.357 mag lever action

[surfer365]

I would get the Marlin...

I just ordered the Marlin Cowboy II in 44 magnum. More money than the Puma at $960 but man is it a nice gun. I held one in 357mag but really wanted the 44mag so had to order it.

Any of the choices listed would be a great lever gun, but I favor the Marlins!

 

[Buffalo Creek Law Dog]

If you want to get the 10th cartridge in, just cut the mag spring. That's what CAS folks do to their Marlin 94C rifles in .38/.357. Cut one coil at a time until all 10 go in.

 

[BCRider]

Being ignorant of the rules of Cowboy shooting; in reloading ammunition could you cut the case of a .38spl down by roughly an eigth of an inch? Useing the numbers you gave above. This would allow the 10th round into the tubular magazine.

is that 9 .38spl what? round nose, swc, wad cutters does it matter on the feeding of the rounds too. cause if thats 9 round nose you could easily fit 10 wad cutters in there.

just a thought i don't know cause i can't find a cheep enough one yet
some day and one day will merge and i will own one of these

If you were to use wadcutters that fit right down in the casing then yeah, you could fit 10. But I seriously doubt it would feed them properley. The folks at the event where my SWCFP bullets were acting up mentioned that RNFP work far better so obviously the 94 action is sensitive to bullet nose shape for feeding. Watching one chamber the elevator does present the bullet at an angle so there needs to be some shape to the front to guide the round into place. The gun is also sensitive to the overall cartridge length and shortening them by going with a buried wadcutter isn't going to help this aspect either.

As for cutting down the casings to make them shorter the same feeding issues could easily arise. Apparently switching to .357 casings removes a lot of the feeding issues with the SWCFP bullets. So shortening .38 cases would likely result in adding some funky feeding issues based on the longer case curing them.

For the Marlins getting that 10th round in must be a really near thing. If I did that with the 16 inch Puma I'd have to cut off most of the spring based on the idea that the magazine spring is fully compressed and the only way to get the extra round in is to cut off a .38Spl length of fully compressed spring. At that point I doubt it would have enough spring left to work properly for the whole magazine worth of rounds. With the 20 inch Puma it's not an issue since it takes 10 x .357 or 11 x .38 with ease.

 

[sahara]

I have a 20 inch barrel Rossi. Fantastic gun, top notch quality. Fit, finish, and quality of materials are as nice as Marlin or Winchester if not better, and don't look like they've been dipped in plastic like most Brownings I've seen. Paid $400 for it on the EE, in minty shape.

 

[freddyfour]

Another thought, with the money you save on the Puma you can take it to a good smith and have them slick it up a little more so she's nice and fast for cowboy shooting!!

 

[Amphibious]

I've had an urge for a .357 Marlin 1894 for a long time.... maybe next year..

a good read:

http://www.leverguns.com/articles/taylor/357magnum.htm

 

[super7]

I had the Winchester and a Rossi in 357. My Rossi fed the 38spl rounds more reliably than the winchester and was at least as accurate. YMMV.

 

[Edward Teach]

What 3 companys would you look at if you buying a .357 mag lever action rifle?

Marlin, Marlin, and Marlin.

 

[tactical870]

I've got a rossi with the 16" barrel. Tons of fun and very accurate. Doesn't like SWC ammo though.... I only shoot jacketed ammo out of it for reliability. Hornady has some leverevolution .357 out now too but it's a little hard to find.

 

[lgholden]

What BCRider said- The Rossi/Puma is somewhat particular about ammo is in it. FWC don't work reliabily at all, and even SWC sometimes jam. I use RNFP cowboy loads in it, works every time.

I suspect other leaver guns are particular as well.

LGH