rossis made on the old, worn out CNC machines. Seems that the Rossis with the very dark, almost black, stocks had some pretty sloppy machining and were much more likely to have issues.

As far as feeding issues, a levergun by it's design is cartridge OAL sensitive. While my Rossis both fed 38spl and 357mag right out of the box, that's not always the case. A way to ensure reliable feeding of both 38spl and 357mag is to ensure you load your 38spl 'long'. The spec for the 357mag is 1.580" OAL. While the spec for the 38spl is 1.460" OAL, you'll ensure reliable feeding of your 38spl and 357mag interchangeably if your 38spl are loaded at 1.500" OAL.
 
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