357 Mag/38 Special lever action rifles/carbines

I have found that a Marlin likes "hot" loads. Mine didn't group well with .38s or light .357s. Cranked up some full power 357s and the groups got a lot smaller.

Have the same problem as Federali with the loading gate spring, I found a small piece of wooden dowel to push the cartridge in is a big help in making your finger less sore.

Happy shooting!
 
I had the pre-safety Marlin in .357. A real fun gun. My only complaint was that the spring on the magazine cover was so strong you almost needed a crow bar to load the gun.

Mine is the same way plus the inside edges of the loading
port are as sharp as a knife. I plan to take the gun apart
some day and deburr the port and replace or weaken the
spring.
 
I have a 92 copy in 357. It's older, not marked Rossi, only Interarms. Like new condition and with good reason. It will only reliably feed jacketed bullets with no exposed soft lead at the tip like XTPs. Lead tipped bullets will almost always jam as the bolt tries to push the round into the chamber.
Just wondering if anyone here has this same problem or found a fix.
Thanks
 
I have a '92 Rossi lever action in 38/357. Very well built and quite reliable with one caveat. If you load with .38 special it will feed perfectly. If you load .357 only it will do the same. But if you mix the load it will jam trying to chamber a .357 after a .38. As I'm not handy with mechanical stuff I think I will just send mine to Nate Kiowa Jones for the fix. Or I could just do what I've been doing, load one or the other. But I'm inclined to send it to NKJ for slicking up. That way I won't be inclined to want to buy anything else (retired on fixed income).
 
You could stick to using Horandy XTP 357s. That bullet shape and construction will feed flawlessly. Then, there's the other issue of the extractor tossing the empty cases into the next county. Still, it's a classy little rifle. I'd love to know if there's a fix for the jamming issue.
 
A couple years ago I picked up a Rossi 92, 16" carbine in .38/ .357. It worked OK out of the box. But hardly ever being able to leaving well enough alone, I smoothed and cleaned up the action, and refinished the stock..

.38 Spl. recoil, is like shooting a .22. With .357's I'm getting 1600 fps with my 158 gr reloads. The rifle will feed SWC , but doesn't like them much. Everything else feeds pretty good.

A Fun little gun, :D
 

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You could stick to using Horandy XTP 357s. That bullet shape and construction will feed flawlessly. Then, there's the other issue of the extractor tossing the empty cases into the next county. Still, it's a classy little rifle. I'd love to know if there's a fix for the jamming issue.

Steve's Gunz Rossi 92 Video was a big help when I worked on my 92.. If you are handy I would recommend it. If not handy and/or not wanting to mess with it.. Check out sending it to Steve's Gunz.
 
While it's not exactly what you asked about I've got one of the Rossi Ranch Hands in .357/38 special and though not at all practical as far as a rifle goes it is a lot of fun to shoot and is a lever action.

Not terribly expensive and so far mine has been 100% reliable except for feeding 158gr .357mag soft points which is does not like to do. If Rossi offered on in .41mag. I'd be adding a second one to the collection.
 
92 Rossi .357 16 inch stainless

The 92 Rossi 16 inch .357 stainless is the greatest of them all ! Period I have the pre safety Marlin Carbine and a 1 st model 16 inch Win trapper and love them also but the stainless is a no brainer in a fun gun like these the safety on the bolt looks crappy but I don't use it at all , why would u ? also over 16 inch BBL length with a pistol cartridge is totally useless ! bullet doesn't get any faster after 16 inches in a pistol caliber ! doesn't have enough Arse behind it ! the 16 inch handles so well , u don't need a big heavy 20 or 24 inch esp octagon bbl in a pistol caliber for Gods sake ! gobbles up my 158 gr lead reloads like a machinegun swc and rn both , rn a little easier to get into loading gate , I only use .357 rounds / cases and have never had a fail to feed out of hundreds of rounds , only drawback is all the little rossi 's I have tend to shoot high ( even on lowest sight setting ) must take a fine bead at 25 to 50 yds and beyond , but they are a hoot ! and the stainless steel seals the deal I have all 3 the 44 /45lc /and the .357 and they are tops in my opinion ! Now if I could only get enough of u with me to beg them into making a .41 Magnum caliber one it would be the greatest ! the 45 LC is my personal favorite but the .357 with bulk cast bullets I can shoot cheap ! 41 steve
 
While it's not exactly what you asked about I've got one of the Rossi Ranch Hands in .357/38 special and though not at all practical as far as a rifle goes it is a lot of fun to shoot and is a lever action.

Not terribly expensive and so far mine has been 100% reliable except for feeding 158gr .357mag soft points which is does not like to do. If Rossi offered on in .41mag. I'd be adding a second one to the collection.
Out at SHOT I had a nice chat with the good folks at Rossi/Taurus about the Ranch Hand and the possible return of the Thunderbolt.

The one thing that shocked me was that the Ranch Hand has been discontinued in 22LR. I would have bet those would be under the Christmas trees of CAS children everywhere. However I am told sales were poor.

There are no new caliber introductions planned at this time. I would also jump on a 41 Magnum Ranch Hand to keep my two Marlins company.

The Thunderbolt came out with zero advertising budget and then was gone. I have one in 45LC myself and would buy another one in 357 if they were available. Perhaps even other calibers. One of my goals in stopping by the booth was to see if I could get them to let loose a part. Rossi/Taurus did agree to ship me a spare barrel for my Thunderbolt. I am going to thread it for a suppressor.

14 suppressed rounds of 300 grain 45LC JHPs moving at 1000 FPS ;)
 
"SWC" ? I'm new to rifles. The WC probably stands for wad cutter, but I'm clueless about the S.

Sorry,
SWC = Semi wad cutter. or you might see LSWC ( lead SWC )
A lot revolver ammo can / might be SWC or LSWC.

Round Nose, Truncated Cone , or Jacketed seem to feed better in my Rossi 92.
The LSWC will feed but every once in a while, the edge of the bullet will catch a little bit and
maybe shave a bit of lead.
 
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I don't have a .357 rifle/carbine but I have a Henry Big Boy in .45 Colt and I like it. It needs no tweaking to function smoothly and it's beautifully made. One either like's the load from the muzzle end magazine or not. I devised and made a quick loader tube using half inch copper tube and can dump ten rounds into it in a few seconds...I also like that it's made in the USA with all American materials by a family owned company...It's not cheap but it's not cheaply made. There is no crossbolt safety. It's not designed for scope mounting but I find a scope on pistol caliber leverguns to be an abomination...A good friend has a Marlin 1894 Cowboy Competition Carbine. It has a very smooth action and the trigger isn't bad. It's not as perfectly inletted or as accurate as my Henry but it is lighter. I understand why it's there but I don't like the safety...I had a Winchester 94 Trapper in 1990. The action with a pistol cartridge was a bit sloppy and the elevator broke soon after getting the rifle...Never had a Winchester 92.
 
I've been playing with .44 caliber lever-guns. Started with a stainless Rossi/Braztec .44mag 20" carbine. This a superb working and shooting gun that has served me well as a truck/ATV hunting gun. I've been a fan of the .44 magnum in longarms for years and this one has been just perfect!

My next two .44 lever-guns I picked-up last spring. Two .44-40 'project guns'...one an older Interarms Rossi M92 carbine with a cracked buttstock and a minor dent in the mag-tube plus a vintage M1892 Winchester sporting rifle with a badly dented mag-tube and a cracked forearm. Both fairly easy guns to repair although I did have to do some work on the Rossi .44-40's action to get it feeding smoother. Took longer to figure out what to 'smooth-up' and take it apart than it did to actually 'fix' it. These .44-40 lever-guns really sweet shooters too.

My latest .44-40 is another old original Winchester M1892 project-gun. This one a saddle-ring carbine that has been terribly used and abused. I just this weekend got it worked-over and repaired to shootability. Pleased to find that despite it's rough bore it will still shoot fair with jacketed bullets. I could fill paragraph after paragraph outlining this old gun's problems and repairs...however it's coming around.

I bought or traded for all three of my .44-40 project guns from the same guy who happens to be a Winchester accumulator. This guy has the coolest .357 mag 'truck-gun' I've seen to date! His .357 mag lever-gun is an old original Winchester he had converted to .357 magnum. I'm guessing it probably started life as a .32-20 saddle-ring carbine...
 
Turning 44/40s into 44 magnums and 32/20s into 357s was a common thing, back in the good old days. I read on SOME forum (maybe this one, but I'm not sure) of a guy with a Winchester 92 in 256 Winchester, which is a 357 necked down to 25. So his probably started out as a 25/20 - could use the same barrel that way.
 
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