What is a good 44 mag lever action rifle?

[35 Whelen]

I think Rossi's should be viewed through the same lens as a Lee mould; you get what you pay for, and that's coming from a Rossi owner. I went through my '92 Rossi .357 and it's now slick enough for CAS. I haven't done tons of load development, but found a 170 gr. jacketed HP running 1700 fps was way more than accurate enough for deer to 100 yds.

Regarding octagon barrels, I don't really have anything against them, but they add quite a bit of weight to a rifle. Not a problem if you just shoot it at the range or sit in a deer stand, but I love traipsing pastures and bottoms with a short, handy rifle. That's why I bought the above pictured Uberti.

35W

[C A Plater]

I am fortunate enough to own 2 .44 lever guns. The first one I got was the little Marlin 94 "guide" carbine with a 16" ported barrel. It's a great carry in the wood rifle. There is only thing I would like to do is to replace the 1-38 twist barrel with a 1-20 one. That would let me get better accuracy with heavy cast and loose those annoying ports. The other one is a Miroku made 92 Winchester/Browning. It's action is like butter and it locks up like a bank vault. It has spoiled me so that I will have to save big money to get a new lever gun that measures up.

[MBTcustom]

I have a Ruger 77/44 with a 1:20" twist. It's quite worthless. Why? Because boolits bigger than 240gr SWC won't chamber or fit in the mag! So in the end, a 1:38" twist would be more appropriate.

Your comment is really really really uneducated and backward. (no offense. Just stating the truth).
1-38 twist will not stabilize the lightest bullets past about 75 yards. 1-18 is the correct twist for all occasions in that caliber. 1-20 is suitable for the light weight bullets and 1-16 would be truly excellent for long heavy bullets.

[ironhead7544]

I have a Marlin 1894 24" octagon barrel in 44 Magnum. It is a bit fussy about what it will shoot. The basic 240 gr factory loads shoot very well and so do equivalent handloads. For boolits, you need about .433 or so. I just tried some 200 gr RNFPs at 1325 fps and was very pleased with the accuracy. After 100 shots, there was no leading in the Ballard type rifling.

Today, I would go with the Henry. The Big Boy Steel looks about right. It has a lighter round barrel and is about 7 lbs.

[6pt-sika]

Your comment is really really really uneducated and backward. (no offense. Just stating the truth).
1-38 twist will not stabilize the lightest bullets past about 75 yards.

Shows what you know , I've taken more then one Marlin 336-44 and shot very nice groups with cast bullets up to 300 grains at 100 yards with no yaw . Also shot some 325's in one of the guns at 100 yards and I will admit they were starting to yaw but accuracy was within 2" so I wouldn't have been afraid to shoot deer with them inside 100 yards . And of course a highly uhm intelligent person like yourself knows the Marlin 336-44 had the 1-38 twist . And to further enlighten you Ranchdog used a Marlin 336-44 1-38 gun to work up his beginning 44 MAG loads with his 265 and 300 grain loads .

[Crawdaddy]

I will second the 96/44 if you can find one. I love mine. IIRC the largest boolit I could get to cycle was a 300 gr.

[aHFo3]

I've owned a Winchester 94ae trapper and a Marlin 1894. I still have the Marlin. I like the 1894 action better than the Winchester. The Marlin is simple to take down for cleaning.

[Shuz]

I've owned a Winchester 94ae trapper and a Marlin 1894. I still have the Marlin. I like the 1894 action better than the Winchester. The Marlin is simple to take down for cleaning.

aHFo3--I agree, to a point! The Marlin 1894 is much easier to take down than the Winnies. However, in my experience with 2/ea Marlin 1894's in .44mag, my Winnie 94AE Trapper and my Winnie 20"AE, both in .44 mag, outshot the Marlins accuracy wise by a wide margin, so I sold the Marlins! The Winnies are also not so finickey in type of boolit ie swc and OAL as my Marlins were.
By no means am I a Marlin basher, as I have a couple of 336's in .30-30 and 1/ea .444 Marlin XLR with a 1:20" twist, and I love them all, and they all shoot great. The problem with Marlin 1894's in .44mag IMHO, is that the twist rate at 1:38" is not the best twist for a .44 round. Some guys have got them to shoot "OK" with super fat boolits, but I don't believe any of them have achieved the accuracy that I have out of my Winchester 1894AE's in .44 mag.

[44man]

I would love to see groups at 100 with a 300 gr or over from a marlin .44. Not going to happen. Minute of a 4'x4' board.
The problem with the Ruger was the magazine but single shot did well with heavy boolits. I did not know twist rates. Seems to be 1 in 20".

[rking22]

Any thoughts on the 1978 Browning repro of the Win 92? I shot mine a lot up into the 80s but really don't remember details about how it shot or what I was using. I know it was cast and from 22 backstop lead and 240is gr, but that's about all. This thread has me wound up about digging it out and doing some shooting! I don't have any heavy .430 molds, 220 to 265 gr. I have an NOE 230 gr RF that I use in my 696, thinking that may be useful as I think the 92 has a 1 in 38 , but not really sure. Have not pulled the trigger on that little rifle in over 20 years,,, gotta fix that!

[nicodiesel]

i own a old marlin, a winchester trapper and a henry big boy. they all shoot good with cast and jacketed up to 310gr. i personly would not buy the newer marlin.

[6pt-sika]

I would love to see groups at 100 with a 300 gr or over from a marlin .44. Not going to happen.

Wow I must have had two MIRACLE rifles then !