So, I packed up 6 favorites, my 2 .357 Mag Rossi 92s, my .45 Colt Uberti 66 and 73, my 30-30 Mossy 464 and my .308 Winchester 88 and headed for the 200 yd stands at the range. After setting up I got to some serious plinking with all 6 platforms. Nothing fancy, no chrono testing, no sighting in, not testing loads. Just some good ole' plinkin fun.
I was having a great time just plinkin away when a few younger fellows stopped by to ask about my rifles sitting in the rack behind me at the line as most of them were shooting a variation of the AR, be it 5.56, .308 or one young man with a 50 Beowulf in an AR platform. A couple of them mentioned that they'd never seen anyone actually shoot a 92/94 pattern levergun. When I brought out my scoped Winchester 88, they all were puzzled as it looks very much like a Winchester model 70 but with a lever instead of a bolt.
As I was shooting the 92s and the Uberti 66 and 73, they couldn't believe that I was shooting a pistol bullet at targets at 200 yds. I explained that I'd loaded them specifically for the longer barrel of a levergun vs the commercial loads (and especially cowboy loads) that were used mostly in SA pistols and so the velocities and hence, longer range performance, was significantly enhanced.
This seemed to baffle all but the Beowulf shooter as he was the only other reloader in the group. When I told them that my hot 158grn .357 Mag loads produced 2,005 fps out of the 24" Rossi rifle, they couldn't believe it so I took a bowling pin out to 300 yds, adjusted the tang sight for that distance, aimed as carefully as I could and to my relief hit it on the second try after just missing on the first.
To say that they were astonished was putting it mildly as one said that he didn't think he could hit that bowling pin with his scoped AR at 300 yds. So, I gave them each their choice of the .357 Mag tang sighted Rossi 92, 24" rifle or .45 Colt tang sighted Uberti 73, 24" rifle and 3 rds to shoot at 200 yds and they admitted that the leverguns were easier to shoot long distance than they thought.
I explained about the target aperture in the tang sights and how it aided one's Depth of Field making shooting that distance easier than it looked and I must say that they were impressed. A couple said that they might just have to look at picking up one as they were more fun to shoot than their ARs because they got to manually cycle the action (just like in the cowboy movies).
I mentioned that, as they didn't handload, some Buffalo Bore Heavy .357 Mag or .45 Colt loads in Marlins produced some even higher velocities than my loads did but that the Uberti's design dictated that they stay with stand pressure (14,000psi or under) loads which is what I was using. I could see in their eyes that the session lit up an enjoyment for my leverguns and I'm sure at least one of them will end up with a levergun soon as he can find one to his liking.
All in all, it was an enjoyable afternoon shooting and I may have influenced a couple of shooters to give pistol caliber leverguns a try and that's always a good thing to show the young folks that there is a whole world of rifles out there that aren't ARs.
