I watched The Rifleman as a kid. One-hundred-sixty-eight episodes and 120 dead bad guys later I had a permanent case of lever fever. The affliction flares up from time to time; I’m burning through ammo in my recently-arrived Big Horn Armory Model 89 S&W 500 lever gun. Grizzly Custom Guns will soon be sending me the custom-fitted heavily modified Marlin .357 I commissioned in 1979. A couple of years ago, lever guns were all the rage – including “cowboy tactical” models. Lately, I haven’t heard much about them. Maybe it’s because Marlin’s screwed the pooch. [“Please note: Newer ‘MR prefix’ Marlins will incur additional charges to correct issues from the factory.”] Or maybe lever gun guys have slipped into stealth mode. Well, here’s your chance to confess the lever love that dare not speak its name. Who’s got lever fever?
Can you imagine the Commander-In-Chief issuing a simple order-
All Officers and E-6 on up will be armed with issue sidearms while on duty, and permission to conceal carry the same, or personal weapons, while off-duty.
The Service Chiefs will implement supplemental authority granting discretion to local commanders to ensure sufficient training time is made available as needed.
Solve the problem, #1, and win back a small measure of respect for applying common-sense and trust in the troops.
I’ve got a Model 89 on order also. My wife had an old 44-40 lever that sat in the display cabinet for a long time. Just for kicks I took it out about 6 months ago to the range, just loved it. There is just something about the feel and action that makes it a hell of a lot of fun to shoot. More fun than my ak47, scar 16s, scar 17s and ps90.
A good lever gun is on my to buy list. Not sure what it is, but theirs just something dead sexy about them. Tomorrow I’m getting to shoot a friends pre64 1894 in 32 win spc, and I just can’t wait.
lever guns are cool, and are in cartridges that are fun to shoot. my 35 rem marlin( old pre freedom group) is a great woods rifle . only problem is that like all non mil cartridges, ammo is hard to find because the plants are using all their caacity to feed the 223, 308, and 30/06 guys.
Savage 99. My dad was a Maine Guide, and picked up a used 99A in 250-3000 Savage in 1921; he hunted with that rifle for the rest of his life. My older brother has the gun, still carrying the tang peep sight; I had a 1971 Savage re-issue 99A in the same caliber, but mounting a vintage Weaver steel-tube K2.5 scope. Never could get used to the tang safety (Dad’s gun had the sliding hook beside the lever that locked it). I gave my rifle to my nephew, who is an avid hunter; I travel for work and haven’t hunted in years, and the Model 99 was meant to be carried in the wild.
I’ve got three words: abolishment, indictment, and execution.
The first time I ever went shooting on my own — just me and a gun in the sagebrush country of Southern Utah — I took a lever-action .22 with me. I didn’t know it then, but that experience would resonate for decades.
I thought it was my dad’s gun, but it turned out he only had it on loan from his brother. I was incredibly disappointed when I found out, years later, that a bland bolt-action had taken the place of that beautiful old levergun (I wonder if my uncle still has it…I’ll have to ask him this summer when I make my annual pilgrimage).
Yes, I have levergun fever. It lay dormant for decades, but when I finally got around to buying my own guns not so long ago, it came back with a vengeance. If this is a sickness, I don’t want to be cured.
bought a M92 Carbine 454 Casull from Rossi a few years ago it’s my favorite gun I can’t afford to shoot
I don’t know what it is about them, but I like lever-actions. I can’t readily explain why. I want one.
I’ve been thinking of picking up a .22 for plinking. Maybe I’ll make it a lever-action.
I’ve got a Marlin 1894CL in .32-20 that I has a CAS smith put a long magazine tube on and make the action slicker than snot. She’s a beauty.
One consequence I would hate to see come out of this is that the core of a silencer is a part that should now be serialized. That would suck.
RSO here. I’ve seen plenty of FTFs and FTEs with Glocks and to a lesser extent, M&Ps (which could be due to the fact that the Glocks are shot more). It’s almost always a grip issue, and plenty of police officers do the limp-wristing thing. I personally own an M&P 9 and havent had any malfs with it over the course of around 500 rounds. For what that’s worth….
Model 39A Centennial Edition
Fuel for the fire -> http://www.leverguns.com/articles/thunder_ranch.htm
I want a Winchester so I can make Ida B. Wells proud…
Yea, I like levers. I have only one, though, that being a winchester 94AE in .45 LC with a large loop lever.
Levers are just great, practical, arms. I think what drove the “urban tactical” lever action market was
the looming possibility of an assault weapons ban. If semiautos are banned, then levers in pistol calibers
really come in to their own.
I’d like to acquire one in stainless, in .357 as a companion to my .357 revolver. As lever guns are legal more
places than not, one would make a great travel gun. Top it with a good fast optic, like a red dot or that new see all, and you are gold.
Well finally someone else has noticed the pieaces of SHIT S&W is putting out for us, the buying public! I have bought 3 M&Ps in the last 2 years. 2 of the 3 where complete SHIT! I bought a 9mm Shield directly from the S&W reps at Shoot Straight, Clearwater. During S&Ws “neet your customer day” Waited in the rain for over 2 hours to buy this handgun. Got inside, asked the S&W guys all set up by the front door, do you have any Shields left? He asked, what caliber, I replyed 9mm. He then dug threw a bunch of boxes, and pulled out my Shield 9mm. I didn’t even get a chance to look it over to check out the quality, but to be honest I was in a hury, and figured it would be ok, WRONG! Never got to open the box till they gave me my credit card and CCW, and ID back. I finally opened the box just to make sure serial nums matched receipt. Got home ready to clean my new $500 dollar purchase, and that’s when I noticed the front sight was leaning 3 degrees left in the dovetail. The sights base plate that goes into the dovetail slot was lower by 3, 1000ths of an inch on the left side of the front blade, and level with the top of the slide on the right of the front blade. Being a gunsmith for over 15 years I realized that there was an issue. So at the first shooting, breakin, the gun shot 2 inchs right at 21 feet. This because I was making the front sight level, which moved the bore axis over to the right. By round 200, the painted dot on the front sight fell out as well. So I called S&W to get a repair done, and address the 3 degree slanted front dovetail cut. I received the TERD SHIELD back with a new front nightsite, which the gun didn’t have to start out with. BUT, still a crooked sight!
That’s when all hell started with the jack ass’s at S&W! They told me that yes the front dovetail is 3, 1000ths out. And that was within specs, so your stuck with it PERIOD! I BITCHED up the whole line of managers at SMITH, explaining that I am a disabled combat vet, and a customer of SMITH for over 25 years, and have never bin treated so badly by a gun manufacturer in my life! Oh it gets better. So after 2 months of back and fourth, I asked how much for ME TO PURCHASE A NEW SLIDE OUT OF MY OWN POCKET? That’s when their lead customer service manager told me “every new shield slides are going on new guns, to NEW customers, and I couldn’t have one”. That’s when I went ape shit, and told him then you are keeping this piece of SHIT firearm!
I also purchased a 9c M&P with no problems 2 years earlier. But my M&P 15-22 was shit right out the box, barrel pointed left, so bad in fact, that with the sight adjusted all the way right it still shot 3 to 4 inchs left at 25 feet! Sent it back, and they swapped the whole upper out with a new one. BUT, they didn’t repackage my rifle with the cardboard protective upper and lower inserts in the box. Just threw the brand new gun in there with a magazine and gun lock that destroyed mt barrels finish. Needless to say I removed the barrel and recoated the barrel myself, weather than let their so called GUN TECHS screw this one up any more!
ASSHOLE COMPANY THAT BUILDS SHIT GUNS FOR THE NEW GUN OWNER, THAT THEY FIGURE WONT KNOW ANY BETTER, WHILE LEAVING THE OLDER GUN OWNER CROWD THAT KEPT THEM IN BUISNESS FOR AT LEAST THE LAST 100 YEARS! I TOLD YOU SMITH, YOU WOULD REGRET PISSING ME AND THE PUBLIC OFF WITH YOUR NEW AND IMPROVED SHIT PISTOLS AND RIFLES! I love to shoot and own quality rifles and pistols, but don’t sell shit to the gun community and expect us to take a big bite! Could not have happened to a better company!
I bought a Rossi M92 .357 24″ Octagon Barrel last month. its case hardened too. I’m absolutely in love with it. It took me 2 years to find one that was in stock, after multiple LGS’s gave me the run around about ordering one, or putting money down on one, they all told me either we can’t get it, or everyone wants one, and we don’t put them on hold.
First gun I ever shot was a Winchester .22 when my Dad took me shooting as a boy. Nearly fifty years later, I still have that rifle. It was recently joined by a new, Japanese made, Winchester .357 model 1876. That rifle is pretty much the most fun a person can have with his clothes on. I am, always have been, and always will be a lever-action aficionado.
Love my preFG 336C. Still needs a lot more ammo to pass through that action to make her run smooth as a ball bearing. I bought a FG Marlin 336c for a relative as a gift not knowing it was a RemMarlin at the time. I felt so guilty for the thing not running right, I took it back and worked on it until it was a runner. I have been sore about Marlins since. It will take time because I surely loved all their stuff until Remington got ahold of them. Still have my .22 LR bolt action with tube feed from when I was a wee one. I have killed a few hundred rabbits with it.
My dad got a Marlin 336w .30-30 for me when I was 10 in 1996. It has the saftey, but it’s still my main white tail rifle.
I had lever fever really bad last year and lucked up bigtime. Ran across a local guy on a Facebook gun page who had a Marlin 1894 in .357 (and another rifle) who was wanting to trade for a pistol. I offered him a Sig P220 that I bought a few years back as a police trade in. He was happy and I was REALLY happy!
It’s a mid-90’s (pre Freedom Group) model with the nice checkering. Just a flat out blast to shoot.
Never owned a Glock, do have SW pro series 3″ 1911, piece of junk right of the box. Already been back to smith once, still has failure to eject issues, will send it back again and then sell it. On the other hand, was at range with a very experienced shooter who at time owned .40 Glock, not sure exact model, and the gun fired in his hand without him touching the trigger. Spooked him enough to switch carry pistol.
I put half down on a Marlin 1895 SBL at my LGS …. and then waited for 6 months.
It was something of an experiment I guess, knowing Marlin SUCKS now, in manufacturing capability and quality, but I was thinking maybe I’d send it away to Wild West Guns and get them to do their thing on it (as I had seen someone else do successfully with a Pre-FG Marlin).
After 6 mo’s, my LGS was cool enough to agree to credit me the cache and I put it towards something else instead and all but forgot about my Lever-Fever, until YOU DECIDED TO POST THIS.
🙂 thanks!
I grew up shooting a Marlin 39A Golden Mountie, which is my favorite .22 rifle to this day.
Now, that is something to get for the Patriot who “has everything”! I’ve telephoned the company and will buy one or more. Great idea and I hope a great design, durable and comfortable…we’ll see!
You used the word “Mohaska” … Triple word points!
This comment stream turned hilarious!
David, u mad bro?
I do sense a certain hostility. . .
How about “asking” him to strip, and ziptying his dumb ass to a telephone pole? Call the cops after the morning alarm goes off, and hope the mosquitoes are hungry.
Stop saying “class 3”, that is incorrect. Title 2 is correct.
Browning BLR81 .358 Win packs a wallop!
On April 16 you can start “Stand Strong New York.” Something else to look forward to.
I own a P228 and an M&P9. The P228 was my first gun and that is going nowhere. I do find it easier and more comfortable to shoot the M&P. I have put 2,000+ rounds through the M&P. The only issue I had was some extraction failures near 400 rounds, but I think that is because I did not properly clean the extractor after the first 200 rounds. That M&P was made in 2007. I have since bought another made in late 2013/early 2014 and have not yet taken it to the range.
Ruger 96/44 I bought in ’97. Still have it and should be picking up it’s companion, a Super Blackhawk stainless 4 5/8″ bbl, today. I’ve been casting the hell out of some 240 gr. gas checked SWC’s in anticipation.
Over the years I’ve owned a Marlin 336 in .35 Rem. and a Winchester 94 Trapper in .357 Mag. Both were bought in the early 90’s and both I regret parting with.
Ya’ll are a buncha Sig and Glock pimps… including you, Nick!
One little babble about undescribed ‘unacceptable malfunctions’ and everyone breaks out their peacock feathers.
Pimps! 🙂
.357 lever gun is on my short list. Along with 8 or 9 other guns. How many have a lever gun as a SHTF bugout gun?
The BLM’s first responsibility is to manage our public land for us. Under Multiple Use, logging, mining, oil, gas, coal, etc. can be developed. Nothing says that ranchers have any “right” to graze. They have permits that are granted with certain requirements. If they do not hold up their end, they can lose their permits. It is long past time for the Bundy Ranch to lose all permits and pay its fees and fines.
Thank you BLM for finally acting.
You are being tested, be certain that you pass your test.
The hair do, or don’t, goes nice with the decorative face art! This dude has an ” attitude” for sure. He wants everyone to know he’s a bad hombre! I wonder how his face would look straddling some crosshairs.
The emporor commands you to get your ewoks off the death star!
I usually keep a stash. A friend’s wife admitted she kept some and she called it her “mad money.” My wife never kept such a stash, though I asked her to and sometimes kidded her about it. My wife told me she never got mad, and if she ever has, she did not let me see it for now nigh to 50 years.
I used to keep a few bullets in my boots until one day I forgot I had them and wore my boots into a place where metal detectors were in use. After that I no longer keep the shells or bullets in my boots, but rather in another place, not on my person.
To put things into perspective as to what is going on in this country I recommend that everyone watch this youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFesKJRz8bQ
I keep some emergency money behind my phone (I have a protective case on it). Don’t have to worry about it, and I always have it with me.
Nothing new under the Sun. communism / socialism / goes back to the first lie by the devil to eve in the garden , only the dates change… NOW you know why!
I have always wanted a duraluminum framed PPK to go with my Interarms PPK/s. I hope Walther reintroduces it…and yes, I know about the Bersa which is almost a clone (and a decent little gun according to everyone I have ever spoken to who uses it), but I would like the real thing.
My dad has a .32 caliber Winchester model 1894 that was made in 1908. My grandfather harvested many deer in the woods of Wisconsin with that rifle.
I recently sighted it in, using the “minute-of-paper-plate” method. To my complete surprise, I was able to hit within 5 inches of the dot at the center of a paper plate from a standing, unsupported position at 100 yards using just the iron sights! There’s no wonder this was my grandfather’s “game-getter”!
As a kid this minute of paper plate was the gold standard for hunters that I knew. By far the .30-30 was the go to rifle for deer.
For the areas that allowed shotguns only, Ohio and quite a few counties in WV the plate was set out at fifty yards.
Those old timers were no nonsense meat hunters.
I finally went and got me a Browning BL-22 Grade II and have never enjoyed a rifle so much in my entire life!! Cheap ammo, long lasting quality design, I have no doubts it’ll last long after my protege son has passed it down to his children. First hunting rifle my father gave me was a 250 savage lever and that’s when it all began!