millagerobert

I bought a winchester 1894 ranger model a few years back in .357, thought it would compliment my pistol, and be a good plinking and close range defense gun. The compact size proved to be of use when taking my cousin on his first deer hunt this year, since he was unable to properly hold a full sized rifle. Most of the ground we would be hunting is covered with thick timber so shots stay under 100 yards. I loaded up some 158 grain oregon trail laser cast silver bulletts for it. They clocked over 1800 fps out of the 16 inch barrel, which is actually comparable to a 30/30 out of a 16 inch barrel. The thing that was nice with the .357 and these loads is that they were fairly economical to produce and that allowed for my cousin to get in allot of practice, and the light recoil with reduced loads were an added benefit. I topped the rifle with a 3x9 burris for added accuracy and for my cousin to get use to using a scope. When set up and Rattling the ability for me to load a round in the chamber, lower the hammer (my lever gun has a transfer bar safety allowing safe use with chambered round and hammer down), and engaged the saftey, was a plus in the safety aspect with a new hunter also, in order to go bang he had to cock the hammer and disengage the safety, and extra measure versus just disengaging the safety on a bolt action. The real test came on a 4x4 whitetail at 40 yards, my cousins shot was true and the bullet penetrated the heart traveling in one side and out the other. The deer went about 20 yards and piled up. The wound channel was a little more impressive than I expected, but not so extreme that vast amounts of meat were damaged. After seeing the little lever gun in action, I actually started using it for blind hunting where close range shots may be encounterd. While this little gun looks cute, when loaded with 9 rounds of full horse power .357 it can put out allot of firepower in a hurry. A person considering a .357 instead of a 30/30 should do some research on comparable ballistics out of similar length barrels, the .357 actually equals or beats the 30/30 in some velocity and energy aspects with certain loads.