stalkingbear

My first reccomendation is browning bLr as it's plenty accurate,chambered in several excellent cartridges,and is good both for close AND longer shots,and made to be easily scoped. The winchester model 88 and the savage model 99 are also great lever rifles but no longer being made-30 years for winchester and a few for savage. Now we come to cartridges. Anybody that's ever read many of my posts know that I love any cartridge in 7mm/.284 diameter. That leaves 7mm08 for the blr. Even tho it's chambered in 7mm rem mag,it loses agility.
Wanna buy yer tikka back? I'll make ya a deal! LMAO

JeffS

I vote for the 45/70 as well. I have a .450 and it will really kick you but the 45/70 is not as bad and you can get hot loads for them as well.

driftrider

Not going to find a .35 Whelen in a Marlin levergun. In the Browning BLR if they chamber for it, but the Marlin lever guns aren't strong enough for the Whelen (which is a .30-06 necked up). You might be thinking about the .35 Remington. If I were buying a lever gun for myself as a short range woods rifle with both deer and hogs in mind, a Marlin 336 in .35 Remington with a 1-4x scope on top is what I'd pick. More than enough to kill either inside 150 yards, and it won't wreck your shoulder.

Mike

HEAD0001

I own a bunch of lever action rifle's. They are my favorite rifle's to hunt with. The 44 magnum is definitely enough medicine for any of the game you mentioned, out to 100 yards. My personal opinion is that the 44 is good to 200 yards in the hands of a person who knows how to use it. If you are only going to have one rifle, then I would recommend the 44 magnum, and that is coming from a guy whose favorite rifle is a Winchester 1886 in 45-70. I recommend the 44 for several reasons. 1. Light recoil. 2. Lots of factory ammo available. 3. You can shoot it alot with inexpensive ammo for practice-there is no inexpensive 45-70 ammo.

I would not recommend the 300 grain ammo for the Marlin 1894 in 44 magnum. I have seen several rifles that have a problem with the longer 300 grainer's.

If you reload and cast your own bullets then I would go with the 45-70, if not then go with the 44.

Here is a picture of my 1894. You definitely want to get the peep sight. No need for a scope. Tom.

liquidorange

my brothers marlin 44 mag works fine with the 300 grain xtp-s as does my ruger lever 96/44. maybe because i reload for them. i never had problems. extremely fun guns to shoot because the recoil is nothing to it. my younger brother killed his first balck bear with it.

HEAD0001

The reloads work if you seat the bullet deeper. And I have seen 300 grain pills in factory ammo work also. However I have seen a few rifle's that will not feed the 300's. When the elevator lifts the cartridge's the front of the bullet drag's. I have read(on the Levergun's forum) where a lot of people had trouble with the bigger bullet's, but not everyone had that trouble. Tom.

stalkingbear

Hey people-the title of the post said "ALL PURPOSE LEVERGUN"-that means something that is accurateand powerful enough at any reasonable range s the ONLY lever rifle that will qualify. In MY book,that means a bLr,88,or 99. Conventional lever guns DO NOT qualify as all purpose.

Josh Sorensen

As much as I like the marlin 45/70 I would go with the 35 remington if recoil was a consideration. The 35 remington was a great all purpose deer to moose gun. I would take a 30/30 over the 44 mag any day of the week also. The 44 mag is more of a fun gun than a serious hunting rifle.

eldeguello

Hey, Senor OSO Grande... Did you miss this? he kinda says he ain't looking for a long-range rifle. If he was, I'd agree with your recommendations..... and I'd add a BLR in .358 Win. Contrary to popular opinion, the .358 Win. is NOT just a short-range, woods cartridge.

stalkingbear

Guess I did eldeguello-consider my hand smacked.