First lever gun, what was yours?

[curdog]

Marlin 39a.

[budman5]

My first was a Marlin 1895 that I bought before the guide gun craze.
I had it shortened to 18 inches and used it for some years.
My favorites are now the pistol calibers marlins Rossi and Rugers.

[beltfed]

Mine IS a lightweight Winchester M1886, dated 1891, cal 45-70 that I bought for all of $60 in 1963 after college.
Half magazine . 24"round barrel. My only deer rifle for about 25 years. Accounted for a good number of Wi North Woods bucks
over the years with my cast bullet load-385 gr FNGC over 48 gr 3031. 1740fps.
beltfed/arnie

[MT Gianni]

Blr in 308.

[35 Rem]

Marlin 1894CL in 32-20. Greatest plinking/knockabout rifle I can even imagine. I put a Lyman peep sight on it so it retains its slim lines and it carries like a stick.

[BigEyeBob]

Marlin 1895 in 45_70 ,paid 50.00 dollars for it ,it was sliding around in the back of a ute ,all rusted and varnish blistered .I took it home and administered some TLC ,fortunately a drum of oil had ruptured over it some time previously and all the internals were coated in oil and dust .Good clean up and a stock refinish brought it back from the dead.Fitted a Williams receiver sight .Great scrub buster on hogs.
Now my lever gun stable has grown bigger with a M92 Rossi octagon barrel 24"in stainless in 357Mag ,two original Winchesters in 44-40 a 1910 made Model 92 and a 1873 of 1889 manufacture ,both in excellent condition .
I know its not a lever gun but it lives with my two Winchesters ,a Colt Lightening also in 44-40WCF ,in top condition just recently acquired .All three came from the same collection.

[steveu]

94 Winchester Canadian Centennial in 30-30.

[georgerkahn]

Mine was a Marlin in 30-30 Winchester.

Mine was a Winchester Model 1892 in .38WCF! I heard an ad on a local radio station swap-shop listing three firearms, and that 1892 was love at first sight. MOST sadly, I was a college student at the time and a fellow who was a collaborator in a class project came over and saw the rifle. Two days later he returned with two (also Native American) buddies who made no bones vis their wanting it. They offered a firearm in trade and it took no little thought that the only smart thing for me to do was to take their offer. Kind of like a few beads and trinket for Manhattan -- but I neither got burglarized nor the bungalow I was renting sustaining a house fire -- either which seemed a high probability having seen the fellows. A few years later I purchased a "replacement" (with a loose barrel I needed send out for repair) and, albeit, the same model and calibre -- it is not the same as my first love.
geo

[john.k]

Savage 99 in 250/3000 ,around 1967 ,I'd think.....Long gone ,as back in the day I was into increasing the bank ,not collecting guns.

[Hick]

1949 vintage Winchester Model 94 in 32 Winchester Special. My father-in-law was going into a care home so he gave away all his rifles. He gave his three scoped hunting rifles (30-06, 270 and 243, I think) to his two sons and other son-in-law, who were hunters. He gave me the old Winchester because "you don't hunt, the ammo is too expensive, and it's not good for anything anyway." That's what got me started on reloading and casting. I get waaay more fun and use out of that Winchester than all three of my brothers-in-law put together.

[WILCO]

Great story Hick!

[KCSO]

An Ithaca ss 22 lever 94 look alike.

[rockrat]

A Winchester 1892 in 25/20 with a sewer pipe for a bore. Grandad bought it for me because it was cheap! From a store in Burkburnett, TX.
Sent it off to get it re-lined, which cost more than the rifle, but it shot very well. Took the gun apart to do a trigger job. Came apart easily, but took a bit more work to put back together , and re-finished the wood. Still have it. Sometimes I had wished I had it lined to 32-20 instead of 25-20, so many more bullet moulds suitable for the 30's. Rectified that many years later when I found a decent 32-20.

[WILCO]

An Ithaca ss 22 lever 94 look alike.

My Uncle had one of those.
Was fun to shoot.

[WILCO]

A Winchester 1892 in 25/20 with a sewer pipe for a bore. Grandad bought it for me because it was cheap! From a store in Burkburnett, TX.
Sent it off to get it re-lined, which cost more than the rifle, but it shot very well. Took the gun apart to do a trigger job. Came apart easily, but took a bit more work to put back together , and re-finished the wood. Still have it. Sometimes I had wished I had it lined to 32-20 instead of 25-20, so many more bullet moulds suitable for the 30's. Rectified that many years later when I found a decent 32-20.

Heirloom gun!

[1I-Jack]

My first lever gun was a Daisy BB gun I got for Christmas back in the 60's. My first CF rifle was a Marlin 336 in 30-30. Moving to eastern Washington I got a lot of guff for having a 30-30. "Dang boy, you ain't gonna get a shot at less than 300 yards around here." Well, they shut up after the first year I went hunting with them and was the only one to tag a buck, shot at about 30 yards on a full run (gallop/sprint/ or whatever you call it). Those boys with their 30-06/8mm/ & 308 chased him right to me.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

My Dad owned a very nice 1894 carbine. He bought it from a very old gunsmith in 1952, and like many Winchesters that are carried the bluing was mostly gone on the receiver. My Dad removed it all so that the receiver was "in the white" with a silver appearance. He refinished the walnut stock and fore stock and they were much lighter than traditional walnut and came out almost blonde. The barrel had lots of blue left, and it contrasted nicely with the stock and receiver. I was kind of young and ignorant in those days and puzzled over why the white receiver didn't rust. My Dad did clean his guns regularly, but today I think that the receiver must have had a high nickel steel content. Everyone who came to visit our remote cattle ranch admired it, and he had a couple of offers to buy it. The carbine accounted for many deer, but I never used it myself, although I'm sure he would have let me. I was in love with my No.1 Mk. III* Lee Enfield. Eventually, about 1963, he sold the ranch and sold the carbine and a couple other firearms to help finance the move. So, this doesn't really answer the question as presented, "First lever gun, what was yours?"but it tells about the first one I was associated with.

The first one that I actually owned was also a '94 carbine, and it was brought to the gunsmithing school I attended to be worked on by a young pimply-faced student from Iowa. He may have disassembled, cleaned, and reassembled the carbine, but he definitely refinished the stock. After a few weeks he sold it to another young student from Michigan. He had become a friend of mine, and he and I and two other students went on an overnight camping trip to the Pawnee National Grasslands. We wandered here and there and eventually came to a
waterhole. There was a large tree by the hole and suddenly my young friend yelled, "Snake!" He brought up that '94 and my recollection to this day is that he fired from the hip. A huge snake, maybe 5 ft. in length of a bit longer fell out of the tree and into the waterhole, and as it fell through the air I could see that it had been shot almost in half, looking kind of like an open safety pin as it fell through the air. Well, another month or two and he put the rifle up for sale and I bought it from him. It is very accurate, better than most I'd say, and I've still got it. I wasn't too happy with the stock refinishing job that the original (?) owner had done, so I re-did that, and otherwise left it alone. The serial number is in the low 3 million range. So, that is the first one that I owned, back in about 1982.

Of course I acquired more, because once you own, shoot, and reload for a '94 you are hooked. My hands down favorite, but not my first, is a '94 Big Bore in .356 Win. that I ordered for a customer when I was in business. He declined to take it as it had a large scratch on the receiver, brand new, right out of the box. Must have happened at the distributor. I disassembled the entire rifle and re-blued the receiver and barrel down one grade from the high gloss blue to about a 350 grit finish. I replaced the high comb butt stock with a standard walnut carbine butt stock in semi-fancy walnut. The fore stock was already semi-fancy, and they match nicely. So, it ended up looking like a standard carbine. I value it highly and it will be among those my heirs will have to dispose of, as will be the incredible snake gun.

DG

[Minerat]

Mine was a Daisy Cub 350 shot BB gun too (1963). Then a Win 94 LIMITED EDITION CENTENNIAL .30 WCF (safe queen) my wife got me for our 8th anniversary. First shooter a Marlin 336A .30-30.

[00buck]

I bought a 1952 Marlin 336 RC with the perch belly forearm.
Back when you could buy Marlins for under $200 all day.

Wheel weights were free back then too.

[Slugster]

My first lever gun was a .444 Marlin.