Lets shoot the breeze about your first lever action shot!

Canuck Bob · Post by **Canuck Bob** » Sat Feb 22, 2014 6:24 pm

A recent thread about how much chatter we have here regarding levers got me thinking lets have a fun thread about levers.

What was your first experience with a lever and how did it affect your ideas about rifles?

My first lever was a 444 Marlin back in the 70s. It was the first new gun I ever bought. I was a gun crazy kid who dreamed of moose hunting. I had traded a Cooey badged Savage bolt in 30-30 on a nice used Ruger Deerstalker in 44 Mag. I took it home and immediately found out that the Provincial law did not allow pistol cartridge rifles for big game back then. The gunstore guy realized I wanted it for deer hunting and agreed to exchange it.

Back I went. The guy showed me the Marlin and I was sold on the spot. It was the amazing muzzle energy that sold me. Oddly the rifle was to teach me that was not very important. I made a layaway deal for the rifle, 5 boxes of Rem ammo, and a Williams FP hunting peep.

When I took it out to the bush to shoot I loaded it up and setup a 25 yard cardboard box as a target. I carefully lined the sights by eyeballing down the barrel and fired away. WOW, I had not expected the kick! I expected a 12 gauge push and that rifle kicked hard. My front hand took a bite from the sling swivel stud on the band and the muzzle blast was terrifically loud. I was hooked for life on big bore hunting rifles from that moment on.

I couldn't sight the rifle properly as it needed a taller front site to match the new peep so my education began in "quick little additions to a factory rifle" that still drives me crazy!!

As time went on the handling and hand carry of the lever action convinced me the lever action was the BEST designed hunting rifle. With tube mags or Savage's rotary internal mag the skinny smooth receivers were made for horseback, under the truck seat, and sneaking around in the bush. The 444 was a sledge hammer and still left something to eat. Today we call it eating up to the hole.

I still have that 444 and after years of not shooting as a hobby it was to levers that I returned and started to appreciate their unique abilities and history. Now my safe has a 9422, Winoku 92 32-20, a Win 1950s 94 in 32 Special, and a 444 Marlin because the leveraction is the most sensible design for a hunting and carrying rifle. To me it is simple common sense!

Mescalero · Post by **Mescalero** » Sat Feb 22, 2014 7:06 pm

Went deer hunting when I was young with a Win. model 94, switched to bolt rifles after that.

shooter · Post by **shooter** » Sat Feb 22, 2014 7:21 pm

I took a roundabout road to levers. My dad always had a couple growing up, but we never shot them much. We shot the bolt actions and semi autos, but handguns more than anything. Single action revolvers are my first love, and that is what I shot the most growing up into my late teens. I got involved in an internet forum for single actions, and those guys introduced me to the wonderful world of levers, and I've been hooked since.

I got out my dad's 94 and started playing with it and fell in love. It was love at first shot, and there was suddenly something magical about that 30-30. Easy to carry, easy to shoot, not much recoil. I wondered why I didn't shoot it more growing up. I soon purchased a Henry .22WRM lever action, which is a great shooting, accurate little gun. Then I acquired my own Winchester 94, then an original 1895, then a Marlin Guide Gun. The Marlin is one of my favorite guns, and the Winchester 94 is still my go to gun if I have to pick up something in a hurry. I hope to acquire many more levers. It's an addiction, lol.

Blaine · Post by **Blaine** » Sat Feb 22, 2014 7:59 pm

About 1969 I traded into an old Marlin 39 Mountie (about 45$$

). Smooth as silk, shot as fast as you could work the glass smooth lever. Very accurate. I put a Lyman aperture sight on it, and removed the insert. Everyone laughed their butts off and said I could never hit with it that way. Little did they know that I had the complete confidence of Col Cooper. I was hitting better with that rifle than just about anything I've every had since....In the rash stupidity of youth, I later traded it in about 1980 for no good Remington bolt action (53?). I actually shed a tear when I realized how bad a decision that was....

rjohns94 · Post by **rjohns94** » Sat Feb 22, 2014 8:33 pm

My first was a marlin .444. Shot it a bunch but never got any hunting done with it. I moved to a 45-70 after that and with that I took a nice buck. Firearms have always been about hunting for me in long guns, and self defense in handguns. The journey into custom leverguns has impacted me in what I think is the ultimate in a hunting weapon.

Lastmohecken · Post by **Lastmohecken** » Sat Feb 22, 2014 9:30 pm

My first leveraction was Daisy BB Gun, and I was deadly with it. As a kid, I actually graced the table with many a bullfrog taken with the Daisy Hawthorn (sold by Montgomery Ward) I learned a lot about shot placement on those frogs.

Second Lever was a probably 1969 or slight later vintage model 94 Win. in 30/30 which my Grandfather traded to me to get me away from an old motorcycle that had nearly killed me a couple of times. I probably should have kept that gun, but I traded it for a J.C. Higgins side by side shotgun and that started my love affair with side by sides to this day.

Before I traded the 94 off, I had purchased a Marlin 1895 in 45/70 with money from my first summer job, and put a 4x Weaver scope on it. I should have kept it, but it went down the gun trader road for a new Remington 700 in 30-06 after I had trouble lobbing those 405 factory loads into a deer one day at long range. The 30-06 barreled action got traded for a .270 barreled action and I had a gunsmith glass bed it into the BDL stock that was originally home for the 30-06, and that gun with with a 2 x 7 leupold took many a deer and coyote, ground hogs and just about everything else that walked or crawled, or set on a limb for a little too long, in my neck of the woods.

Now days, it's back to my main rifle, a Browning BLR in .308 win. but I have and use a lot of others from time to time, but nothing beats the BLR for me when I need to get something killed.

Old Ironsights · Post by **Old Ironsights** » Sat Feb 22, 2014 9:37 pm

First rifle other than the .22 Target Rifle I used in HS was the Savage 99E I borrowed to go mule deer hunting when I was 16.

I fired less than one box of ammo through it. A few to verify my POA/POI and one to crater the deer.

It's why I own a 99C now.

arjunky · Post by **arjunky** » Sat Feb 22, 2014 9:39 pm

Honestly first I remember probably was a 94/22. I don't remember grandpa having a .22 before that.
Byron

Grizz · Post by **Grizz** » Sat Feb 22, 2014 9:49 pm

first lever action shot that I remember was from a Browning .22. I remember that it had a very short stroke, and shot very straight, like most all 22s do.

first hunt was with a Savage 99 .243 and I took a spike with it. that was on the Mogollon Rim about 61 or 62, in the good old days in another country.

Grizz

ollogger · Post by **ollogger** » Sat Feb 22, 2014 10:15 pm

Its a bit foggy, but 1960 was a daisy bb gun for me
the first shot I remember for sure on big game was 1967 with a Marlin 30-30
that was my first Buck

ollogger

C. Cash · Post by **C. Cash** » Sat Feb 22, 2014 11:49 pm

First "lever" shot was about four or five years old with an Ithaca 49. We shot bottles and cans a good bit near the Superstition Mountains in AZ. Later, living in CA with a cowboy Uncle, my Dad sent me a Model 94 Win. By that time I was way into old west history, and knew that Frank Hamer and other Texas Rangers carried 94 Wins. That was enough for me.....still love those 94's, but have warmed to the Marlins as well in recent years.

new pig hunter · Post by **new pig hunter** » Sun Feb 23, 2014 12:30 am

1972: from the Navy Exchange at the North Island Naval Air Station I bought a brand-new-off-the-drawing-board Winchester 9422. What a fantastic rifle. My dad really liked it. All my friends really liked it. I had fighter pilot eyes in those days and I rarely missed, the rifle's inherent accuracy was superb. A fantastic rifle.

Cheers,

Carl

FWiedner · Post by **FWiedner** » Sun Feb 23, 2014 12:46 am

Bought my first Marlin 336 in 1976 from a gun shop in Arlington, Texas just a couple blocks south of the UTA campus.

J35 · Post by **J35** » Sun Feb 23, 2014 1:12 am

Like some mine was with a Daisy BB gun :
IN those days we lived on the South side of Tucson, we had two big Pomegranate tree's in the back yard, one night at supper mom told dad that she caught two girls stealing pomegranates, they cussed her and took off, so early the next morning i got up and got up on the roof behind the swamp cooler with my BB gun, I wasn't there 20 minutes when a Green VW beetle pulled up and two girls got out one jumped the fence and the other stood by the car, the one that jumped the fence grabbed a fruit and thru it to her friend and right as she grabbed the second one I shot her in the rump she took off for the fence and right as she got to it and I shot her again in the other cheek.

The second was with my brother's Marlin 62 just killed cans and rang my ears.

The third was the best, I made a lot of meat at my Uncles ranch with a .348 Win.
He had a wild Brama cross that came in a group he had bought at auction, a five wire fence was nothing to her she would hop over it like it was burro brush. One day he said he was going into Showlow and for me to take the rifle and hide in the barn, and when the cow seen his truck leave it would come down off the knoll to be with the cows in the corral and to kill her, so he did the cow did and I did

I made a super shot wasted no meat, would a made muslim proud. My uncle was not impressed.

Another memory I have from that summer is we were in his old Chevy truck with the stock trailer on behind with two horses in it. We were about ten miles from the ranch on some lease land, he was driving, pulled up to a gate I opened it and he killed the engine as he started to pull thru and the starter would just click when he tried to restart it so I popped the hood and was checking the terminals and I heard him back at the trailer getting his horse out a minute later he came riding by, I asked where are you going he said to check on those cows, I said what about the truck he said you will think of something as he rode away, so I cleaned the terminals with my pocket knife and tightened them back up and tried the switch it made one revolution and then just clicked, so I unhooked the trailer, Jacked up the rear wheels put it in third gear and spun the tire but no go, so I wrapped a piece of rope around the tire and and walked away with it and the truck started so I put it in neutral put a rock on the gas pedal and let the jack down, I let the engine race for about fifteen minutes re hooked the trailer and went on, when I met up with my uncle I was dying to tell him how I started the truck but decided to make him ask, but the old fanny burp never did I was 14 at the time.

The forth was kinda special in it's own way, I bought my dad a 336 in 30-30 in 1971 and helped him sight it in, we shot 40 rounds that evening and that rifle never seen the light of day again for 30 years, now it's my favorite cast bullet shooter.

Thanks for the memory trip

-----J

vancelw · Post by **vancelw** » Sun Feb 23, 2014 1:19 am

I can't remember when or how old I was. I know it was my grandpa's 1894 in 30 WCF made in 1906 and I hit the tree I was aiming at. I must have been 7 or 8.

That rifle is now in my safe. I planned on blooding it ( for the 9000th time) this past season, but broke leg curtailed my hunting.
I also need to make up some cat sneeze loads so my Dad can shoot it some while he's still around. I don't want to put too much recoil on him.

geobru · Post by **geobru** » Sun Feb 23, 2014 3:21 am

My dad's 1886 40-82 inspired my love for levers as a kid. My brother and I would sneak it out of dad's closet and crank that lever and try to hold that heavy gun up to our shoulders.

I started hunting with a Remington 30-06, but when I spotted the BLR with that short throw action, I had to have one. I took it out of the box, set up a target at 50 yards and shot two shots over the hood of my truck to see where it was shooting. There were two holes touching about an inch high and an inch and a half to the left. I hunted with that rifle every season for the next 30 years and accounted for lots of deer and elk with it.

The first critter I shot with it was a forked horn blacktail. I shot it behind the ear at about 35 yards.

Since then, and since I started frequenting this site, I have added quite a few more levers to the herd.

Mossyoak1957 · Post by **Mossyoak1957** » Sun Feb 23, 2014 4:31 am

My first lever gun outing was when I was 12 years old,had a borrowed Winchester Model 94 32 Spl.
1970 opening morning of Pa deer hunting.

My Uncle and I headed up the mountain of my great Grand Mothers farm it was still dark out my Uncle got to his spot at the foot of the mountain and he told me to head up the mountain a few hundred yards and find a spot.
So there I am,12 years old.... snow on the ground sitting under a pine tree in the dark.
Just as it's getting light here comes a deer,"about 15 yards away"...I see horns! Raise that 32 Spl. Boom! It goes down! So I run up to that buck and he's still moving! BANG!BANG!...BANG.....!BANG! I empty the gun on him....point blank .....hey I'm only 12 I didn't want him to get up...lol It was a fine 9 pointer.
So here comes my Uncle to this day 44 years later I can still see the smile on his face.

I still hunt with a 32 spl.but I only shot them once now

OldWin · Post by **OldWin** » Sun Feb 23, 2014 7:36 am

I remember vividly my first centerfire lever action shot. I was in 6th grade and my Dad let me shoot his old 94 eastern carbine in 30wcf. It was also my first shot through a peep sight and was the coolest thing ever. I was hooked.
I carried that empty brass from my first shot in my pocket every day until I got to high school. Man, I was weirdo even as a kid!

My first lever action was a Daisy Pal that my Dad bought me for Christmas when I was three.

I thought about this in relation to the aforementioned lack of lever talk lately. I know the shooting industry is booming and that is great but it seems to me that a lot of the enjoyment and fun is lacking. Everyone is too busy "trying" to find this or that, building a stock of ammo that can't be easily replaced, or scrounging for reloading supplies. Getting what they feel they "need" to have.
For me, leverguns are pure enjoyment. I enjoy shooting them for what they are and what they were in our history. They are a ball to shoot and hunt with. Just seems lately that a lot of the fun is missing from shooting when you're counting every shot and thirty people are standing in front of Wal-Mart waiting for them to open so they can sprint for the ammo counter like women at a shoe sale.

Anyway, sorry for rambling on. I think this is the reason MY lever guns and related talk have taken a back seat lately. Gotta try and change that.

vancelw · Post by **vancelw** » Sun Feb 23, 2014 9:23 am

OldWin wrote: it seems to me that a lot of the enjoyment and fun is lacking. Everyone is too busy "trying" to find this or that, building a stock of ammo that can't be easily replaced, or scrounging for reloading supplies. Getting what they feel they "need" to have.
For me, leverguns are pure enjoyment. I enjoy shooting them for what they are and what they were in our history. They are a ball to shoot and hunt with. Just seems lately that a lot of the fun is missing from shooting when you're counting every shot and thirty people are standing in front of Wal-Mart waiting for them to open so they can sprint for the ammo counter like women at a shoe sale.
.

I agree with you. Ammo and components are scarce enough around here that it spoils your fun a bit. Even lead has gotten hard to find without having to buy it.
And RE: getting things you "need"...I have more guns than I care to admit that I haven't even had time to shoot yet

and keep finding more. I keep telling myself to get rid of some and shoot what I keep. And this is perfect casting weather....

wolfdog · Post by **wolfdog** » Sun Feb 23, 2014 10:45 am

Daisy when I was about 5. First deer was with a borrowed 30/30 when I was 14, bought my first lever that winter, 444 Marlin. I have had 30/30s both Marlins and Winchester 94. Rossi 92s in 357 and 44. 45/70 Marlin 1895. 35 Rem Marlin 336. Currently have 444 Marlin,.41 mag Marlin, and 300 savage 99 TD.

Tycer · Post by **Tycer** » Sun Feb 23, 2014 10:47 am

Marlin 1895 11 grains Unique 405 gr pill 100 yards on steel. Boom..............Clang! Giggle. Repeat.

jeepnik · Post by **jeepnik** » Sun Feb 23, 2014 4:54 pm

Red Ryder of course, silly question. I imagine quite of few of us had one of those.

Griff · Post by **Griff** » Sun Feb 23, 2014 5:32 pm

T'was off the fantail of a Guided Missle Destroyer in the Tonkin Gulf.

A fairly unique situation, I believe.

jeepnik · Post by **jeepnik** » Sun Feb 23, 2014 6:33 pm

Griff wrote:T'was off the fantail of a Guided Missle Destroyer in the Tonkin Gulf. A fairly unique situation, I believe.

Was it a line gun?

Griff · Post by **Griff** » Sun Feb 23, 2014 7:35 pm

jeepnik wrote:
Griff wrote:T'was off the fantail of a Guided Missle Destroyer in the Tonkin Gulf. A fairly unique situation, I believe.
Was it a line gun?

No. A new Winchester mdl 94 in 44 Magnum.

hightime · Post by **hightime** » Sun Feb 23, 2014 10:16 pm

I bought my wife a Buffalo Bill Win. 94. 30-30. I was walking though the woods when I jumped a white tail. I up and shot. Not only did I kill the deer, as I walked up to it, I figured I should reload. I already had. That's when I realized what a natural action it is. Having hunted only with bolt actions, this was news to me.

Owen

RIHMFIRE · Post by **RIHMFIRE** » Mon Feb 24, 2014 12:57 pm

This Winchester Model 94 30WCF SRC, nickle steel, born in 1926
belonged to my Grandfathers brother.
I guess he got it form this guy named Martin Noreika,
the name carved on the forearm....
The rack was supposedly taken with this lever gun and the
rack hung on the front of the house for more than 25 years....
At the time it was given to my dad.....we could no longer use
rifles in the county we lived in NY.....(another reason I left that state)
Anyway....this is the 1st levergun i ever shot behind our house...in the mid 70's
Tang is all messed up....I guess the original owner wanted a tang sight
and i guess he thought he was a gunsmith.....not!.....hence the peep sight...
Saddle ring is gone....its been in the family for 60 to 70 years....

madman4570 · Post by **madman4570** » Mon Feb 24, 2014 4:58 pm

Shot my brother in the leg at age 6 with my Red Ryder for throwing my bicycle down the steps.

He told. I got straightened out on that one in quick order.
Age 8 shot a big fat woodchuck in the garden with brothers Marlin 336 in .35Rem
Couldn't do the whistle good to get him standing so I shot him broadside on all fours right in the mid-section at about 40yds eating some garden lettuce.
I thought this monster gun will fix him good because my normal gun was my Marlin .22LR semi given to me at age 7
Anyhow, I hit him with a 200gr RN dead center body. He just ran back about 35 yards to his hole

with parts of his intestines both left there on the ground and the rest with him into the hole. Boy, did I feel bad. Was a changing event on how I viewed taking an animal. Ruined my week!

jcw · Post by **jcw** » Tue Feb 25, 2014 5:28 pm

First levergun was a Daisy. After that it was a a Win. 94 I bought new on my 18th. birthday from the local J.C. Penny.

hosehead · Post by **hosehead** » Tue Feb 25, 2014 9:56 pm

It was 3 years ago in early september with my grandfather's Marlin 1893 in 30-30, the target was a big carriage bolt we found in the toolbox of the Massey. We placed on a stump walked 40 yards back and then I was handed 1 cartridge, he taught me alot things about shooting a rifle before I even loaded the rifle but sure enough when I aimed and fired it hit the edge of the carriage bolt and blew decent sized part of that rotten stump apart but that 170 grain bullet didnt stop there it went through the stump and kicked up a pile of dirt. Man I was suprised considering alot of the old boys and even a couple of buddys always called a 30-30 a womans gun, well I soon realized I didnt need the 308 or the 300 mag one shop owner tried to steer me to ever since I wanted a marlin lever gun

Tycer · Post by **Tycer** » Tue Feb 25, 2014 10:55 pm

RIHMFIRE wrote:This Winchester Model 94 30WCF SRC, nickle steel, born in 1926
belonged to my Grandfathers brother.
I guess he got it form this guy named Martin Noreika,
the name carved on the forearm....
The rack was supposedly taken with this lever gun and the
rack hung on the front of the house for more than 25 years....
At the time it was given to my dad.....we could no longer use
rifles in the county we lived in NY.....(another reason I left that state)
Anyway....this is the 1st levergun i ever shot behind our house...in the mid 70's
Tang is all messed up....I guess the original owner wanted a tang sight
and i guess he thought he was a gunsmith.....not!.....hence the peep sight...
Saddle ring is gone....its been in the family for 60 to 70 years....

In 1940 a Martin Noreika lived in the Bronx. Died in 1989.

Lassiter · Post by **Lassiter** » Tue Feb 25, 2014 11:02 pm

The first deer rifle I ever bought was an old cut down Enfield in 303 British. I swapped it for a Winchester 94, 30-30. Killed my first buck with that '94. Wish I still had it. Now I've got eleven lever actions. Two are '94s, a SRC born in 1915 and a trapper born in 1953. I love me some lever actions!

The Snark · Post by **The Snark** » Wed Feb 26, 2014 5:04 am

This thread got me to register. Interesting forums since the only rifles I've ever owned were saddle guns.

The first: Rem 35. It went bang. The second, Marlin .44 mag. Most accurate gun for the range it is designed for (about 45 feet, 7 and 3/4 inches, give or take 20 yards) I've ever owned. #3 was a .444 Marleen because the F&G got up in my face and said if I'm going to be running a pack train blah blah blah and going over there blah blah I had to have a rifle that would stop a medium sized train. It went Bang. I chose it because I was a hand loader and my sidearm was a .44 mag.

Since I never wanted to hunt game the .444 was sort of a hub cap on an old John Deere until a got to messing about with it with the aid of an old gun smith. We came up with some 450 grain bullets and crammed in just enough powder to blow the breach wide open minus about 5 lilbits. We then cobbed, drilled and banged on the muzzle to give it some extra breathing and blowing and viola! It went BANG. A rifle from the nethermost pits of H*** guaranteed to scare the living stuff out of any horse irritating campground raiding bear west of Greenland. Also, oddly, the darned thing shot 1 1/2 inch groups after the maiming we gave it. Weird.

Molasses · Post by **Molasses** » Wed Feb 26, 2014 8:54 pm

MVC-034F.JPG

I got the Daisy Spittin' Image Model 1894 BB gun at the top of the picture for a combined birthday/Christmas present back when I hit 7. I was small for my age and had to figure how to brace the butt of the rifle so I could get both hands on the lever to work it. Some months after getting it, I must've been especially quiet getting up one morning and overheard my Mom giving Dad grief over "giving that kid that gun" because all I wanted to do was run around outside with it instead of helping with chores.

That BB gun and I did everything together for years and I had the trajectory mapped out pretty good. The big flying grasshoppers with yellow and black wings were in trouble if I could ease up to about 7 yards of 'em after they'd landed. Other pests on the farm learned they needed to keep one eye open, too.
When I got old enough to get a deer license (and was long since back to doing chores), I was presented with the middle one in the picture: a Model 64A Winchester in .30-30 Still being a little small for my age, there were problems again. The stock didn't even come close to fitting me and recoil was that much worse as a result. I eventually grew into it.
A little over 22 years ago, I'd gotten out of the Marines, had been working on a temp basis and had just been let go at the end of the busy season when a blizzard they still talk about around here hit. Decided that with the weather the way it was and in my financial straits, I might as well get a BB gun and sit around the apartment shooting old phone books until the weather cleared up, so off to the area's only WalMart I went. Soon as I saw it, nostalgia hit, thus explaining the one on the bottom of the picture. They cheapened, safety-fied and neutered the power to where it's a pale imitation of the old one from my first childhood...

Been a bunch of twists and turns in there that got left out, but this is what came to mind when I thought about my first lever action(s).

Borregos · Post by **Borregos** » Thu Feb 27, 2014 7:44 am

The Snark wrote:This thread got me to register. Interesting forums since the only rifles I've ever owned were saddle guns.

The first: Rem 35. It went bang. The second, Marlin .44 mag. Most accurate gun for the range it is designed for (about 45 feet, 7 and 3/4 inches, give or take 20 yards) I've ever owned. #3 was a .444 Marleen because the F&G got up in my face and said if I'm going to be running a pack train blah blah blah and going over there blah blah I had to have a rifle that would stop a medium sized train. It went Bang. I chose it because I was a hand loader and my sidearm was a .44 mag.

Since I never wanted to hunt game the .444 was sort of a hub cap on an old John Deere until a got to messing about with it with the aid of an old gun smith. We came up with some 450 grain bullets and crammed in just enough powder to blow the breach wide open minus about 5 lilbits. We then cobbed, drilled and banged on the muzzle to give it some extra breathing and blowing and viola! It went BANG. A rifle from the nethermost pits of H*** guaranteed to scare the living stuff out of any horse irritating campground raiding bear west of Greenland. Also, oddly, the darned thing shot 1 1/2 inch groups after the maiming we gave it. Weird.

Welcome to THE forum, you will enjoy it here

Griff · Post by **Griff** » Thu Feb 27, 2014 8:47 am

Borregos wrote:Welcome to THE forum, you will enjoy it here

+1!

Harris85 · Post by **Harris85** » Thu Feb 27, 2014 12:55 pm

I had been wanting to shoot for a few years before I finally decided to get my PAL (possession / acquisition license.) When the time came to finally purchase a firearm I had landed a job working in a gun store which had a decent selection of pre-64 Winchester model 94s; and really, once you have handled one, is there any way to say no? I settled on a pretty standard 20" carbine in .30-30 Winchester.

I had never gone shooting growing up and, although my father and grandfather owned firearms, I was never connected to the shooting community in any way. When the time came to go to the range me and a couple of friends were shooting at an indoor pistol target at 100 meters away (they weren't shooters, either.) Needless to say, it was a humbling experience. The frequent downplaying of the .30-30s power both online and in conversations with others left the impression that recoil would be 'very light' and no problem. I was quite surprised by the recoil it actually produced! No small part of that was inexperience and lack of technique, to be sure, but I instantly respected the rifle and round. Still, I had a lot of fun and was hooked from that point on. I have since purchased a used Marlin 39A and have gradually improved my marksmanship skills (which are still lacking, to say the least.)

norton_mike222 · Post by **norton_mike222** » Thu Feb 27, 2014 1:41 pm

My first lever is actually not all that long ago...

The wife and I had been having some financial troubles (I was unemployed for 6months, then she got laid off right after I found a new job, and was under-employed for over a year) and after starting to get back on our feet I had decided to sell some old toys I wasn't fond of anymore (warhammer armies I had painted,etc). Well after feeling the crunch for so long I decided I wanted something shiny for myself and had been wanting a mid-sized caliber to complement the ancient .22lr and 12GA hand-me-downs that I had been given years ago.

So after a couple months of hemming and hawing and looking at a lot of magazines, etc. I decided on the m92 in .357magnum. It's a rossi but after toying with it over a couple weekends it became a pretty decent shooter with no feed issues.

Here's a pic of it the day I bought it too. Since then i've picked up a Marlin 30-30 from the mid 80's but while it's a smoother action, it just doesnt compare to the enjoyment of plinking with .38's in the back yard.

86er · Post by **86er** » Thu Feb 27, 2014 2:36 pm

I owned a 1950 Model 94 Winchester for a while but never shot it. The sights were hard to see on paper targets and the clattering of the lever made me uneasy about the whole thing. I never shot it and gave it to my Dad. I began looking for an 1886 High Grade EL on the internet. There was one in Cupertino, CA at a gun shop - quite a distance from Long Island, NY. The next day I found out work would take me to Northern CA the following week and I googled the address - just 50 minutes from where I was going. Thinking this might be fate I made the trip with FFL and cash in hand. When I arrived the used EL that I saw on the internet was not in as good a condition as was advertised and I was a bit disappointed. The store employee said there was another 1886 EL that was new in the box. The price on the used one was fixed due to consignment but the new one had some "wiggle room". The new one was esquisite and I asked the price. He said "same as the used one". I plunked down my FFL and cash that was $300 less than asking price and said "if this'll do I'll walk out with it". He said "I guess so, its been here for 3 years and has only been out of the box maybe one time". I drove back down to the ranch in Ione and took some cartridges out back with the new rifle. I peered at the target I hung 100 yards away and it was love at first sight. Boom-Ding. My first shot had me hooked. That rifle has been used to take 100 head of game in 6 States and 2 Countries.

Nath · Post by **Nath** » Thu Feb 27, 2014 4:46 pm

Somebody gave me a shot of their Browning 1886 in 45/70 at a range one day and that was that.

I had to settle for a cross bolt safety model 94 trapper in 30wcf....I don't remember my first shot but remember the grin every time I toted it! It took crows, rabbits, fox's and deer.

I may not have the older classics but I sure do dig it!

Nath