The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

Next year will hopefully see me having a variation for a 357/44 under lever as I fancy a bit more of a bang than the 22 but hopefully cheaper than the 223 and 308.

I've heard the Marlins are the ones to get but happy to be corrected as I only have hearsay to go on at the moment.

Also, what is the typical cost of reloading these calibres? Cheaper than say .223 which I'm currently reloading for around 30p a bang?

The Marlin's are good, I own one of the Remington Marlin's and it shoots pretty good. Gallery loads, I use a 158gr lead truncated cone bullet with 5.6gr Ramshot True Blue. Last time I worked out the cost, it was around 11p a bang so very cheap to feed! I only use 357mag brass in mine.

I own a Marlin, but have shot others. Any make can be slick or harsh depending on the gun.

The biggest consideratio IMHO is whether you want to scope it as some are side eject and others top eject.

Try as many as you can before you decide..

I think to keep things traditional it will be iron sights only

11p a shot is very cheap, I like the sound of that

Go Cowboy and get an Uberti. Or go proper Cowboy and buy an original! You’d be surprised how affordable they are when compared to the replicas...

The Henry Big Boy rifles take a lot of beating. They probably have the smoothest action for the price, and they are well made.

Sim G wrote:Go Cowboy and get an Uberti.

That's what I did.

I'd spent 12 months using the club Marlin, plus having a go at 3 other club members Marlin's during that time (2 x .357 plus a .44Mag) and frankly, as a result a Marlin was at the bottom of the 'to buy' list. I'm sorry, but I really don't know what people see in them at all (other than the ability to put optics on them being side eject)

I also had several goes with a couple of different Rossi 92's (both .357 and .45) a Henry Big Boy in .357, a Chiappa Alaskan Take-Down in .44Mag and a Winchester 94AE in .357.
But, the Uberti 1873 in .45LC won my shooting heart, its just lovely, and the '73 toggle action is slick as snot.
The Henry action is very nice out of the box, but I just can get past that tube end loading, much prefer the traditional side gate loading of the '66/'73/'92 actions.

I'd agree with GeeRam that out of the box the Uberti 1873 is probably slickest of the lot. The Marlin can be made slick but you either have to do it yourself, pay someone to do it or buy one with probably decades of use.

i have 2 Marlins 44 and 38/357 the originals not rem i like them a lot ....

GeeRam wrote:

Sim G wrote:Go Cowboy and get an Uberti.

<snip>I'm sorry, but I really don't know what people see in them at all (other than the ability to put optics on them being side eject)

Not an argument, but if all the club comps you want to enter (as I did) need a scoped rifle to be competitive, then is is a valid consideration.

Added to which, mine is a JM Marlin, for much less than people seem to be paying and has run flawlessly. That said, I don't want to suggest it is the only option as I have shot other makes that also run flawlessly.