Lever Rifles

[CWLONGSHOT]

I pocked up a Rossi 1892 Rifle in 45 Colt last spring.

I was not exactly wanting it. I had and sold a Marlin Cowboy 45 colt years before. Just cause I didnt use it. Anyhow I was wanting a TD Chiappa and this shop had them before I arrived. I was offered a deal I could not refuse.

Its a nice but typical Rossi. It was fun to smooth the action and wozers did it get nice!!! I left safety as its easy to just ignore. I next "fixed" sites. The factory are a travesty... 100% junk. A Marbels was swapped in rear and Lyman white beade front. Front was minimal fitting as Rossi dovetails are large...the rear, well that was different as the Marbles didnt have as much "meat" as the Lyman. So its a snug not tight fit.
Last week I found a Marbels Peep in stock with proper screws at Steves Guns and ordered them. Remember this is a rifle not carbine. (Pic below) Awaiting its delivery.

Im looking at leather wrapping the loop.

Any one do this or have one? Did ya make your own or buy it?

A uTube buddy, Nito posted a video a short time ago.

My pop is also wanting one. I never really gave them allot of thought. But I do like the look and can appreciate the comfort...

I ordered a couple kits last week.
What do you guys say?



CW

 

[Missionary]

Nice looking Marble's sitting there also..

 

[creosote]

I got some thin leather scraps for free at the shoe repair place I use.
First try turned out good enough to leave it bee.
It makes it much more comfortable.
I'll get a pic after a coffee, and pop ta.....a a cinnamon toast.

 

[462]

Mine's a Rossi/EMF collaboration in .357 with rifle length octagon barrel and a gold bead front sight, and I installed a Marble's tang peep. Read about how the cowboy shooters slick up their actions, but didn't do any more than remove burrs, clean and lube. Oh, added the beer can trigger shim the same as I did the Uberti/Cimarron 1866. An excellent and most useful "modification".

John Wayne's characters didn't wrap their levers , so my '86 and '92 aren't, neither.

 

[CZ93X62]

I've considered leather-wrapping some of my levers, but aroundtuits get spent on other things of late.

 

[Walks]

Most of my Lever Rifles have wrapped Levers.
I use a 1/2" wide piece of buckskin about 18" long.
Start at the front of the finger lever and just wrap in an overlay, taper the end to a point and tuck under. Pull very tight, use drop of crazy glue to lock the wrap in place. I coat the Lever before wrapping with beeswax.
Had a different wrap on my 1873 Rifle clone since 1987. Tried the rectangular piece of 6-7oz leather wrapped over and laced, didn't like it as well.

 

[Ian]

You could always braid paracord on there

I'd worry about the lever rusting underneath the leather.

 

[creosote]

My first thought was rust.
But, this is one of the winchesters made in the 70's, that has the notakeum blue steel receivers. You could call it a under the seat truck gun.
It looks fine, unil the light hits it right.

I used a steel rule to cut (razor) a thin lace (thong) of the same material.
The leather is about .04 thick.
The lace (thong) is about .125 wide.

 

[Walks]

The heavy coat of wax will prevent rust. I actually used Bowstring wax, a bit softer then beeswax.
When I took off the wrap from my 1866 carbine in 1999 to replace with a different style to match the buttcuff, there was no sign of rust.

 

[smokeywolf]

John Wayne's characters didn't wrap their levers , so my '86 and '92 aren't, neither.

John Wayne had a habit of carrying one to several 45-70, 45-60 or 40-65 cartridges (hard to tell which) in the loops of his gunbelt. All while carrying a Model '92 in his hand or in a scabbard.

BTW Michael, I very much like your Model '66. Its just beautiful.

 

[462]

You could always braid paracord on there

Tactical cool on a lever rifle. Man, wouldn't the local range's black rifle sprayers be drooling over that, and thinking about wrapping it round their pistol grips?

John Wayne had a habit of carrying one to several 45-70, 45-60 or 40-65 cartridges (hard to tell which) in the loops of his gunbelt. All while carrying a Model '92 in his hand or in a scabbard.

Josh Randalls's (Steve McQueen) gun belt held .45-70 cartridges, for his Model 1892 mare's leg. Mankind's entire list of liberties are exceeded only by those of Hollywood.

 

[Cherokee]

All my LA rifles have the leather wrap. I did like "walks" did, thin stripe of leather wrapped around the lever and glued. Worked great for many years. I could not work the LA properly if I did not have the wrap.

 

[Walks]

The longer Rifle cartridge in a belt full of revolver cartridges is a way to tell how many rounds are left in the belt. Or to differentiate between cartridges that are very similar. As an example; when I was Cowboy shooting I carried 9 rounds of .44-40 on the left side of my cartridge belt, a single .40-65WCF and then the rest of the belt was filled with .44Spl. So if I had to reload a .44-40 in my rifle, I didn't grab a .44Spl instead.

 

[Tomme boy]

45 colt sounds so wrong in a rifle or carbine. At least till you hot rod it. I had one of the 45 colt H&R classic carbines. The fancy one. The chamber was HUGE! It would chamber a 454 casull without a problem. I had a sweet shooting 310gr bullet pushed by a healthy charge of h110. Over 20grs. but not saying how much. but it ran 2200fps.

 

[Ian]

Tomme, i have one of those too and a good fellow sent me a package of various .45 caliber magnum cases (Ruger, S&W, Casull, etc) and it would swallow them all. The most accurate load so far has been the Lee 340-grain bullet sized to .454" and seated over a case full of Reloder 7 for Trapdoor-level performance.

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

Yup I had one too. I re chambered mine to 454. Was a GREAT SHOOTER!!! I like the 454 allot but mostly cause I didnt ever need load the 45 Colt powerful enough to harm costly Colt modelP revolvers.

My long standing heavy load in the LC with a 300 was 21.5g 296. I have loaded to 24 but accuracy better lighter and vel loss was minimal. Many, many, many head of game fell to my Marlin and later H&R to that loading!!

Today, I still dont load it hot. But warm... I will shoot then in the Colts just not steady diet.

Today That 454 H&R was traded for/toward my Ruger 450 Bushmaster and my 45 Colt loads are Blue Dot 13 ish grains and Unique 9 ish grains does what I need it to.

CW

 

[Brad]

I like my Marlin 45 Colt, I have the CB with the 24” barrel. It does have a fat chamber but I live with it. The gun shoots great.
I generally use a 300 gr bullet over 10.5 gr of surplus 105. Runs 1150 or so.
I have gone far hotter but decided that I have a 45-70 so why?

That Gun has had many hours ads of rounds thru it. The action is damn smooth now.

 

[fiver]

hey CW what's that other gun looking thing there next to the 92?

 

[Cherokee]

Since we've drifted over to the Marlin 45 Colt CB 24", I have one I've been using for 10 or so years. Great LA, accurate and shoots anything from wild to, well, not so mild without losing its accuracy. Oh, back on thread, the loop is leather wrapped.

 

[Winelover]

Since mine are used for cold weather hunting, I wouldn't cover the loop. In fact, I would prefer one of with a large loop. However, large loops aren't standard equipment on a Marlin or Rossi lever. Not about to purchase aftermarket ones, at the prices they want for them, and have possible fitment issues. I just make do by keeping my pinkie, outside the loop.

I do however like a leather covered butt pad. Especially, on a curved steel butt plate. I add a layer or two, of closed cell foam, to increase length of pull. Springfield, on CB, made this one.



My Marlin 1894, I added a Decelerator pad, to increase the length of pull.