Best lever actions for Black Powder use?

[Deadguy]

Howdy pards,
I was wondering which rifles ya'll have had the best BP experiences with, as far as performance, maintenance, fouling, cleaning, and so on.  I'm looking for something in either .38/.357 mag, or .45 Colt, since those are calibers that I shoot.  I do have a Marlin 1894C in .357 mag, but that is all set up for my heavy smokeless loads with a Williams peep sight and is a great shooter that way, so I don't want to have to take it all apart and set it up for Black.  How are the Marlins/Pumas/Uberti replicas with the black?  Are there any models that do not work well with Black and should be avoided?

[hellgate]

If you load them light you will get a lot of BP fouling blown back into the action on the straight walled cases. The bottleneck 44/40 & 38/40 seal much better. I gave up on real BP in my Puma 357mag as I could not get a load that was BOTH accurate AND non fouling of the barrel. The Snakebite bullett did not feed well enough for me. I use 777 powder with any bullet that feeds reliably and all is well. The snakebite bullet with BP in your 357 Marlin would be my vote. It uses a 38 SPL case but the 357 ought to work too.

[Adirondack Jack]

They all can work.  .45 would be preferred to .38 as the bigger bore and typically sloppier chamber tolerance means less fouling issues.  LOTS of OIL (non-dinosaur type) would be preferred, and keep the charges up there so that cases expand and so that the greater fraction of the powder actually burns.

[litl rooster]

no problems here using a 38 spl with full case of BP and a snakebite bullet. No mods to Marlin, just a couple drops of Gun Butter after cleaning

[Roosterman]

I use a M73 winchester by Uberti  and a Henry by navy arms, both in .45 colt. I use full loads of 2ff black and can shoot a full match of 60 rounds out of either with out a hitch. I use 250gr. big lube bullets. They are plenty dirty after 60 rounds but still function well. I'm not sure how accurate they are after they get dirty, but rifle targets for cowboy matches aren't more than 35 yards around here, so accuracy isn't an issue.

[Cuts Crooked]

Actually any of them should work quite well with BP in either of the calibers you mention. Particularly if you anneal your cases. (you will get a lot of comnments about "use 44-40 or 38-40 instead because they seal better" but the truth is both the .45 and the .357 will work fine with full loads of powder and a heavy bullet, and annealed case mouths)

I shoot black powder in both .38 and .45, in Rossi 92s and get good performance from both using Big Lube slugs. I get very little blowback and cleaning the action is not a problem. One creveat here: The 92 is "notorius" for cleaning because it is supposedly extremely difficult to tear down and reassemble. While it is more complicated than the toggle link guns and the Marlins, it is really not all that much more difficult to tear down. Anyone with a modicum of mechanical skill can learn to do it in about 5 minutes! And it really isn't neccesary to tear it down every time you shoot it anyway! I take the butt stock off and flush the aciton out with spray type brake cleaner, followed by a good spray lube, and only tear it completely down a couple of times a year.

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

If I wuz you, and wuz going to be shooting 45 Colt or 357Mag/38 Special, I would use either an Uberti replica Winchester 1873, or a Marlin Model 1894. Simply because they are the easiest actions to dismantle for cleaning.

With all due respect to my good pard Cuts Crooked, yes you can get straight walled cases to perform reasonably well with Black Powder, but with 44-40 you don't have to do any case annealing or any other special case preparation. You just rinse 'em out and reload them. I have an original Winchester Model 1892, an original (made in 1895) Marlin Model 1894, an Uberti 1873 and an Uberti Henry. All are chambered for 44-40. I don't hesitate to shoot Black Powder in any of them, my '73 and my Henry are my main CAS rifles and I shoot nothing but Black Powder in them. But 44-40 expands so beautifully to seal the chambers, that all the fouling stays in the bore or goes out the muzzle, and I don't worry about dismantling my rifles to clean the actions more than once a year.

But if it wuz me and I was going to be shooting 357/38 or 45 Colt with Black Powder, and needed to do some occaisional dismantling to clean blow by out of the action, I would stick with the easiest to dismantle guns, which are the Marlin 1894 and the Uberti/Winchester 1873. Of course, any of these guns can be dismantled once you know how, but there is only one screw to remove the sideplates on a '73, and one screw to drop the lever and bolt out of the Marlin.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[Doctor Bill]

Well, I may be lucky but I have been shooting a Uberti 1892 replica from EMF in 0.45 colt for a couple of years and have never had a hitch once I got it broken in and started using those grease-slobberin bullets that Mr Dastardly sells.  I have never annealed the cases but I do use a generous 2.0 CC of ffg under a 250-grain bullet so there should be enough pressure to expand the case. 

The only negative comment I can make about the 92' is that usually the actions are VERY rough when you get them and it takes a little work to keep them from beatin' your knuckles up.

Doctor Bill

[Plum Loco]

Like many others , I have used the 1860  Henrys , 1866's , 1873's , and my Rossi / Interarms , 92's , all in 45 colt , for BP over the years of shooting  . I suppose that I used the 92 the most because it was the cheapest to purchase ,I   NEVER have taken it apart ,    , just removed the shoulder stock and flush with water [a lot ] and then flushed a LOT , with WD-40 ,.
I did not know any better , didn't have a computer then , so I just shot a lot of the Goex powder with the RCBS  230 gr Cav bullet and beeswax/olive oil mix .
Lets see now , the Rossi / Interarms 1892 has really gotten to be smooth    , shooting it for 12 years now , and it  has never been apart . 

[Dick Dastardly]

I've got Three Browning 92s.  Two are 44 Magnums and one is .357 Magnum.  Never shot anything BUT Holy Black in 'em.  I spritz 'em out with Moosemilk, pull a boresnake thru and presto, they're clean as a whistle.  Now and then I spray some straight Ballistol into the works cuz of superstition.

Since I put a Ten Thousandths inch thick shim under the right rail on my pet B92 it's quit the occasional stovepipe problem.  Other than that, I simply load and shoot.

The little Browning 92 .357 Magnum is my "loaner" gun that I like to hand to newbies.  It runs .38 Special brass loaded up with Snakebites pushed with 20 grains of FFFg Holy Black with never a hickup.  It's like holding a little rabbit's foot.  The action has, somewhere back in it's history, been slicked up by Nate Kiowa Jones.  It runs very smooth and is very forgiving to the new shooter.

So, if asked which is "Best lever actions for Black Powder use?", I'd have to say that I prefer Browning 92s.

Hold tite to yer wallet if you find one for sale tho. . .

DD-DLoS

[Cyrille]

Not to change the subject But just how difficult is the Henry Big Boy .45 caliber to clean and/or disassemble/assemble after a day of shooting the Holy Black in say, side matches?

[Wills Point Pete]

 I have a Marlin 1894C, one of the older ones with no safety except the half cock. It has that microgroove rifling. I have not had any luck loading it with BP. Of course I haven't worked on it a whole lot. It rode in a county cruiser for the second half of my careerto reach out further than my revolver or the issue shotgun. I suspect it could work with BP, I just quit bothering as my CAS revolvers are .45s.
I also have a Navy Arms stainless clone of the '92 Winchester. It is great with BP. After a shoot I bring it home, swanp it out with moose milk, squirt more moose milk all through the action and then blow it out with the air compressor. When I'm travelling I use that canned air from the computer store. Once a year I tear it down completely although so far it is pretty clean inside.