Advice Sought on which Lever Action rifle to buy

MacsuibhneR

I am thinking of buying a lever action, something along the lines of a Winchester 1894 in 30-30 but would welcome views / comments on the following:

1. Is a 30-30 unrestricted (as far as I know it is but would welcome confirmation)?

2. I plan to use it for primarily for targets and perhaps a bit of hunting, but may want to do gallery rifle in the future. Is a 30-30 allowed in Gallery or must it be 38spl/357, .44 magnum or .45?

3. The pistol calibres are restricted, is there much difficutly in getting them licenced (I have target club membership, range membership etc.)?

4. I think I would like a Winchester but Marlin and Rossi also do lever actions. Any views on which are best?

5. Anyone know of any dealers with a 30-30 or 38spl/357 in stock either new or second hand or who would be a good dealer to talk to?

All advice / comments appreciated.

Witcher

MacsuibhneR wrote: »

I am thinking of buying a lever action, something along the lines of a Winchester 1894 in 30-30 but would welcome views / comments on the following:

1. Is a 30-30 unrestricted (as far as I know it is but would welcome confirmation)?

2. I plan to use it for primarily for targets and perhaps a bit of hunting, but may want to do gallery rifle in the future. Is a 30-30 allowed in Gallery or must it be 38spl/357, .44 magnum or .45?

3. The pistol calibres are restricted, is there much difficutly in getting them licenced (I have target club membership, range membership etc.)?

4. I think I would like a Winchester but Marlin and Rossi also do lever actions. Any views on which are best?

5. Anyone know of any dealers with a 30-30 or 38spl/357 in stock either new or second hand or who would be a good dealer to talk to?

All advice / comments appreciated.

1. Yeah it's unrestricted

2. Has to be a pistol calibre, .38/.357 etc.

3. Does your club shoot gallery rifle? If it does then it should be easy enough if you have the proper security level to hold a restricted firearm.

4. Pre '64 Winchesters are considered the best, Marlins made prior to Remington's takeover are better if ya can get them.

5. Any RFD trading in restricted firearms will probably have one. Where are ya based? That will help people recommend a dealer:)

MacsuibhneR

5. Any RFD trading in restricted firearms will probably have one. Where are
ya based? That will help people recommend a dealer

I am based in the North West but in Dublin twice a week so any dealer in Monaghan, Louth, Dublin would be the handiest for me.

A few of the lads in the club are in another club in the North and shoot gallery rifle there.

Thanks for the info.

It wasn't me!

You can't use a .30-30 for gallery, but you couldn't hunt with a .357 or even a .44, assuming you're talking about deer, so you're falling between two chairs there! For what it's worth, I've had a go of a pre-64 Winchester M94 and oh man, that is an awful lot of really nice gun for deer hunting. Good triggers, low noise, low recoil, light, quick in the hands, everything. The sights are thoroughly usable too.

tac foley

Blay wrote: »

1. Yeah it's unrestricted

2. Has to be a pistol calibre, .38/.357 etc.

3. Does your club shoot gallery rifle? If it does then it should be easy enough if you have the proper security level to hold a restricted firearm.

4. Pre '64 Winchesters are considered the best, Marlins made prior to Remington's takeover are better if ya can get them.

5. Any RFD trading in restricted firearms will probably have one. Where are ya based? That will help people recommend a dealer:)

Just a word here, if I may?

The pre-64 Winchester only applies to their bolt-action rifles, not the under-lever actions, or Model 94s and successors.

Note that Winchester's under-levers eject through the opening top, and not from the side like Marlin's underlevers do. This might cause a bit of hassle when fitting the sights of your choice to a Winchester, which have side holes pre-drilled for side-mounted sights. Marlin have top drilled and tapped holes.

Note also that Winchester has recently gone bust.

Rossi are Winchester clones, and there are a good few of them in our club. Not one of them has wood that can be described as ordinary, and one has wood that could be described as exhibition grade if it was on a shotgun. Brazilian rain forest trees, see.

They are made in stainless as well as blued steel finish - Winchester are not. Both can be found with round or octagonal barrels, however - your choice, as well as carbine or full-length styles Full-length will obviously hold more rounds in the under-barrel tubular magazine.

Best if you find somebody who has one of each to try and compare. And see what most shooters of gallery seem to be using in Ireland. I'm not going to offer an opinion based on what happens over here, as I'm usually reminded that this is a different country, and things are really far different. Suffice it to say that the sport of gallery underlever gallery gun is HUGE here in UK - as you can see on Youtube.

Lots of luck in your search.

Best

tac

clivej

A few points to note.
.38spl/357mag are NOT deer legal calibres here in Ireland, they do not have the required velocity. :mad:
Most people I've seen shooting the gallery comps. use the Marlin 1894 in .38spl/357mag or .44 BUT use the .38spl round over the .357mag 'cos there's far less recoil and your back on target quicker. Bigger kick off the .44 but you get a bigger hole in the target :):)

The Marlin 1894 is the prefered rifle because it is side ejecting and can have a scope fitted easy. Speed reloaders are available in 6 or 10 shot sizes.

Hilltop dealers has the Marlin 1894 in stock.

Have a look here
http://www.rimfiremagic.co.uk/marlin_rifles.html

J.R.

I know nothing about under lever rifles............very interesting, informative thread.......thanks for raising it.

juice1304

If you get a winchester get one before 64 or after around 77 they were garbage in between those years they started machining parts again after that. I have an 1894 in 3030win and it is a beauty. Although mine is customized a little bit.:D:cool:
Mine is from around 1990 and is an ae after 86 all of them were AE meaning angle eject. I would'nt buy a new marlin they are now made by remington and are garbage. I would however buy an old one. But i like Winchesters better.:P Forgot to add i will be getting another on in 44mag for gallery too. :]
[IMG][/img] Uploaded with ImageShack.us

juice1304

Neil in crescent sports monkstown has a 357/38 rossi for cheap money i'm not going to say the price as i think that is for him to say.:)

juice1304

Mossberg are also making lever actions. I have heard good thing about them too.:)

MacsuibhneR

juice1304 wrote: »

Neil in crescent sports monkstown has a 357/38 rossi for cheap money i'm not going to say the price as i think that is for him to say.:)

Thanks for the info. I will be having a look at it during the week. Your rifle looks good in the black.

clivej

Just to again add before buying any centerfire lever action rifle with gallery comp. shooting in mind get along to a competition so you can see which are used and why.

MacsuibhneR

Thanks to everyone for their advice.

I have put my deposit down on a second hand Rossi in .38 spl/357 magnum as it will be primarily for targets and gallery shooting.

It Looks really good and more importantly has a nice smooth and slick action. I did a bit of googling and it appears that the Rossi rifles can have either very good action or a very bad action, due to poor quality control. I think I read somewhere that Rossi had bought the tooling machines from Winchester and were basically making the same rifle (without good quality control) so I carefully checked the action, fit and finish.

Anyway now the wait begins.

juice1304

It's a nice looking rifle, Good luck.

Scalachi

Just sent you a PM.

Regards

DB

clivej

clivej wrote: »

Just to again add before buying any centerfire lever action rifle with gallery comp. shooting in mind get along to a competition so you can see which are used and why.

Because I have a Marlin 1894 and shoot gallery competition and have shot the Maximum 300 (17X) in competiton, and 300 (22X)
not in competition.

:eek::eek:
I say again read the above over before you part with your $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
:eek::eek::eek:

BattleCorp

clivej wrote: »

Because I have a Marlin 1894 and shoot gallery competition and have shot the Maximum 300 (17X) in competiton, and 300 (22X)
not in competition.

:eek::eek:
I say again read the above over before you part with your $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
:eek::eek::eek:

Don't mind clivej, he just had 30 lucky shots in a row. :D:D:D

clivej

BattleCorp wrote: »

Don't mind clivej, he just had 30 lucky shots in a row. :D:D:D

And still came second. Just can't get a brake

MacsuibhneR

clivej wrote: »

Because I have a Marlin 1894 and shoot gallery competition and have shot the Maximum 300 (17X) in competiton, and 300 (22X)
not in competition.

:eek::eek:
I say again read the above over before you part with your $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
:eek::eek::eek:

Cheers for the information. The Rossi is a top ejector and so therefore we are down to scout/long eye relief scopes. The Rossi is a nice gun at the right price and while the scope means it may not be the first choice for gallery it does allow me to get into the sport for relatively little money. If gallery is something which I want to take more seriously then I would look at getting a new marlin in .44 (in a year or two when funds allow) and use the Rossi for range plinking/practice.

Your advice is greatly appreciated.