The frontier concept of rifle and revolver both using the same common ammunition still makes sense. The combination of a sturdy, fixed sight, double-action .357 revolver such as a Ruger SP101 for close-in personal defense and a Marlin 1894 in .357 for times when better accuracy, greater range, reasonable magazine capacity and rapidity of fire to 100 yards or so are needed, is hard to beat.
The Ruger SP101 is one of the best bangs for the buck in a compact revolver. It is totally reliable, hell for strong and accurate enough. The 3-inch barrel is a good compromise between portability and ballistics. Mine has Crimson Trace laser grips. These are an aid to low-light, short-distance point shooting within 10 yards. Farther than that I use the sights. The laser is a life-saver if you have fallen or been knocked down and need to eliminate a threat while on your back, being attacked by either two-or 4-legged animals at near-contact distance, when you can neither extend your arm or use the sights. I score 90% as well with the SP101 over a 60-shot Tactical Revolver Course as I do with a full-sized 4-inch service revolver. Repeated fifty-yard DA solid torso hits on a silhouette are no problem, neither are head shots on sitting rabbits or grouse for camp meet at 50 feet. Basic load on me is five rounds of X38SPD in the gun, an HKS speed loader on the belt for a quick reload and three Bianchi Speed Strips distributed in vest and BDU pockets as my reserve supply. In the survival ruck are ten Speer shotloads, 100 wadcutters used for small game, and another 100 of X38SPD +P. Stored separately in the rifle case are 200 rounds of 158-grain JSP magnums, which could be used in the revolver, if needed.
Back East it is getting much more difficult to find someplace to practice with a military-caliber rifle. Sure you can get a .22 LR upper for your AR, but it just isn't the same. Most indoor commercial ranges will let you use a rifle which fires handgun ammo, so my most-used center-fire rifle these days is a Marlin 1894C in .357 Magnum. I installed an XS Lever-Scout rail on the Marlin. Primary sighting is a fixed power 2.5X Weaver, but I also have a Trijicon Reflex II with lighted tritium reticle which I can put on it, if wanted. The factory open sights were replaced with an XS ghost ring peep sight and high visibility front sight, used as backup. This makes an ideal combination.
The .357 lever action is manageable by females and youngsters, it has low recoil and is fairly quiet when used with standard velocity lead .38 Special ammo. It is a fun camp gun which works great for small game, feral dogs and groundhogs. When firing .38 Special standard velocity non +P lead bullet ammo from a rifle, velocity remains subsonic, producing a mild report little louder than a .22, which has advantages for discreet garden varminting.
Its potential for home defense with .357 ammunition, is nothing to sneeze at. A .357 levergun with proper ammunition is fully adequate for deer within 100 yards and with peep sights is more accurate on silhouette targets out to 200 yards than your average AK. But leverguns are familiar and nonthreatening in appearance, so they "don't scare the natives" as a "black rifle" often does.
New leverguns cost less than the so-called "black rifles." So use the money you save to buy a Dillon RL500B to load your own ammo! Used .357 leverguns sell for about 60% in stores of what a similar rifle costs new. Around here the Marlin Micrgroove leverguns sell for about $100 less than a similar model with Ballard rifling, because people think that "Microgroove don't shoot lead." But in my experience of some 25 years, the 1894C with Microgroove rifling shoots lead loads just fine, as long as you use ordinary standard velocity and +P .38 Special, but not lead bullet.357 Magnum loads.
Microgroove barrels handle jacketed bullet .357 Magnum loads very accurately. The 158-gr. softpoint is what you want to use for deer. But jacketed bullets are expensive and in reality you will use very few of them. In our house standard velocity 158-grain lead semi-wadcutters are the basic farm utility load for rifle and revolver, and are what you want to set up your RL500B to produce in quantity. Bulk Remington .358 diameter 158-grain semi-wadcutters in .38 Special brass with 3.5 grains of Bullseye approximate the velocity, acuracy and energy of factory standard velocity loads. Velocity is about 750 f.p.s. from a 3 inch revolver, 950 f.p.s. from an 18 inch carbine and 1030 f.p.s. from a 24 inch long barreled Cowboy Limited. Our ordinary lead plinking loads shoot into 4 inches at 100 yards from a rifle with iron sights. Jacketed softpoints will shave an inch off of that. If you buy components in bulk, your cost to reload brass that you already have with plinker loads is about 8 cents per pop. Cast your own bullets and save a nickel. Or add another dime if you insist on a jacketed slug. Ugh!
Cowboy assault rifle.. My Trijicon Reflex II sight Model RX09 is on the quick detachable A.R.M.S. #15 Throw Lever Mount fitted, which fits onto a slightly modified XS Systems Lever Scout rail. There are less expensive sights, but after using one on an M4 I was convinced this is THE go-to solution for aging eyes. Money wasn't an issue. Trijicon quality beats the Chi-com and Russian imports hands down, It is American made and costs no more than top-drawer European or US optics.
XS mounts are dimensioned for Weaver bases. Fitting a military Picatinny base requires deciding which cross-slot you want to locate your optic onto. You want the optical sight placed at the balance point of the rifle. When you have located the proper cross slot to position your sight, adjust the slot width and depth with a square Swiss needle file to enable the Picatinny mount crossbar to press-fit snugly into it. Retract the thumb clamps and slide the A.R.M.S. mount over the front of the rail.
The rear mount clamp tightens against the angled sides of the rail only. You want no slop after you have fitted the crossbar slot depth and corners. After fitting, the A.R.M.S. #15 thumb-lever mount offers quick disconnect with perfect return to zero. I can use either the tritium illuminated, no batteries required ever, combat optic or backup ghost ring peeps at will.
I zero 158-grain magnum loads to coincide with the pointed top of the chevron reticle at 100 yards, and standard velocity .38s hit "on" at 50 yards. Holding the legs of the chevron tangent to the top of a 12-inch gong at 200 yards I can hit it with magnums every time. Placing the chevron across the shoulders I keep most rounds on an Army E silhouette out to at 300 if I do my part. Works for me.
If I needed to grab my survival ruck and get out of Dodge, taking only what I could carry on my back, riding my mountain bike past the hoard of EMP-killed automobiles to get beyond the moderate-damage-radius before the fallout starts coming down, the above combination may not be ideal, but I don't plan to stand and fight the whole world, I just want to protect my stash, get out of town, feed myself, and get the job done.
The .357 rifle was the gun that surprised me the most! My 16" Puma carbine has far more pop than it deserves to have, it is handy as they come, and holds twice as many shots as a traditional bolt action. Shooting .38 specials in it is as pleasant as can be, and would do just fine for small game as anything. As soon as I can muster the funds, I am going to grab another, but this time it will be a Marlin 1894P so I can put a scope on it to take advantage of it's range.
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I take my coffee how I take my women: bitter and overbearing.
Location: "...upon the east bank of Big Blue River, a mile or two north of the point where that stream crosses the Michigan road"
Posts: 1,646
I've got a .44 Magnum combo: A Winchester '94 Saddle Ring Carbine with the John Wayne style lever(...not as practical at the range as is cool in the movies!) and a Smith and Wesson Model 629 Classic with a 8 3/4 barrel & Leopold scope. It would be a great combo in the Western States or Alaska; a little much for Indiana.
I'd really like to get a .38 Special/.357 Magnum cowboy action combo...maybe a Henry 1866 and an 1860 open top Colt conversion. Uberti makes a lot of neat replicas!
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"Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors... and miss." -- Lazarus Long
Ruger's been peeving me off over the last 6 years. I won't EVER buy another Ruger that's been made since 2000. And I'd look long & hard before buying one pre-2000.
If you'd been thru what I have with my Vaquero's & the 10/22 Target model...its been enough to wanna use an axe handle in a Not-Nice manner on some MFR'ing lines.
I spent a LOT of time getting the Vaquero's to where I was happy with 'em for SASS shoots...a lot more time than shoulda been neccesary, including a few trips back to Ruger. The 10/22T I finally gave up on and traded for an old Yamaha XS400 motorcycle.
And I'm STILL grumpy about 'em...mostly because there's always something else going squirrely. I'd like to go thru ONE YEAR of heavy shooting without a repair.
The sure don't make 'em like they used to...
__________________ Marlin & Calico Specialist
I'm not just Trigger Happy, I'm Trigger Ecstatic!!
I'd really like to get a .38 Special/.357 Magnum cowboy action combo...maybe a Henry 1866 and an 1860 open top Colt conversion. Uberti makes a lot of neat replicas!
That would be supremely viable AND Uber sexy!
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I take my coffee how I take my women: bitter and overbearing.
