Lever action

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Blindstitch

New member
Guess it's a good thing he's not hunting anywhere near Yooper Game Wardens.

But since you brought it up I was pulled over in Baraga County before for shining deer and they wanted to search my truck. The guy kind of felt like an idiot when he read the address on my drivers license and it was the same as the mailbox he was standing next to.

Besides that I was on my way home from work after a long day and had no gun. It might not have even been bow or gun season but open for indian tags.
 
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Deerhunt

New member
I was at a gun and knife show today and ran across 2 older Rossi carbines in 357 mag. Both in great-excellent condition. Both were $600. Good deal?
 
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Blue Duck

New member
I might get blasted for what I am about to say, as I can see there are several fans of the Rossi on here, but be careful of the older Rossi's and maybe it has something to do with different runs or years of production, etc.

Any anyrate, I read glowing reports on the Rossi, but my personal experiences with two different Rossi .357's was not good, they both were accurate, but bad to jam, and I tried handloads, different brands of factory loads and finally gave up and took both back to the dealer and he traded back with me, for the Winchester 94 angle eject, in .357 that I had traded him. I do know there are gunsmiths that make a living on fixing and slicking up the Rossi leveractions for cowboy shooters.

I consider the Marlin .357 to be pretty good, although I have seen issues with the 44mag Marlins. I personally own a Browning .44 mag leveraction and it has been great, no problems with it. And I also own a Uberti 73 in .357 mag, and while I did have a little issue with it, at first regarding the loading gate area, I took it apart and cleaned up a couple of burrs and it has been golden ever since, and very accurate, and reliable, but about twice the price of a Rossi.

My Winchester 94 angle eject in .357 was very accurate and pretty reliable.

I know lots of people like the Rossi, but you might want to be prepared to spend some more money on it to get it to work good, maybe not. The Browning is out of production and expensive also, but if you get a chance to buy one, you would probably like it.

Personally, I rank the Browning and Uberti 73's at the top of the list, and then the Marlin and Winchester, but the Uberti is a weaker action, so hot handloads are out for it, but you don't really need hot handloads, anyway. Although the .357 with heavy bullets handloaded does have some wallop.
 
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reddog81

New member
It's been a while since the .357's were easy to find. The .44's and 45's have been in stock with good deals on them for just the last couple of weeks. Hopefully the .357's are back in stock soon. I've been looking for one for a number of months.
 
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ripnbst

New member
I just paid $325 out the door for a 1972 production JM stamped Marlin 336 in 30-30 (albeit in a pawn shop). I'd say $600 for a Rossi is really high.


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Tony Z

New member
I was at a mid-PA gun shop (Grices) and there were at least 4 336 JM's on the used rack. All .30-30 and only one had safety. Prices ranged from $380 to $440. Conditions were decent and very acceptable. I believe there were a couple of Rossi's, but none of the octagon barrel that I'm searching for.
 
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PatientWolf

New member
Hey patientwolf, how long ago wasis that Walmart was able to order on?
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Camnus - I believe it was last August so a little farther back than you indicated, but it was pretty painless. I picked up a SS 18".

I just looked at the Rossi website and see the model I got (with the barrel band not the end cap) doesn't seem to be listed in .357.
 
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gearhounds

New member
Better late than never; I would buy a nice, solid pre-Remington Marlin .44 mag. The .41 mag offers a slightly flatter shot, but if you don't reload will cost a bundle to feed. While the .357 can and does take deer, the .44 does it so much better, and is neck and neck with the 30-30. The only issue, looking at your regs, is capacity; the standard 20" is 10+1.

There are a few factory options at 16" for Marlin .44's, but they tend to carry a much higher price tag. It may actually be cheaper to find a nice used 20" specimen and have a competent smith shorten it to 16.5" as I did. I found a 1978 that some fool had drilled a hole in the end of the barrel (for what reason I can only guess) and now have a custom deer slayer.



 
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Deerhunt

New member
Anybody know what calibers you can rechamber a 32 special for? Because there's a good deal on one and I could keep it in 32 but I couldn't use it for deer
 
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Blindstitch

New member
Anybody know what calibers you can rechamber a 32 special for? Because there's a good deal on one and I could keep it in 32 but I couldn't use it for deer
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Depending on the year keep the 32 a 32. It's a lot more valuable that way. A 30-30 is basically the same necked down so if you want to destroy a gun use the 30-30 as a base. Then you're still going to need a barrel in the caliber of the bullet you want to end up with.

Best advice is to buy the gun in the caliber you want instead of paying gunsmith fees and possibly getting a gun that you don't want.
 
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Blindstitch

New member
Gearhounds,
That's a pretty excessive gas port. Maybe they were experiencing with porting like a muzzle brake. A hole facing up would keep the recoil from pushing upward and the value pushing downward.

It's a shame what some people do to guns.
 
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gearhounds

New member
"Gearhounds,
That's a pretty excessive gas port. Maybe they were experiencing with porting like a muzzle brake. A hole facing up would keep the recoil from pushing upward and the value pushing downward.

It's a shame what some people do to guns."

I'm not certain what the reasoning was; the pawn shop where I picked it up also had a Winchester .22 mag in the same condition (Jesus wept) so the only thing I can extrapolate is that they were owned by an old farmer that kept them on nails just inside the farmhouse door. The bore was even bubba-countersunk, as you can see through the hole.

I have an affinity to shorty lever guns, so the tragedy of its treatment was welcome as the price of the gun was substantially lower than market value.
 
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