FOR THE LOVE OF LEVERS

When it comes to selecting ammo for this American classic, modern or vintage, there are choices galore.

The lever-action rifle remains one of America’s most iconic designs, and in spite of all the advancements in polymer stocks, weatherproof metal coatings and longrange cartridges, grabbing a wood- stocked lever gun and heading to the woods remains a fantastic experience.

From the traditional lever-action rifles with tubular magazines, which hearken back to the 19th century, to the more modern designs of the early to mid-20th century, which employed box magazines, there is probably a lever gun for everyone. However, the design of the gun might dictate the type of ammunition you can use in that particular model. Let’s take a look at the pleasures and pitfalls of lever gun ammo.

RIGHT OUT OF the gate, be aware that if you do choose a lever gun with a box magazine – and the Savage 99 and Browning BLR come quickly to mind – you can shoot any type of bullet you’d like, including the sleek, modern spitzer designs. It is the rifles with tubular magazines that have the handicap; using a spitzer bullet in that magazine can result in the ugliest of magazine detonations, potentially killing the shooter. You see, the cartridges are lined up nose-to-tail and the pointed meplat of a spitzer bullet could, in theory, puncture the primer of the cartridge ahead of it, causing the cartridge to start a chain reaction in the magazine.

To avoid the possibility of magazine detonation, those tubular-magazine rifles were traditionally relegated to using flatnose or roundnose projectiles, so there was no risk to the shooter. In spite of the relatively low velocities – at least in comparison to what came after the turn of the 20th century – those round- and flatnosed projectiles didn’t really offer the flattest of trajectories. However, when one considers the fact that the vast majority of rifles in the late 1800s and early 1900s were fitted with iron sights, those projectiles didn’t really handicap the shooter all that much, especially in the forests of the eastern U.S. and Canada.

While the vast majority of Nosler Partition bullets are a spitzer design, they do make a roundnose version for the

Early on, lead bullets were the projectile du jour, as they could easily be cast in a mold, and many of the lever rifles shipped with a set of reloading tools so the customer could keep themselves in ammunition in the remote places of the world. The vast majority of the 19th century lever cartridges were designed to run on black powder, hence the nomenclature.

The .45-70-405 (more commonly known as the .45-70 Government) used a .45-caliber projectile weighing 405 grains over a load of 70 grains of black powder, and the .30-40 Krag used a .30-caliber bullet over 40 grains of black powder, just to give a couple examples. The .30-30 Winchester –incredibly popular to this day – was the first exception, as it was loaded from the beginning with smokeless powder, though many reloaded it with black powder. Confused yet?

AS THE SMOKELESS powder took over the scene, velocities increased and the soft lead bullets just couldn’t handle the heat. Leaded barrels were a real problem, and the jacketed bullets were the solution. Placing a copper jacket around a lead core is still a sound design to this day, well over a century later, and the cup-and-core bullets perform just fine at the velocities generated by most of the lever gun cartridges.

Dating back to 1939, Remington’s iconic Core-Lokt bullet is, in fact, just a simple cup-and-core design with a cannelure or crimping groove to help keep the components together during the terminal phase. Despite the undeniable advancements in bullet technology, this design still gets the job done; clear evidence is Remington’s decision to use the CoreLokt in their new .360 Buckhammer cartridge. This new release is based on the .30-30 Winchester, with a straight-walled profile, shortened to 1.80 inches, and using the .358-inchdiameter bullets common to the .35 Remington, in order to comply with an amalgam of laws specific to several Midwestern states. Despite a velocity increase over the .35 Remington, the designers are confident enough in the

Core-Lokt to load the venerable bullet in the modern design, in both 180- and 200-grain weights.

Though the cup-and-core has been a staple in the lever-action diet for decades, there have been numerous attempts to enhance the performance of the projectiles. Winchester’s Silvertips – the first iteration with the aluminum cap at the meplat – was an attempt to slow expansion and increase penetration. I received my first rifle as a birthday gift from my dad, and with it came two boxes of 170-grain Winchester Power Point cartridges, with the lead exposed at the tip to be used for deer, and two boxes of 170-grain Winchester Silvertips, which we reserved for bear hunting. Though they have long been discontinued, those bullets worked well.

MEANWHILE, THE PROVEN Nosler Partition is also available as a flatnose bullet in .30-caliber at 170 grains, as is their 150-grain Expansion Tip; both make an excellent choice for the .30-30 Winchester and the less-popular .307 Winchester (a rimmed variant of the .308 Winchester). Swift has adapted their A-Frame bullet for use in the lever-action cartridges, including two offerings in .30-caliber at 150 and 170 grains, in .348-caliber – for the uber-cool .348 Winchester and the Model 71 Winchester – at 200 grains, as well as a 400-grain A-Frame for the .45-70 Government. The Barnes TSX is available in .308-inch-diameter at 150 grains for those needing a leadfree choice.

Hornady has endeavored to revolutionize lever gun performance with their aptly named LeveRevolution ammo line (see what I did there?), which features pointed bullets. Though I said the tubular magazines were relegated to flat or round meplat bullets, the MonoFlex and FTX bullets in this line use a pliable polymer tip to negate the chance of magazine detonation. This greatly increases the ballistic coefficient of the bullets and extends the range of our common lever-action cartridges.

Hornady’s offerings include: .2535 Winchester at 110 grains, .30-30 Winchester at 140 and 160 grains, .308 Marlin Express at 160 grains, .32 Winchester Special at 160 grains, .338 Marlin Express at 200 grains, .348 Winchester at 200 grains, .35 Remington at 200 grains, .444 Marlin at 265 grains, .45-70 Government at 250 and 325 grains, and .450 Marlin at 325 grains. These projectiles are also available in those handgun cartridges commonly chambered in lever guns, like the .357 Remington Magnum, .41 Remington Magnum, .44 Remington Magnum and .45 Colt.

Federal Premium has recently introduced a line of ammunition optimized for use in lever-action rifles: the HammerDown line. Using a flatnose, bonded-core bullet with a slightly hollow point, this ammo works wonderfully on big game species, especially on whitetail deer, feral hogs and black bears, though I wouldn’t hesitate to take other species if the range was suitable. According to their website, Federal currently offers the HammerDown in .30-30 Winchester at 150 grains and .45-70 Government at 300 grains. They also offer it in handgun cartridges like the .327 Federal at 127 grains, the .357 Magnum at 170 grains, the .44 Remington Magnum at 270 grains and the .45 Colt at 250 grains. I’ve used the .45-70 Government ammo for accuracy testing in a Heym over/ under double rifle and it shot very well, and I used the same to take a mature eight-point whitetail in the Catskill Mountains. That deer never knew what hit him, and went less than five steps.

Smaller companies like Tim Sundles’s Buffalo Bore also have some interesting offerings. His .45-70 “Magnum” load – driving a 400-grain bullet at 2,000 feet per second – brings that classic cartridge to a new level of both performance and recoil. It does the job for certain, and in my father’s centennial Browning 1886, what with its curved steel buttplate, it will let you know you’re alive.

So, as you can see, ammunition for Grandpa’s simple lever gun isn’t quite so simple after all. In fact, there are quite a few choices that can breathe new life into an old lever-action rifle, or better yet, give you a reason to seek out your first lever gun.