Lever-gun fingerbanging

nsgallup

nsgallup

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Innuendo aside...

I have encountered a bit of an issue with my Marlin 45-70, when loading hot I find that the frame of the the lever really does a number on my middle finger. My temporary solution is to wear gloves or simply holding outside the loop. I have thought about maybe cutting off the part of the lever that hits my finger, but would rather not do that if I can help it.

The offending part is circled, my excellent MS paint skills at work
0xU89MO.jpg



Any other ideas?
 
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Googled your question.... rephrased the question and googled again.... cowboy action shooters seem to leather wrap their lever guns... not sure if you could wrap the area you circled... but i only took a quick look in cyberspace...
 
I would keep my hand out of the lever. I would not cut the lever. I have a few Winchester 1886s that have done the same thing to my fingers. A curved pistol grip helps. The other solution would be to scale back your loads. You don't need violent recoil to kill animals with a 45-70.
 
A funny little tie in......... how many fingers are you putting in?, lol.

Seriously though, do you put your Middle > Pinky fingers in the lever loop?
 
I've owned a number of Marlin '94s and one of them had the trigger straightend out to prevent the well known "Marlin trigger pinch" . It wasn't the cleanest of Smithing jobs but it worked. And yes, us cowboy shooters generally have wraps on the levers to save on damage to the knuckles when running the rifle fast.
 
Pull out before cycling. :) The index finger that is...

Before getting it leather wrapped, a quick fix would be a little hockey tape over some thin packing material, that spongy stuff, also used as underlay for laminate flooring. If that works, leather wrap is in order. Index finger out first though...
 
Aftermarket large loops are available, but somewhat expensive, but that pretty much solves the problem (and looks good too). My 45-70 SBL is no problem with hot loads
 
So I don't think I can wrap with leather as the trigger when depressed gets quite close to it, and tried the pinky outside the lever but that just puts it into a position where it gets banged instead of my index finger

Will try hockey tape
 
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I had a similar problem with my marlin 444 and funny enough there is a cgn member on here who makes "knucklesavers" which is a little strip of leather which you can thread onto the lever and thus saving your knuckles. I'll look up his username here and let you know. I found his work excellent and his prices fair.

Always use protection, even if you're just "finger banging"
 
GMC403 said:
Try shooting with your pinky on the outside back of the lever, only 2 in the loop.

Works for me.
Click to expand...

This was my original solution to big fingers and small levers but I went a different route eventually with a "larger" loop lever. I don't like those big aftermarket jobs that have 4" of room before you make contact to cycle so I modified my own to fit me.
Here's a pic:
U7glKU5.jpg


Granted this is with a pistol grip, that I'm not a fan of, but I'm in the process of doing the lever on my FrankenSavage 99 and will be doing a couple of my straight stock Marlins in the near future. If I'm keeping them, they're gonna fit me.

It's a pretty simple job to modify one if you can weld and run a file.
 
nsgallup said:
So I don't think I can wrap with leather as the trigger when depressed gets quite close to it, and tried the pinky outside the lever but that just puts it into a position where it gets banged instead of my index finger

Will try hockey tape
Click to expand...

Unless you are into fast shooting/cycling - pulling out the INDEX finger will leave it away from damage... It is the other fingers that does the work anyway.
 
NL-Hunter said:
Unless you are into fast shooting/cycling - pulling out the INDEX finger will leave it away from damage... It is the other fingers that does the work anyway.
Click to expand...

Until I read this ^^^ I totally misunderstood the issue. I had to go cycle my 444 to realize I point my index finder out when I cycle the lever.

Do some folks leave their finger in the trigger loop to cycle?
 
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