Lever Actions - HELP!!!

Why lug around a rifle to shoot a pistol round? Go with at least a 30-30. Don't get the Marlin in .35 Remington; it's a great cartridge, but headspace is tricky and there are too many misfires. Otherwise, the Marlin is OK.

Jim
 
I have a Marlin in .35 Rem. Had it for over 20 years, and it has never misfired. One more thing, it will flat knock a deer on its you know what.
 
I'd rather have the model 94 in .45-70, but I wonder if there are mechanical limits to the model 94 action. the .45-70 sure has more bullets available for handloading, though the .444 has got to be coming along.

I personally have no problem with modern materials, but some folks get upset at things other than blued steel and walnut. my attitude is that there are shooters and lookers. for lookers I like O/U scatterguns more than most rifles anyway (excepting some single shots and flinters).
 
I'd look for a used 307 or 356 depending on whether it is for deer only or elk, etc.. These cases are rimmed versions of the 308 and 358's. Except for the rainbow trajectory the 45/70 offers the most power in the traditonal 1894 carbines. The 7-30 Waters is a winner for a good woods deer gun also. The Savage is available in 243,300 and 250-3000 Savage,303,308,358,284,etc on the used market, but is longer and heavier but with the advantage of the rotary (in the older ones) or box magazines and use spire point bullets to better utilize the high intensity cartridges and improve the down range performance. The 45/70 is a real boomer in the Marlin 1895SS and new reproduction Winchester 1886s approaching older African class 40-45 caliber balistics (Marlins in the new Hodgdon manual 300gr at 2400fps, 350g at 2175fps, 400gr at 2000fps). Looking for a big bad ursa horriblis (somebody will probably correct me on that, a grizzly)? You can do the job with this. Good luck with whatever you pick, but I really recommend the 7-30 Waters or 307 as a good all around woods gun for deer and black bear. The 307-308 and the 356-358 cases are the same size , but the rimmed cases are limited to lower pressures and resulting lower velocites, but still much better than the 30-30, 32Special, 35Rem class of the 1890s. Jim
PS: I prefer the Marlins over the Winchesters, but that is purely a personal
bias.
 
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