Well I like them. Old styles and some of the modern ones too.
At one time I had a lot of lever actions but as my eyes have grown older I didn't have the heart to scope some of the old classic ones so I sold or gave them away to others with younger eyes.
I kept my BLR in 30-06 and gave it to my wife as her elk rifle. It shoots 220 grain bullets into about 1 MOA and it shoots 165 grain Partitions into about 1-1/4" MOA.
I also kept an old Marlin 336 rifle. It is the 24" barrel with a Lyman peep sight and I can shoot it well enough to make me very dangerous to any deer or antelope out to about 300 yards. Bad news for coyotes too.
I also have 2 M-95s One Browning 30-06 and one of the newer Winchesters in 270, both Japanese. The 30-06 I have had since Browning brought the 95 back. I don't remember the year, but when the jobbers got the first of them into the country I had an order pending with one of them. So mine is the very first Browning M95 I ever set eyes on and I am not at all disappointed. I have used it in 6 different states to hunt a lot of game and I love the rifle. It is 100% as it came from the box except for the fact I did a trigger job on it within the first 2 days I had it, and also the modification of my adding a set of sling swivels. I am unsure of the number of deer I have killed with it but the count is pretty high. It's also been used on a few elk and antelope as well as one bear.
I liked my 95 Browning so much that I traded for a Winchester 95 in 270. I zeroed it with 150 grain bullets at 250 yards. I have not killed near as many animals with it as I have my 06, but I also don't use it as much anymore because of my eyes being 60 years old now. But I do have to say that this rifle has caused me to re-think my idea of what an iron sighted lever action is and can be.
I have owned a 357, a 44, five 30-30s, a 35 Remington, a 348, three 45-70s, a 32-20, two 22 long rifles, and a 300 savage, all in lever action. The 270 is the one that made be understand what I "knew" already, but had not taken into account.
You see, with most of my other lever guns I would zero at 100 yards and hunt in ways that put me close to my game. If I saw an animal at 500 or 400, I got closer, and many times I was able to do it, but at times I blew the stalk or was just unlucky and the game would have moved off when I got to where I thought I needed to get for a shot.
With the M95 in 270 I can hold dead on to any deer or antelope out to 300 and by moving the sight up one notch I can shoot to 400 with no hold ups a t all. To be honest, I have yet to make a long kill with that rifle. I still hunt with every rifle as if I were hunting with a bow or my flintlock, if at all possible. But shooting on my range here at home I have been able to hit milk jugs from prone and from sitting with my 270 M95 at the 400 yard line with very close to 100% of my shots. So I have a love affair wit the 270 lever gun even thought I have not used it as much as my other rifles.
I wish I could be young again and have another 50 years (or more) of young eyes but I expect all old men think that.
If I could have had the 270 lever action when I was a kid I bet it would have a lot of kills now to it's credit.
Browning made the BLR many years ago and I never really looked at one seriously. I have been doing gunsmithing since 1968, and I have to admit I should have looked at the BLRs a bit closer. Now looking back in time I realize that in all those years I have never had to do a major repair on a BLR. As a gunsmith I can tell everyone all about the pitfalls of various rifles, but the ones that have my attention the most are the ones I never have to fix. I ended up with an iron sighted 270 Winchester -M95, but I have a high respect for my (my wife's) BLR and I find myself recommending them to others these days. Left handed shooters will love Browning. They make almost everything in their line in left hand.
Anyway.....my rant is nearly over for now.
But be assured, Lever actions are not as popular as they once were, but they are not going away any time soon.
I have often thought that if Taurus wanted to make a real difference in the market they should stop trying to come up with new guns and just make some of the old American guns and MAKE THEM AT THE LEVEL OF QUALITY THEY WERE MADE TO IN THE 1940S!
If they would bring back the golden age of lever guns and pump guns to the US market they would not be able to make them in large enough numbers or make them fast enough.
Sure they would be a bit costly at a high level of quality. But the market has proven that hunters will pay for the Browning M71, the Browning M95s the 1873, the 1892s the 1886s and so on. I am 100% sure they would pay for exact copies (again I stress they must be of the same or better quality as the American guns of the 1930-1940s) of Winchester and Remington pump 22s The Marlin, Savage and Winchester lever actions and even the Sporting versions of the 98 Mauser that was imported to the USA before WW2.
There is no doubt what would sell. If they would just make them.
American will buy quality. Heck, if Taurus would make an exact copy of the old 1940s S&W revolvers at that level of quality I would take the Taurus guns over the new S&Ws made here any day.
