Lever Gun Accuracy?

[Old-Win]

Those of you shooting lever gun silhouette, what kind of accuracy do you expect at 100 and 200 yards out of your rifles? What is the most common caliber that most of you are shooting? Thanks.

[bpcr shooter]

45-70 and 30-30....1in@100 with scope should be "do-able"

[Kurt]

Bob,
With my 95 Marlin .45-70 with tang sights beed front using a postell single feeding I average around 5" @ 200 yards.
I seen better and worse.

[Woody]

Can't use a scope in Lever Gun.

I get around 2 MOA at 200 with several of my lever guns. My favorite is a 1896 vintage Winchester 94 octagon take-down rifle in 38-55.

Woody

[Glen Ring]

I have had several Marlins and Winchesters. I have found Winchesters with a 26 inch Octagonal barrel to me the most accurate.
I currently have a Buffalo Bill Cody commemorative in 30-30..the vast majority of shooters use a 30-30.
The best bullet I have found is a 170 Grain speer pushed by H-4895 to about 2000 FPS.
A Lyman front sight with a Fiber optic insert, and a Lyman 66a receiver sight.

On a good eye day I can shoot half scale out to 200 meters standing.

[mdeland]

Well I'm embarrassed to say I really don't know what my 1953 model 94 Winchester30-30 will do at 100 and 200 yards. I know it likes the 170 grain Lyman 291 with 16 grains of H-110 for the chickens at 50 meters. It has the factory bead up front and a Lyman side mount receiver sight in back. Guess it's about time to find out!

[George Babits]

I've always been a fan of the 1892 Winchester. Until the last 10 years or so I wasn't too impressed with the 1894 Winchesters. For some reason though, I started picking them up, probably because they cost a lot less than the 1892s. Now I have a half dozen or so: 25-35, 30-30, 32-40, 32 Special, and 38-55. All but the 25-35 (SRC) are 26" rifles, some round, some octagonal, and one half round. The amazing thing is that they will all shoot groups of 1 to 1.5 inches at 100 yards from the sitting position. Not a one of these rifles is less than 100 years old. However, with the exception of the 38-55 (I have 2 of them), I am shooting jacketed bullets. Recently I got a 180 gran FN plain base mould for my 32-40 High Wall and plan to try it with hard cast bullets in both the 32-40 and 32 Special. The 32 special and the 38-55 are my favorites. The 32 Special is half round, pistol grip and button magazine. One of the 38-55s is a round barrel button magazine. Never tried shooting any of them in silhouette, but the 38-55 would certainly do the job just fine.

George

[SSShooter]

My Win 1892 in 25-20 and Marlin 1897 in 22LR both shoot <2moa at 100yd from a rest. That is better then I can hold off-hand. Am using a post front sight on both rifles with the MVA #130 tang-sight. Will be experimenting with a green fiber front insert to "see" if that is any better than a post. Still debating a rifle-cartridge levergun. If so, will likely be a 30-30 as there are so many available at reasonable prices and might as well shoot what the winners shoot.

[art ruggiero]

what is the trick to make these lever guns shoot well? art

[Kurt]

For some reason I favor the Marlin square bolts, maybe it's because they are easy to break down to clean them.
I have a 93 in a .30 win caliber that has a spotless bore and some case on the receiver that shoots very good. Here is what it will do with cast bullets at 130 yards with the barrel sights. It shoots a little high and right and some day I will drift the sight over.
I fired 10 shots but count only 9. I hope the 10th went in the small group
I think the lever rifles have every potential to shoot as well as the falling blocks.

IMG_2803 (2) 2.jpeg

[beltfed]

My Marlin 336CB, 38-55 will group under 1 1/2 inches at 100yds with
a Lyman 375449 FNGC over 28 gr Re7, clocks 1750fps.
Light load with NOE 235 gr RF FN over 29 gr Re7 shoots as well. shot it
last week sighting for deer hunt: two-3 shot groups near an inch
All with a Redfield Wide field 2 3/4-5 at 5X.
beltfed/arnie

[George Babits]

No trick for accuracy with jacketed bullets Art. I have just picked a middle of the road load and it always seems to do very well. In the 38-55 I'm using 21.0 +/- grains of 4198 with the Lyman 375449. My mould is a double cavity and I had one cavity turned out to make a plain based bullet. The gas check shoots better in the button magazine, but both gas check and plain base do about the same in the octagonal barreled one. That octagonal barreled 38-55 has a modern barrel on it which is a bit heavier than the normal octagonal barreled 1894. Looking forward to trying the cast bullet in the 32-40 for sure as the bore is quite good. Don't know how it will work in the 32-Special as the bore is pretty dark.

Never got hooked on the Marlins, except would like a 39A someday. Another great lever gun is the Savage 1899. I have an octagonal barreled one in 303 Savage which was made in 1904. I hope to put some cast bullet loads together for it as well. Those will be with a 190 grain bullet.

George

[cw50-70]

In my Winchester 1894 Centennial with a Marbles tang sight, a Lyman 311041 with 14 grains of H4227 or 16 grains of H4198 will do 2 inches at 200.

[cw50-70]

That's for 10 shot groups, by the way, and, yes, they will knock the rams down. It took a lot of shooting, trying different bullets, powders, and primers and a lot of tweaking to get there.

[mdeland]

Well the design is not as inherently accurate as is a heavy barreled falling block single shot. The barrels are necessarily skinny and they have more contact pressure points with barrel bands, magazine screw attachments , under barrel tube magazine and forearm fitting to mess with barrel harmonics .
A Savage 99 is probably one of the best for accuracy design wise in my opinion.