There are few firearms that just give me such gratification as a lever action rifle. The elegant lines that fuse form and function with a mechanical simplicity that makes the Lever Action one of the most beautiful of all firearms. Doesn’t matter which lever you have… they are truly lovely. I find myself simply taking out my Rossi made Winchester 92 clone, just to look at it, just to feel it, just to hold it in my hands. I’ve got a lot of other guns that I like… but they don’t stick in my mind like that little 92. I’ve got my guns I use for certain purposes… and to be honest, this 92 doesn’t fall in to any of those purposes. But that’s all besides the point. I could probably very easily adopt the 92 for more serious purposes. Maybe I will. But I do prefer the right tool for the right job, shotguns, magazine fed semi-auto rifles, long range precision bolt actions. And they are all fine and good within their spheres. But if I had to have just one gun… well… that would still be an 870, but the 92 is encroaching on that in a big way.
Tag Archives: Lever Action
Marlington
I think Marlin, and by that I mean Remington, needs to stop making the X7 centerfire bolt action rifles. Marlin is a Lever Action Company… they need to stick to that. They do fine Rimfires… which is fine. Remington has nothing in that market. But Remington making a Marlin branded Savage Knockoff? Feh… Why? To get that 300 dollar rifle Market? I thought they already had that with their 770. Which is total crap, but hey. It’s at least a Remington.
Now, there is really nothing wrong with the X7 rifles. It is quite good for a cheap knock-around gun for those that have a hate for Savage and refuse to buy one… so now they can buy the Marlin option, which is a Savage knockoff crossed with a Vanguard if it got drunk with ambition and delusions. Reportedly the X7’s shoot pretty good. Especially their heavy barreled .308. But why would Remington want make that, when they would rather be selling their own 700 SPS Tactical? I don’t get why they feel the need to make a product that competes with their own product. Remington needs to squelch that.
I still assert that Mossberg needs to GTFO of the Lever Action market too.
Winchester 94-22M Temptation
We have a Winchester 94-22m .22 Magnum that came in on trade. It’s sporting a nice peep sight set up, nice checkered wood stocks… really nice looking. From a distance. Up close the gun is ugly. Pitting everywhere and the wood has more dings than I’ve ever seen. Some are unfortunately too deep to fix, and wood was amazing. New, this rifle would have been stunning.
The temptation is to restore it. No collector value, that’s just gone. This would be a rescue.
More thoughts on the Tactical Lever Action
I’ve had many questions about why I picked the Rossi M92 over other rifles such as the Legacy Puma, the Marlin options, or Henry, or Uberti… etc. My selection of the Rossi example is by no means disparaging the others. They are all quite good Arms and if you have one, then it’s going to serve you well. Before I made my choice, I studied the Level Action platform very carefully, to include going through history books and talking to old cowboys (we still actually have those around here) and talking to new cowboys – The Cowboy Action Shooters. (We have a lot more of those around here) What I didn’t do was search internet gun forums past 3 minutes… because most of those were “Well, I use this so this is the best… no, I’ve not even seen any others, but this is the best because I have it.”
I selected the 92 design because of two things.
Rossi M92
Let me tell you, guys. I had a day from hell. Today just flat out sucked every which way… So I had to change the karma. Nothing works better than doing the New Gun Thing. .44 Mag is more money than .357 Mag, but I can reload pretty affordably. I like this gun. I’m happy with it. Hmm… the rest of the day sucked too… but every time some bullshit happened, I just thought, “I have a .44 Mag 92”, and that made me feel much better.
The next Tactical Lever Action Rifle
I am dead set on making another tactical lever action rifle. I think I’ve mentioned before that I am going to use a Winchester 92 type platform and I’ve settled on the Rossi example of the breed. I’m thinking 16 inches on the barrel and a scout mount for a low set red dot.
This Caliber Conundrum has me flummoxed. .44 Mag or .357 Mag. I’ve been leaning to the .357 Magnum… However as of late, I am now leaning to the .44 Magnum. Ammunition for the .44 is more expensive, but handloading for it is easy enough. I think I’m going to do a .44 mag. Out of a 16″ barrel .44 tends to gain all it’s going to get and past that it seems to go down hill.
Gun Wants
Recent message asked what guns I was thinking about getting in the future.
That’s a good question. Because there are so many awesome guns out there, and new ones coming down the pipe.