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Practically Shooting

Hi All,


LeverAction

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Hi, LeverAction here (AKA Mola from BITOG) and glad to meet you all.

As the name implies, I like Lever Action rifles and Cowboy Shooting arms.

I have been interested in ballistics, mostly internal ballistics, since my college days, and even wrote some programs on the earliest personal computer, the ZX-81.

So thanks to Wayne for reminding me of this site.

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hahahahaha I'm a different Pablo t-upgrin

Lever action popularity comes in waves I think. Especially the pistol calibers. 38/357Mag - seem down right scarce at times. 44Mags are easier to find. I have an ancient Win 1892 357 and a Browning M92 in 44Mag. Both are great, the Win is much smoother.

22's are always in demand. I have a Win .22XTR Classic. WOW what a smooth nice gun.

The venerable .30-30 can be found readily.

I want to find one of the big Alaskan calibers. Big shoulder bruiser. Not sure exactly what I want - 444 Marlin perhaps.

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Usually I'm in the minority about this, but I don't see much point to the .444 Marlin. If wanting a big bore, why not the 45-70?

I've heard some say the .444 recoils less than the 45-70 but I think that is a little foggy. For one, 45-70 loads run across a wide range; second, if comparing similar loads, the difference seems pretty insignificant to me.

The .444 apparently shines at one thing, though. It's a pretty accurate cartridge, at least to 100 yards or so. The short bullets won't let it do 45-70 BPCR type work, but it can make dandy 100 yard groups.

A guy used to run an annual levergun postal match on a few forums, based on group size. The .444s were always at the top. Some of the groups were phenomenal.

The two .45-70 Marlins I've had were no slugs. My current one can make one-hole groups at 50 yards (about my limit with iron sights and being fair to the rifle). I get the best groups with Hornady 300 JHPs at around 1800 fps, but the cheaper Rem 300s are close, and 400/405 grain soft points aren't bad at all. It likes 425 grain cast bullets too.

For the 45-70, there are plenty of bullet choices out there, from premium bullets like Partitions and Ballistic Silvertips to bulk plinkers.

I've loaded round ball, multiple round ball, and shot loads up to jackhammer loads. Pretty versatile.

What I need in a lever action is a .35 Remington. Well, not "need" but, well, yeah, need.

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Actually, I wonder about the .458 SOCOM in a lever action. It would give near .45-70 level power with a shorter cartridge, so a short barreled rifle could maybe hold five or six rounds instead of four.

Diameter might be a problem. Some lever actions have barrel shanks that limit case diameter.

The .458 SOCOM is popular around here because its about the largest deer-legal rifle caliber. Our case length laws created that situation. Its a pretty efficient cartridge. When I see one of the two or three regular SOCOM shooters at the range, I always ask what powder they are experimenting with. Most of the time it's something that works well in the 45-70. They get around the same velocities I get with 300 grain bullets but use quite a bit less powder doing it.

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