Winchester or marlin?? Lever-action

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imark93

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Hi looking to buy a lever action rifle. Please tell me if I posted this in the wrong section.. I have been looking at either the marlin 1894( cowboy) or the Winchester 1873 model. Winchester is double the price but I would say is the more original. A replica yes, but not a replica of a replica if you know what I'm saying. I've heard heard before that marlin is making crap guns now because Remington owns them now? Is this true. Please give me your advice guys. This is the first rifle I'm going to buy and I don't want to get the wrong thing and regret it! Thanks

Marlin:
http://www.marlinfirearms.com/firearms/cowboy/1894_45colt.asp

Winchester:
http://www.winchesterguns.com/products/catalog/category.asp?family=027C
 
Most likely looking shoot just for fun, it just attracts me because of it's history. I want it because it's a cowboy gun. I want the closest thing to it but not sure if the Winchester is worth it.
 
Thought about a BLR at all?? My Model 81 is the best lever I have ever owned, by far.
Just askin'....:)
 
freddyfour said:
What do you want to do with this rifle? Both are nice guns but the Marlin action is a lot stronger if you want to load her up for hunting.
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That is not nessessarliy true. I have a Winchester rifle in 44 Magnum and I have 300 grain WFN cast bullets for it. I can load that bullet long for more powder room and it will still function/repeat 100% through this rifle and this is not so in a Marlin 1894.
 
imark93 said:
Most likely looking shoot just for fun, it just attracts me because of it's history. I want it because it's a cowboy gun. I want the closest thing to it but not sure if the Winchester is worth it.
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If you're looking for a Winchester to shoot for fun and because you're attracted by it's history...why don't you buy an original, lots of history there! Try a forum search on older Winchesters or on ''Win 38-55'' (member here) and you'll be amazed to see how these rifles shoot (and look) at a 100 meters!
OK
 
stubblejumper said:
I much prefer Marlin, because they are easy to disassemble, to allow cleaning from the breach.
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The '73 is pretty easy as well, it is not like their 94's and after all it is 'the gun that won the west'!


If it is just a fun gun I would go with a '73, but I would get a Uberti instead. The 73's are one of the slickest guns around and a lot of fun to shoot!

IMG_2527.jpg
 
Brutus said:
That is not nessessarliy true. I have a Winchester rifle in 44 Magnum and I have 300 grain WFN cast bullets for it. I can load that bullet long for more powder room and it will still function/repeat 100% through this rifle and this is not so in a Marlin 1894.
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I forgot that they are making them in 44 mag now. They must have really strengthened the toggle action in the last couple years.
 
imark93 said:
Most likely looking shoot just for fun, it just attracts me because of it's history. I want it because it's a cowboy gun. I want the closest thing to it but not sure if the Winchester is worth it.
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What I would recommend is that you buy neither, instead get one of the Miroku Re-production Winchesters, either a Model 1886 in .45-70, or a Model 1895 in .405Win.

You will pay more money, but you get what you pay for. You would not regret it. I own 3 M1895's and 1 M1886.
 
I have 2 44mag levers, and just sold the 3rd. My favorite is the rossi 92, and I have a 1970 marlin and just sold a 2012 model marlin(worked great, no issues) because I thought 3 was a crowd and I used the $ for other rifles. I was originally looking for a 357 but like the 44 a lot. Nice and light too. I would buy another rossi anytime.
 
Virtually everyone has a horror story about 1 or more firearms that they have owned. He's my lever horror story;

In '94 I was looking for a lever in .357 because I was doing alot of .357 shooting out of my S&W M66 and wanted a cheap and easy round that I could reload in abundance. After looking around for about 6-8 months I couldn't find one, I even phoned Winchester! The nice lady said that they didn't have enough calls to start manufacturing them again. Remember this was before Cowboy Action got bigger.

I finally gave up on .357 and found a Winchester Wrangler in .44 Magnum. Shades of John Wayne that large loop lever was kewl! Little did I realize that with 2 years, I'd start shooting Cowboy Action. I did lots of testing and came up 7.2 grains of Unique pushing a 240 grain LSWC bullet as an accurate target load.

Within the first 20 rds down range, the pot metal feed ramp broke. Off for warranty work! Eight months later I get the rifle back. After every 50 rds the rear sight elevator would fall off. So we have to install a Williams rear sight! Shooting again after every 50 rds the screws in the receiver would work loose. Locktite!! After 1,500 rds the tubular magazine spring gave up the ghost! Wolfe Gunsprings to the rescue. After this the Lever Link broke, 3 months and 5 nasty letters later, Winchester told me they would sell me the part but without warranty! They wanted me to send the gun to the warranty centre again!

That was the last straw, I found a sucker to buy the Winchester and bought a Pre-Rem Marlin M1894S, after 8,000 rds through it, it broke a firing pin. After 12,000 rds it broken the back part of the firing pin, replaced it with a 1 piece firing pin. So far no problems. I love the quality a Pre-RemMarlin built in. I have a number of pre 1920 Winchesters that work flawlessly, also I purchased recently a Uberti M73, which I would also recommend.

P.S. My Wrangler was one of 4 Wranglers in town with the same problems.
 
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