357 lever action

big difference in recoil. for the money the marlin and henry's are i would get a winchester or uberti

Far less recoil then a 30-30.

Not as "flat shooting" as the 30-30 either...

IMHO, there is no comparing the recoil of my .357 Marlin carbine to my 30-30 Winchester 64 rifle.
The .357 has way less recoil, and it is a much lighter gun.
Like bfoosh says though, the 30-30 does have the edge for longer shots.

But hearing that it will be grandsons out with the .357, I would imagine you are limiting shot distances
to 100 or hopefully less (from a stand or blind?).

JT

Last year two of my daughters deer hunted for the first time, one with a Henry .357, the other with a CVA .44mag. First range trip while getting them ready I brought some .38SPL I’d loaded for a wheel gun and thought I had a squib despite the hole in the target. With .357 the sight picture barely moved. The .44mag. felt about like an AR carbine. Wish I had skipped over .357 and bought two .44s Even my youngest at (then) 55 lbs had no trouble with the smaller magnum off a sandbag.

There is very little recoil in a Rossi 1892 clone in either .357 or .45 Colt, even when loaded pretty warm. The .44 Mag Win 1894 Trapper has a touch more recoil when loaded full-house with 240-265 gr bullets, but it's a bit less than the 30-30 in a similar gun.

If your grandson's shots are 50-75 yards, the .357 will be perfect with 158-180 gr full house loads (provided they're on target with it). It'll do 100 yds, but that's just about pressing the cartridge to it's limit.

Now a stout .45 Colt or .44 Mag will go 125-150 yds if you're sighted in and ready for the rainbow trajectory.

The Hornady FTX load in any of these calibers may make distant shots easier to achieve due to better aerodynamics and somewhat less drop as it moves to 100+ yds.

Good luck, hopefully they'll do well this fall.

Stay safe.

I’m guessing MI allows straight wall cartridges now? When Iowa changed over for youth it was a no-brainer for me. My oldest started with muzzleloader at 12 but he’s considerably larger than his sisters. Now at 15 and 6’2” I can barely keep him in clothes that fit. Unless you’ve got a mess of grandkids coming up in the future I’d say invest in the bigger caliber if they can handle the weight. The recoil won’t be a problem.

Edited to add: especially for youngsters it’s vital to find a way to fit the stock. You’ll notice that rifle wears a Beartooth cheek riser to help align eye with scope. Every “youth” rifle I own has something akin to this set-up.

ontarget said:

Was looking at picking up a lever action in 357 mag to go with my new SAA revolver. I'm wondering if those that have one or have fired one can tell me about the recoil compared to a 30-30? I have 2 grandsons that will be deer hunting this year and thought maybe this might be a good fit to fill that role. What do you fine folks think?

Click to expand...

Have a 5.5 lb RUGER 77/357.


And w/ Federal AE 158 gr. JSP ammo?

Kicks like a squirt-gun.

Well, maybe a Super-soaker.




GR

My Rossi '92 in .357 feels like a .22. It's always a big hit with new shooters, because the recoil isn't harsh and it's easy to hit the target. I think you're on the right track.

I dont think recoil will be an issue. My 1894c tames the .357 right down.

I have a Rossi Model 92 in .45 Colt to go with my three single action revolvers that are also chambered for that cartridge. Recoil is a little more than a comparable .357 lever gun but nothing that kids couldn't handle.

Garandimal said:

Have a 5.5 lb RUGER 77/357.

View attachment 853673​

And w/ Federal AE 158 gr. JSP ammo?

Kicks like a squirt-gun.

Well, maybe a Super-soaker.




GR

Click to expand...

Thread Hijack......

You like? It has been on my short list for a while now.

Back to the lever gun......

Kicks is not a word I would describe it.....I generally shoot only 38's in mine, from mild to pretty darn hot. You can REALLY down load them and have something that is a great plinker. One reason I got it was when 22 dries up again I will have something that would be fun to shoot that I can load for....real cheap.

They are really fun guns to shoot.

I was waiting to get tires installed at Walmart on Friday. I got bored waiting and wandered over to the sporting goods section to kill time. They had a Marlin lever in the carousel display,I didn't check the caliber. I couldn't believe something like that left the factory,let alone put it on display. The furniture fitment looked like a child did it and the metal finish was a sad sight to see. Maybe this rifle was one of the older manufactured units from the problem years,but there is no way I would buy one of these sight unseen. I was sure glad I saved a little longer and purchased Win/Miruko.

I've shot a lot of lever guys, amd I'm recoil sensitive. 30-30 has a lot more recoil than a 357. A lot. But a 357 does not feel like a 22. At all. 357 is however, very managable for even the most sensitive shooters. Especially offhand. And a 38spl fired in a lever gun does have virtually no recoil.

A 44 mag is a noticable step up from the 357 in the recoil department. It's not bad offhand, but it wasn't very pleasant off a bench.
30/30 is ok offhand, but I do not enjoy it off a bench at all unless it has a recoil pad. Even then, I'm not going to spend much time benhind one. I don't know if it's the design of the stock, the generally light weight, or the poor recoil pads on most of them, but in amy opinion, a 30-30 kicks harder than a 243 in a bolt gun.

The factory sights on a Rossi leave a lot to be desired. Other than that, I love mine. Hot loads are on par with the recoil of a marlin 336 30-30. But it is tremendously lighter.

ontarget said:

Was looking at picking up a lever action in 357 mag to go with my new SAA revolver. I'm wondering if those that have one or have fired one can tell me about the recoil compared to a 30-30? I have 2 grandsons that will be deer hunting this year and thought maybe this might be a good fit to fill that role. What do you fine folks think?

Click to expand...

I just picked up a Marlin 1894 in .357. Shooting .38 Special is akin to shooting .22WMR...virtually no recoil. I haven't put any .357 thru it yet...but I imagine the recoil will be negligible.

Had one. Under powered for a rifle. Sold it. Got 44mag. Way better energy out there. If it doesn't match the pistol get a 44mag. Don't get me wrong. I use to not like 44mag for recoil. But then I shot a Taurus revolver 6.5" ported. Can't go wrong. The older 70s Ruger Blackhawk 7" non ported nice shooter too.
Shoot nothing but 240gn jsp in both. Love it.

I let go of my Rossi 92 in .45 caliber, thinking that in the future I would pick up a Rossi in 357. Not one of my better ideas.

I let my first 20” Rossi .357 go because it was a lemon and wouldn’t feed anything reliably... even after a trip to a CAS gunsmith.

The second one I now own feeds well but the extractor chews up the rims a bit. I’ve worked the extractor ala Steve’s Gunz, but it’s still stiff.

This is my only beef with either of the 16” Rossi’s I currently own (.45C and .357)

Stay safe.,

greyling22 said:

I've shot a lot of lever guys, amd I'm recoil sensitive. 30-30 has a lot more recoil than a 357. A lot. But a 357 does not feel like a 22. At all. 357 is however, very managable for even the most sensitive shooters. Especially offhand. And a 38spl fired in a lever gun does have virtually no recoil.

A 44 mag is a noticable step up from the 357 in the recoil department. It's not bad offhand, but it wasn't very pleasant off a bench.
30/30 is ok offhand, but I do not enjoy it off a bench at all unless it has a recoil pad. Even then, I'm not going to spend much time benhind one. I don't know if it's the design of the stock, the generally light weight, or the poor recoil pads on most of them, but in amy opinion, a 30-30 kicks harder than a 243 in a bolt gun.

Click to expand...

Lever stocks just seem to punch me in the nose like an old SxS shotgun does... so the recoil does seem exaggerated compared to a better fitting bolt gun of compatible recoil levels. Luckily the .30-30 and pistol caliber rounds I shoot from them aren’t real bad in the recoil department.

Now my Marlin Guide Gun .45/70 loaded stiff can be a bruiser, as a stout .45:70 is a kicker in just about any gun it’s fired in, lever or not. If you don’t like recoil don’t go above a Trapdoor Springfield load if you shoot one .

Stay safe.

JohnB-40 said:

I was waiting to get tires installed at Walmart on Friday. I got bored waiting and wandered over to the sporting goods section to kill time. They had a Marlin lever in the carousel display,I didn't check the caliber. I couldn't believe something like that left the factory,let alone put it on display. The furniture fitment looked like a child did it and the metal finish was a sad sight to see. Maybe this rifle was one of the older manufactured units from the problem years,but there is no way I would buy one of these sight unseen. I was sure glad I saved a little longer and purchased Win/Miruko.

Click to expand...

I bought a Marlin 1894 Cowboy in .357 magnum a month ago. While it's not as nicely made as my two Miroku rifle (Browning 92 in .44 mag and Winchester 1892 takedown in .32-20) it is still a relatively nice rifle. I also have a Rossi 92 in .45 Colt .... which is not quite as nice as the Marlin.

In any case it is really hard to beat Miroku guns. Expensive ---- but NICE!!!!

fpgt72 said:

Thread Hijack......

You like? It has been on my short list for a while now.

Click to expand...

Absolutely charming carbine.

...especially w/ the NEGC aperture sight and taller Williams front bead.

Follows me around like a terrier.






GR

For me it depends on the load and the stock fit. If the stock is to short the gun will have a running start into your shoulder, ouch.

Some things to think about, are your grand kids old enough to have the big enough hands and have the necessary hand strength to be able to lower the hammer to half cock? Kids tend to have a really hard time doing this safely. Are they tall enough to shoot a full size rifle? If the are less than 5 ft 5 or so your going to have to cut the stock down in order for them to shoot it comfortably. You may also want to consider optics mounting and the cheek height of the stock.