dedicated 38 special lever action

[UKShootist]

FWIW, in the UK, since our government stole our pistols, after a couple of years hiatus, pistol calibre lever action rifles became popular for use in gallery rifle competitions. Most of the .38 calibre rifles are .357 chambered but many, including members of my club that are on the UK gallery rifle team, load and shoot .38 Special cartridges in their .357s, loaded quite low in terms of powder. Usually about 3-4 grains of Bullseye or similar behind 158 grain bullets. Competitions are mainly shot at no more than 25 yards, except one that starts off at 50 yards. The favoured rifle make is Marlin (I have three, .357, .44, and 45-70). The accuracy of these shooters is pretty impressive too.

[Chev. William]

As an Idea, the 1890/1906 Winchester rifles can be made to feed three lengths of .22RF: Short, Long, and Long Rifle by fitting the Winchester part, a "toggle lever", into the mouth of the cartridge lifter lever.
This also worked on my Win. 1890 in .22WRF to feed both WRF and WMR length cartridges interchangeably.
I currently own two Win. 1890s that have this 'toggle lever' and they feed .22WMR or .22WRF interchangeably very well, thank you.
I have a "Project" one that I am converting to CF and to fire .25ACP that will also have the "Toggle Lever" in it to make it insensitive to cartridge loaded length.
Chev. William

[Walks]

After 60+yrs shooting pistol length chambered rifles, I go with the easiest solution.

During the 20+yrs when I was heavy into Cowboy Shooting, I had Rifles in all cartridges. I sold off most and kept my favorites.

I was very fortunate in that in the 1990's there were many qualified Cowboy Gunsmiths in So Cal.
With the stealing END of TRAIL by the wild bunch, and the gamers completely dominating the sport. And the Huge growth of the 3-Gun Modern Firearm Matches, there are no really fully qualified Gunsmiths left in SoCal to work on Lever Rifles. Except maybe one. There are a lot of Qualified Gunsmiths out there that can work on Lever Rifles.
Find a Fully Qualified One and have him set back the Barrel on a MARLIN.
That way you have a gun you can easily change the sights on, get parts easily, you don't need short-throw Lever.

Everyone's solutions are Great. This is just my opinion.