question for 357 lever

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brandon6976

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Hello guys I wanted to get into Cowboy shooting in the spring. I have 2 single action revolvers, a coach gun and I've been looking for lever guns. I know Marlin was really popular but I've heard recently the quality just took a nose dive and is to be avoided.

I saw Marstar is selling Chaparral Arms which I don't see many places does anyone have one of these or know much about them ? i did some searching and saw a post or so of guys saying they were pretty good.

Also if anyone wants to chime in with what they think is a good lever for the money. I'm not looking for anything super special and tricked out that costs a boat load but I don't want to under spend and get something that'll jam and generally cause lots of headaches either.
 
Uberti 1873, around $1300.00. Excellent gun. Once you start shooting, you can have the short stroke kit and spring kit installed. Or you can get the Rossi/Puma 92, for around $550.00, it is as it is, but is reliable. Winchester have reintroduced the 92, at around $1000.00 to $1100.00, but for that money you are better to buy the Uberti 1873.
 
Virtually everyone has a horror story about 1 or more firearms that they have owned. Here'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 Marlin M1894S, after 8,000 rds through it, it broke a firing pin. I love the quality Marlin builds in.

P.S. My Wrangler was one of 4 Wranglers in town with the same problems.
 
Uberti then the Puma. Don't waste your time with anything else. If you buy the puma you will want the uberti.

You can find the 1860 yellowboy for a little less but it only shoots 38spl. If you are just gaming with it, it's fine and will save your some dough. The key here is the vertical cartridge elevator works better with the smooth wall 38's and 357's. The angle type in the marlin, puma and others binds on lockup slowing you down.

Save yourself the hassle and buy the Uberti, you will never have to buy another.
 
If you can find an older Marlin in good shape that may be your best bet for you $.... I have one that was built before they put in the crossbolt safety and just love it... It will only hold 9 rounds of .357, so i use .38 in it so I can get a full 10 rounds in the tube...

I also have a .45 Rossi '92 and after a lot of polishing of the internals and lightening of some of the springs it is as slick as greased lightning..... If you can this work yourself it is also a great value for your money...

I have shot plenty of Uberti 73's and 66's and they are great guns right out of the box, but they are on the pricey side, but as they say you get what you pay for...

As previously mentioned the Win 94's in pistol calibers seem to have their issues... I have replaced quite a few shell carriers (elevators) for fellow shooters over the years... I started with a Trailsend '94 in 45 Colt and it worked well for me for a couple years, but after seeing the issues others were having I dumped it...
 
I have shot CAS for a while and I have owned Winchesters 94 and 92, Marlins,and Uberti 73s. I would recommend that you start with either a Uberti 73 or a old Marlin Cowboy if you can find one. A good used Marlin will run you around $800.00, a Uberti new about $1500.00 with tax. The new Ubertis are useable rite out of the box and there are lots of upgrades as you progress. Most of the fast guys use tricked out Uberti 73s, however a tuned Marlin Cowboy can compete with the best of the 73s ( see Marauders website). The CAS speed rifle record was held by a Marlin. Winchester 92s and clones can be tuned well for CAS however I find them hard to disassemble and not easy work on, and when run really fast, unless they are perfectly timed, they have a tendency to spit live rounds out the top. Winchester 94s in any of their models are not robust enough to last long the way we run them.
Just my 2 cents worth, hope it helps.
 
Although they are a SASS legal main match rifle, I would avoid the Henry Big Boy. They have a very long lever throw, and their extractors have a tendency to fall off. (on top of that they are not a copy of any 1800s rifle and they are butt ugly)
 
albog said:
Before you do, try a Henry Big Boy - the smoothest action in all lever rifles, very reliable and accurate. A little pricey, though, around $1K.
Click to expand...

Very few Cowboy action shooters use them, they can be very slow to reload if you shoot a stage where you have to load on the clock!
 
My 1st lever gun was a 92 Puma.357mag, mainly cause I could afford it at the time, this year I got a 1866 Yellowboy from Uberti .38spl. add all the bells and whistles and I'm at $2000 but man I love it.
My 92 will be a great back up gun and my wife likes it it's lighter than the 66.
If you can get the Uberti go for it you won't regret it, I got mine at The Gun Room. Great experience with them.
Frenchy
 
I know that the chapparral has two different elevating blocks for the 73. With the chapparell you buy the 357 and then have to purchase the 38 special elevating block to run the shorter rounds but I know anything about the uberti's sorry
 
If you're going to shoot .38spl in a Puma, you should know that they are OAL sensitive. I reload mine at 1.5" long. My Uberti 66 shoots them no problems. My buddys Chapparal 66 likes em as well.
Best of Luck to you and Happy Trails.
 
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