Levergun/Ammo questions

stevomiller said:
I say go with the Marlin. The Winchester 94 in the pistol calibers sometimes can be short-stroked (it was made for a cartridge half again longer than the .44). That is, unless, you get a Browning (Winchester) 92. Now that is the cat's pajamas! Strongest of the bunch, for sure.

I think you are concusing the .45 ACP, launched out of the 1911 Colt, with the .45 Colt (sometimes erroneously called the .45 Long Colt).

Have fun, be safe, buy one of everything :D
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I used that name to better differentiate the two .45 types.
;)

DaddyDett
 
Lever-rifles are great . I own a marlin 30-30 and then as now was bought as a matter of economics and as well a love for things past . If I had more money and told I could buy one rifle to last me the rest of my life it would not be a lever nor would it be a 30-30 cartridge .
You say part of the reason you want it is for home defense . I doubt if you would get into a fight that would be so hot and heavy as to cause you to not cycle the rifle properly(short stroke) but it could happen .
In the case of a fight where you would need quick access to ammo with no fumbling over if its the right cartridge or not ? Having your handgun the same caliber makes sense as well . It is for you to decide whether or not you will be involved in such drawn out altercations .
The most fight I hope to get into or at least envision is a shot or two to stand off or defend myself against a lone intruder or at worse a couple of assailants .
I will leave it to our firearm experts your choice in calibers and rifle/handgun combination . In truth I have a Dan Wesson 44 mag and would like a rifle in the same caliber . That is what I would like and perhaps not what you need .
 
How much land do you have, Bamboo? Also, how anticipated is home defense? I wouldn't think of a rifle as an "indoor toy" for home invasion. Granted, I have no room to talk. I'm not a gun guy. I like them, I would like to have a few more, but my wife would rather I beat an intruder to death with my club or hack him to pieces with a khuk before I punch a few holes in him from a safer distance:rolleyes: I'm working on her, though.
Actually, the club and a khuk make me feel safer than my firearms at hand. I have an old singleshot 12ga that scatters like crazy and a junky little saturday night special .25 pocket semi that my grandparents gave me for "home protection":rolleyes: . I also have an old 12ga pump in a billion pieces that my grandfather was going to help me put back together before his health got bad. Any last minute birthday ideas for you guys would be a new shotgun or at least a .25 that doesn't jam every other shot. I want to get another one because it's a fun little thing to shoot up close at the range and I have 5 boxes of ammo for the sucker (my grandmother was scared to death of Y2K and looting). My grandmother is a bit crazy these days. That's why they took the gun away from her and gave it to me:rolleyes:
Anyway, for indoor protection I would rather have a shotgun as my neighborhood is a bunch of tightly packed, thin shelled houses, but if i had land where dogs or rabid animals or cyotes would be more of a threat, then I would want something in a .45 LC. I've shot a pistol in .45LC and it felt like it was too much for me even in a very heavy revolver. I'd like a .357 or .38 special for a handgun, but a solid levergun in .45 LC might feel just about right to me. I've always had a soft spot for rifles. I need to get a few more of them.
Be sure to let us know what you get:)

Jake
 
"I'm still flogging the Glock G20 as the Outdoorsman's Pal"
Right with you dave

The best Handgun Rifle combo using the same ammo would be the Rossi .454 Casull lever action with any 45 colt wheel gun. The 454 gives the 45/70 a run for its money in the lighter loadings, and the gun can cycle and fire .45 colt rounds. that gives you two levels of power for the long gun and ammo interchangability. I would avoid .454 handguns though, i'm not a fan of recoil, and the .45 colt can do anything you need a handgun to do.

That said, get a G20 in 10mm (135 gr @ 1600 fps - doubletap ammo) and and AKM in 7.62x39 (150 gr 2200 - wolf soft point), sure you lose interchangability, but you can't go wrong with that combo.

kuraa pokha, manmaa naraakha
Jeremiah
 
Dave Rishar said:
Never let common sense get in the way of a good time.

Locally, the manuals state (IIRC) that while hunting with a 1911 is technically legal, it's a pretty bad idea. They say why. I'm sure some folks try it anyway.

I'm still flogging the Glock G20 as the Outdoorsman's Pal, but not many listen to me. (Including me, and my excuses are probably worse than yours.) If a magazine of 10mm won't get 'er done, you probably need a long gun by my reasoning. Now, if we can get 10mm softpoints at a reasonable price...

QUOTE]


Up here I've known a quite a few bow hunters that carry a Glock 20. Not just dudes that wander out every now and then, but the hardcore guys who kill stuff every time they step out the backdoor and seem to have an unlimited amount of leavetime at work to wander off to Russia, Africa and such. They've never had a problem dispatching bear with 'em. I think yer right on the money with that choice.

Returning to topic....the choice I'd favor is the .357, unless you happen to live in real serious bear country. It's by far the most versatile power level. You can shoot everything from 200 grain cast +p loads to light loaded .38 wadcutters that aren't much more powerful than a wrist rocket. Ammo is VERY commonly available and cheap, and your handgun platform would have just as many options. You could get a little five shot J-frame smith revolver, a decent L-frame or N-frame revolver, in that rifle and have a gun for all ocassions built on the same caliber. J-frame for concealed carry, and the rifle/full size pistol combo for home defense and woods wandering.
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Ad Astra said:
I've got one. :thumbup: It's a prize. Norm does too (maybe his is 9mm). :confused:

Ad Astra
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Mine's a .45 and is a great little rifle. The factory trigger pull is a bit heavy but it's not too bad. I've had a couple of scopes on it, but want to get something smaller than a Leupold compact. I was thinking about getting one of those small reflex or other red-dot sights. Nice and light and fast acquisition. Fact is I actually like iron sights, and this is not a long range rifle anyway of course. I have McCormick 10 round mags in it now. I put a Brownells quick-adjust latigo sling on it to dress it up a bit, and got rid of the Marlin carry-strap it came with.

I loaded up some .45 loads using slower burning Blu-dot instead of the Unique that I use in the 1911, and it seems to work pretty well. I was trying to get some better ballistics with the longer 16" barrel. I don't shoot enough to justify a chrono, but that would have given me a better idea if my logic worked.

Norm
 
Hmmmm.....dang....now that I think about it, I want one. I'm selling off a bunch my levers and a few pistols anyways....it wouldn't hurt to replace 'em with just one lil' ole Marlin..

Actually, I'm thinking of it as a gun for the wife. It would complement her 1911 real well, and be forgiving to her. She's got Bursitis in her shoulder, and carpal tunnel in her wrists, and also doesn't get out shooting 500 rounds a month anymore, so recoil is definitely an issue.

I'm trying to steer away from custom gun work anymore, but man that would be cool with a ghost ring sight and a scout scope set up...

heh....figures...I click into this thread to help someone else spend THIER money, and then wind up wanting to spend my own...:rolleyes:
 
Thanks again for all the input.

Once again, the main reason to get it is for target shooting and fun. I don't expect to get into many self defense situations in general (but plan for them nonetheless), and certainly wouldn't look to the rifle once someone had breached the house. That is a time for pistols, knives, and trickery... A nice pump .12 gauge would be alright too, especially for the sound effect, but I'll probably hold out for the coach gun in that department.

I like what you've all said about the .357. I'm going to look into that much more seriously.

Can you cycle .38 through a rifle chambered in .357 the same way you can through a revolver?

It's nice to know you can unload the Marlins straight through the loading gate. That is a nice feature, and safer than the other way around.

This thread has definitely favored Marlin's, so I'm taking that to heart. Now just need to wait for the tax return .... :D


~ Bamboo ~
 
Ah yup.....38s cycle just fine through a decent lever gun.

I'd love to get all nostalgic and stuff about the Winchesters, but as far as I'm concerned the company has been dead for the last few years anyways. No comparison between them and the Marlins. Matter of fact the Winchesters crude in comparison to my Rossi lever actions!:eek:

My older Winchesters are a different story though...

I think you'll be well served with a Marlin 1894. I sure do miss mine.
 
Bamboo said:
I like what you've all said about the .357. I'm going to look into that much more seriously.

Can you cycle .38 through a rifle chambered in .357 the same way you can through a revolver?

~ Bamboo ~
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Bamboo I think you'll be well satisfied with the .357 and especially if you do your own reloading.
A friend of mine in SoCal had a .357 and loaded his own ammo. You can load it pretty damned hot, or at least he did, don't know how good it is for the gun though.
But from what I understand the Marlin and Ruger will take some fantastic loads with no damage.
I've shot quite a bit of .38 through my Marlin Carbine and other than it not having the range the .357 does it shoots just fine.
I don't know but I would think you might get a few more feet per second out of the longer barrel the carbine has over a pistol.
 
Jake?

Look into the pocket Barettas if you must have a .25. Lovely workmanship. But I'd just ignore the five boxes of .25, and get a .22 pocket gun if you think you want something that small. Spectre just had some very nice things to say about Kel Tec, and their newer model...?9mm.

Trapper guns around here were Jennings .22s. Easy to take magazine out when travelling to be legal, easy to dispatch trapped critters. No loss if lost. Like munk says, the jennings were mostly junk, but cheap and handy if you were trying to make money trapping muskrats.

And for the young, a compromise between handgun and levergun, which worked well only on TV. Believe the character was "Josh Randall," in Wanted Dead or Alive, an early '60's TV show.
 
I sold a lot of little Beretas when I managed the gun store. Those small Walther's are neat too.

Rusty was going to small calibres in his later years. HE liked them.

I would not buy a Jennings, but if you do, do a little research and find the one that works. Several of them were downright dangerous in the past.


munk
 
Heh, Jennings. My first ballistic disassembly happened with a Jennings. Neither the shooter nor the pistol were harmed by the experience but I got rid of it right quick after that. :)
 
Maybe a more reliable budget brand like Kel-Tec, Bersa, or FEG.

Jennings or Davis are just mis-spellings of Emergency Room.

DaddyDett
 
For an inexpensive and reliable sidearm, you can't go wrong with a Makarov 9x18mm. A wee bit less powerful than 9x19/9mm Luger, but the ammo is dirt cheap, usually less than $.10/round delivered.

It may not be common opinion, but I prefer a carbine to all other weapons for home defense. A stock greatly speeds target aquisition, even if you don't bring the weapon to eye level. You can also use that stock as an expedient defensive tool. Another thing to consider, is that high-speed, relatively fragile bullets penetrate *less*, not more. A .223 in an attacker at close range is less likely to overpenetrate than any duty (.38 Special through 10mm/.357 power levels) handgun at those ranges...not that I think overpenetration's a major concern, anyway...

John
 
I love them little Makarovs. Reliable as hell, and it sits high enough to not bite my meathooks. The one I had was East German. It had fit and finish worth five times what I'd paid for the thing.

Used to have a little Beretta model 21 in .22 LR. It was a sweet little gun. Definitely bulkier, and less powerful than alot of the current pocket guns, but it was very shootable and reliable. And best of all, it was small and cute enough that my wife actually carried it. (As opposed to her tricked out 1911 that's sitting on her side of the bed with two inches of dust and cobwebs covering it):rolleyes:
 
It occurs to me that the while the original argument for having a revolver and a rifle or carbine in the same caliber was that you only needed to buy one box of ammo (or that only one load in that caliber was available) made sense in the 1800's, ..... today we have so many different loads available (and many available for rifle that you shouldn't put in your revolver) the entire premise no longer holds water. Most of us have figured out by this time, that each firearm has a clear preference for loads that shoot well, and we are going to have several kinds of ammo around; so bag that idea that you need matching calibers in rifle and handgun, and get what works best for the particular need that you have.
 
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