What type of ammo for lever .38/.357 ?

W

Waspinator

New member
I'm thinking about buying my first rifle. I have a couple of revolvers and a shotgun, but no rifles. It's a tossup between a nice bolt action .22lr (think CZ or something similar), or, a lever action in .38/.357 (LGS has plenty of them). Those are what I'm considering , because those two (three) calibers are what I currently have in revolvers. I figured it would be nice to keep somewhere in the same caliber family that I already have stock of.

Anyway.... one thing I was thinking about.. My whole stock pile of .38/.357 (minus a box or two of defense rounds) consists of FMJ round nose. A coworker told me that type of round is not good in a lever action. He never got to explain, as the water-cooler session came to an abrupt end (boss walked in, lol).

What was he talking about?

I'm a rifle noob, so talk slowly, lol....

Thanks
 
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Everything usually works in a lever action sometimes you might have some trouble with fmj's feeding cause of some burrs in the chamber but after a couple hundred rounds and also don't baby the lever or if not the round might not want to chamber , but other then that you should be fine . When I had my lever it loved hornady 158 grain jhp 357 magnum.
 
I cannot even imagine any instance in which an FMJ bullet would not feed smoothly
into any lever action, be it a Marlin or a Winchester-design clone.

It's been posted before, but here's what my 92 Winchester clone (Chiappa) eats:

m8gwon.jpg
 
Your friend is wrong.

The semi-wads with abrupt shoulders can cause feeding problems in some individual guns, but everything else within OAL specs with a rounded bullet nose should function fine.
That includes HPs.
FMJs are obviously the least effective in terminal performance, if that makes any difference to you.
Denis
 
Anyway.... one thing I was thinking about.. My whole stock pile of .38/.357 (minus a box or two of defense rounds) consists of FMJ round nose. A coworker told me that type of round is not good in a lever action. He never got to explain, as the water-cooler session came to an abrupt end (boss walked in, lol).
Click to expand...

Since lever actions use a tubular magazine, the way the rounds are lined up the nose of the bullet contacts the back of the next cartridge. Certain bullet types are not recommended for use in lever actions because if the nose of that bullet contacts the primer of the next cartridge in line, and the nose of that bullet is pointy enough, recoil of the gun can set that round off. Most FMJ round nose ammo is fine, but I guess it's always good to do a bit of research if a certain bullet looks suspect. This is why the leverevolution rounds have a soft tip at the end of them.
 
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Dragline,

Now that you say that, I think that is what he meant. It wasn't like he was saying "it wont work good".. his tone and the way he said it was more like "it's not good to use them", in other words, when he said it, it sounded like something bad would happen if you use that type of round.

He didn't see what type of ammo I have, so I think he was talking in general about being careful of what ammo to use.

What is your guys opinion. Here is a pic (found on the web) of the exact ammo I have piles of. Think that could cause that problem of stacking the bullets against the primers??

 
You should have no problem running that through your lever action safely. Most lever actions I come across are in 30-30, .45 Colt, and .357/38, all of which are found most commonly in round nose, and people have been shooting round nose through them for decades.
 
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If you have doubts about those (I wouldn't worry), look at 'em yourself.

Take one bullet nose and lay it against the primer of another round.
Is the bullet sharp & narrow enough to indent a primer sufficiently to detonate?
Most are not.
Denis
 
FP bullets in a tube magazine are definitely important. My Rossi feeds all ammo whether it is .357 or .38 special as long as there is a light roll crimp. Just enough to turn the case wall in a little. Nothing to do with holding the thew bullet in place.

My Rossi 92 will feed semi wad cutters to FMJ rounds all day as long ad there is a little crimp on the round.
 
One thing I don't think people really think about when it comes to tubular magazines and round nose bullets for rimmed cartridges, is the rim. Which would cause the bullet nose to ride along the bottom of the magazine and make it even safer to use round nose.
MOST round nose .357/8 diamter bullets will be safe. I only say most because I've seen one that had a really sharp point and was solid copper. I've shot over 300 round nose bullets through my Rossi R92 in .357 and it's never had a problem. I prefer to reload with Lead flat nose/truncated cone because of the better hole it cuts in paper.
 
Are you seriously going to let some vague statement from someone with equally vague credentials on the subject sway you?
Next thing you know you'll be asking advice from complete strangers on some Internet forum.
 
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