So at risk of sounding like a heathen… A random thought. I’ve shot Rossi, Henry, Chiapa (I am not going to bother with that) and Marlin in pistol calibre lever action.
Marlin (side eject) is chunky, built like a tank and needs a new lifter out of the gate, but beyond that, it’s probably one of my favourite lever actions.
Henry (side eject) - similar in the chunky tank department. Smooth as silk. Has it’s own little nuances, but also my favourite lever action.
Now we move to Rossi (Winchester clone) and Winchester it self (all top eject). I am not impressed with the action. Am I the only one who likes the idea of owning a lever action Winchester rifle, but when it comes to actually shooting it, it sits at the bottom of the preference ladder?
Ive had 73s, 92s and 94’s in pistol chamberings and pre remington 1895 in 45-70 and even in a bigass rifle chambering it felt better than the 92 and 94.
The 73 however is a standalone for slick operation. Skinny as a strippers pole you can quickly imagine its advantage on horseback over a bulkier offering. Likewise that fat arse fore end on the marlin and heavy timber stock and big steel action well heck, a man could beat a grizzly bear to death with it if he had to. A winchester would snap in half.
I have a 92 clone in 357, havent shot it in years.
The only two levers I’m really interested it for the future are the 1887 shotgun and the 1895, both are out dated (obviously) and shit, but cool from a historic perspective. The 1885, in Russian boolits would be the cooler of the two, I shot @danmacs one in 30-06 a couple of years ago and it was cool.
Actually @bentaz, mine is in .35 Winchester, the case they later necked up to make the .405 Winchester.
Great rifle ( 1904 vintage ), great calibre, whops the shit out of pigs, goats and the mongrel mickey bulls my former neighbour had that ran wild.
I have a rossi 92 in 357, a win 94 in 30/30 and a Browning BLR 81 in 308.Of all of them the rossi gets used the most followed by the Browning. I use cast boolits most times and the Rossi now has a Marbles bullseye rear sight and a truglo front sight and, of course, makes 35 caliber holes in targets it hits.
The BLR is for driven pigs and the 94 win for most everything else.
Out to 100 yards or so there’s not a lot between the 308 and 30/30 with cast boolits but with factory ammo or full power jacketed reloads the 308 is just the job for big boars.
I also have a Ruger #3 in 223 single shot and it’s ideal for the wee muntjac we get over here in the UK, maybe even OTT.
I shot quite a few marlins back in the 60s but TBH they don’t have the same attraction for me as the winchester and henry has a poor reliability reputation from what I’ve heard which isn’t to say it is true.
I’ve only seen about 3 or maye 4 Marlins and one henry in the 3 clubs I belong to whereas they are awash with winchesters and rossi
Thanks for the welcome, muntjac is an alien tothe UK on open season, there’s a link here that can explain it better than I can. What it doesn’t say is it’s probably the tastiest venison of all. May be my fingers but I find them buggers to skin.
I forgot to mention, UK Police and the various hunting societies have decreed a certain level and calibers for harvesting deer.
There are 6 species of UK deer in the wild and in England and Wales the two smallest, Muntjac and Chinese water deer may be harvested with 22 caliber rifles that have a minimum expanding bullet weight of 50 grains and a minimum muzzle energy of 1000 ft.lbs.
The other 4 deer the rifle must be 0.240" minimum caliber, 100 grain weight of expanding bullet and 1700 ft.lbs of muzzle energy. eg 243 win.
Scotland differs in that it introduces a minimum muzzle velocity of 2450 fps which effectively outlaws 600 nitro express doubles from taking deer. They also allow Scottish roe deer to be taken with the 22 cal mentioned above.
I’m not sure what the most popular cartridges are for deer stalking, I’ve heard 243 win, 6.5 swede, 270 win,308 win, are probably the most obtainable cartridges available and this has to be a pointer in the popularity stakes. I’ve also heard that 6.5 creedmore, 7mm remmag, 7 x57,30/06 and 300wm are also used but I’ve never seen one though my mate uses the 300wm on open country stalking but I’ve never seen him use it.
Of the 22 cal stalking guns, 223 rem,22/250, 222rem and rem mag are probably amongst the most common. I have heard the smaller capacity 22 centre fires being used but they must be struggling to reach the minimum ME.
Continental tourists tend to bring a whole host of metric calibers and use them successfully.
Like all things it boils down to not what you shoot but where you shoot it.
As this is a lever gun thread, it’s worth noting the 30/30 gets an honorable mention as do some of the bigger bore lever guns 38/55, 444 and 450 marlin and I know at least one fella who uses a 32 win special.
Finally I have heard anecdotal evidence that suggests some have persuaded their licencing officials to allow the use of 357, 44 mag and 45LC to harvest the smallest species but it’s a bit like an internet story, once I’ve seen one I’ll ask my fire arms officer to allow me to use my 357 but I won’t hold my breath.
They seem fairly close to the Hog deer we have in Victoria, although they are more protected with there being a ballot system to hunt them.
We have similar calibre restrictions for deer here, i think the vary across the country, but .243 for smaller deer like fallow and then .308, .30-06 being pretty common for the larger species. I have heard all the arguments for every other chambering too, i think we have much better access to the variety of available calibres than you guys.
Im pretty aure you can shoot pigs with whatever takes your fancy here.
Being such a big country we have a plethora of ferals to shoot at from sparrows, rabbits, hares and foxes to half a dozen types of deer, to goats, pigs, donkeys, camels and buffalo.
bentaz, about 1/2 the size of your hog deer. Reason I like them is it’s so easy to drag them out for an old fart like me.
I think it’s true to say that getting different calibers is not difficult in the UK, it’s just so slow.
I keep meaning to come back to Oz, I was there for a time in the 1960s and my younger sister is a quack in Victoria with an open invitation but I’ve a morbid fear of flying long distances that I used to overcome with gin but I’ve been on the wagon for the past 10 years or more so that option is out the window.
Have 3, but I feel like I’d like at least 2 more, maybe 3 
that’s off top of my head right now lol.