Greetings:

A few years back I had a Winchester 94 Trapper .44 mag that my mom sold on me when I went to college (doh!). I've been missing that gun a lot lately and am interested in picking up another lever action rifle...

...I was wondering if anyone could recommend a good lever action rifle chamber for a smaller centerfire handgun round. I'm specifically interested in 9mm or .380. *Any such animal still in production? I loved the .44 but it was not cheap to shoot. The range I shoot at only allows rifles chambered for handgun rounds.

Thanks for any wisdom on this.

Take care,

--Riscchip

Marlin,Winchester and Rossi make lever guns in 357 mag which would be your best bet I think.  As too which ones will feed well with 38 special ammo,I will leave that up to someone who owns one.   KevinNY

Are they still making the Timber Wolf pump carbine? That was a nice little gun. I think it was chambered in 357 and 44 Mag. A nice 32 Mag levergun would also be neat.





:cool:

I too will second the motion for a .357 Levergun!   I don't know of anything in a lever action in 9mm or .380.

In both the Marlin and Rossi built (also Navy Arms) lever guns for .357 magnum, most all .38 special loads work slick as butter.   Our family owns multiple Rossi .357's and they are absolutely outstanding guns for the money!  They shoot like no tomorrow, and feed slick as can be right out of the box.   Most places they are considerably cheaper than the Marlin. (But oh, my, those Marlins are sweet little guns!)

The nice thing about one of the .357 carbines is that while you can shoot volumes of cheap, fun .38's through them, you can step out into the game fields with some good solid .357 magnum loads and use the gun for serious hunting applications too.  Its not just a "fun gun", it gets right with the program of harvesting game when the right diet is fed into it!

Here again, just my very biased opinion FWIW!

God Bless,

Marshall

I just wanted to thank all of you for your feedback on this one. I guess I'll look into a .357 mag rifle. I've poked around the websites for some of the companies you mentioned and found some good prospects.

Thanks again!

--Risc

Risschip,

The somewhat unique Timberwolf is no longer manufactured. There are no lever actions made in either 9mm Para or .380 ACP. The .357 Magnum is your best alternative. My own Marlin 1894 would feed any ammo, .357 or .38 Special, as long as it wasn't aluminum cased Blazer. That stuff would hang up almost every shot. If you go with a .44 Magnum carbine, remember you can always handload to .44 Special performance levels for cheaper practice.

I know that you can purchase a kit for the Timber Wolf .357 Mag rifle. I think the kit has all of the major parts but it may be missing the springs and such.

There are several 357 Rossi's on Auction Arms really cheap right  now!!!
Type"1892" in the search box on the main page it will bring them up.
http://auctionarms.com/

 

I am new to this, so I really don't know what to say when people say Marlin is better than Winchester, but I just got a new Winchester Trail's End today in .44 Mag (my first lever gun) and it seems way-nice. Made in the USA, and has nice wood and finish. It is a 20" barrel, which looks just right to me. They make it in .357 Mag/.38 Special. List is &#36453 but I paid &#36370. The Trapper is also available in .357/.38 if you prefer a 16" barrel.

RSILVERS, Sounds like you have a nice gun. You will not get flamed on this forum for what you have. You will not get flamed for the politics of gun manufacturing or anything else. You will get opinion and facts to help base decisions on things and people will help in anyway they can. Not to sound too mushy but the folks on this forum actually care about each other. Mean spirited threads happen but someone always brings us back in a caring way to the help and nformation side of discussion that this forum is known for. I love these guys and I don't even know them. Enjoy your lever gun.

Well, I had a Marlin 94 in 357 some time back.  It was great.  My wife stole it from me.  Anyway, it worked great with everything we stuck in it, except certain 38 special loads with cast semiwad cutters.  I don't remember the mold though.  Otherwise it was great fun and cheap to shoot.
Our most fun thing to do with it was shoot hot loaded 125 gr JHP's into a coke can filled with water.  Under the coke can would be a silver dollar.  After picking up the bottom of the can the dollars imprint would be visible.
Go with the .357, lots of fun and versatility.
I have no experiance with the Win 94's or any of the 92 variants.  But my experiance with the Marlin was great.