Lever Action Rifles

A lever action rifle works by cycling the action with a lever loop that’s located behind the trigger. Pushing the lever downward ejects a spent shell casing from the chamber, while pulling the lever back up loads a new round from the magazine into the chamber.

Most lever actions are loaded using a tubular magazine that’s positioned underneath the barrel, but some more modern lever action designs (such as the Browning BLR and the Henry Long Ranger to name a couple) use removable box magazines.

Lever actions with a box magazine allow users to load and fire pointed spitzer bullet types, which cannot be safely fired in a tubular magazine (since the cartridge's tip is resting against another cartridge's primer).

There's something that’s just deeply satisfying about working a lever gun. From the smooth mechanical motion of cycling the action to the more than 160 years of American heritage behind it, there simply isn’t another type of action that provides the exact same shooting experience as the lever gun.

The romantic aspect aside, lever guns are also extremely practical. Lever guns are typically lightweight, have a narrow profile (which makes them easy to carry through thick vegetation or to keep in the back of a truck or SUV), and balance well in your hands so they can be pointed, fired, and cycled quickly.

Additionally, since they offer a higher rate of fire than bolt guns, lever action rifles are a great alternative to semi-automatic rifles in states and jurisdictions where the latter are illegal or restricted.

The .30-30 Winchester comes standard in popular lever action rifles like the Winchester 1894 and Marlin 336, and it has arguably been used to take more deer than any other caliber in existence.

The .45-70 Government is a much larger and heavier caliber that is used in lever guns like the Marlin 1895 and the Winchester 1886. Formerly a military cartridge, it’s been used to take all types of North American big game, including bear and moose.

Many lever guns (like the Marlin 1894 and Winchester 1892) are also available in pistol cartridges such as the .357 Magnum, .45 Long Colt, and .44 Magnum, which means you’ll have the option to carry both a rifle and a revolver in the same caliber.

Lever action rifles that fire spitzer-type bullets for longer ranges can chamber and fire popular rounds like .270 Winchester, .308 Winchester, and .30-06 Springfield, among others.

Lever action rifles have been putting game on the ground for well over a century and a half, and they remain outstanding weapons for hunting today. They excel in the kind of hunting that most Americans actually do, like sub-200-yard shots in timber, brush, or broken country.

When it comes to shooting at longer distances (such as across a field or from one ridgeline to another) a lever action rifle that fires spitzer-type bullets in a box magazine can be just as effective as a bolt-action.

Other factors that make lever actions great choices for hunting include the fact that they are slim, lightweight, and have no large magazine hanging out the bottom or bolt jutting out to the side, which makes them very convenient for carrying cross country.

The answer depends entirely on what you're hunting!

If you hunt deer, wild boar, or black bear in woodland environments and are sticking within 200-yards, there’s arguably no better choice than the .30-30 Winchester, as the ammunition is widely available and produces limited recoil.

If your hunting environment includes large animals such as elk, moose, and brown bear (and if you’re still going to be sticking to sub-200 yards), then the .45-70 Govt. is difficult to surpass, but it also produces substantially more recoil than the .30-30.

When you need to bring down big game (like elk or moose) at longer ranges, the best calibers include options like the .270 Winchester, 7mm Rem Mag, .308 WInchester, .30-06 Springfield, or .300 Win Mag.