Where are all the lever guns lately?

[FergusonTO35]

I think most people who have lever actions are hanging onto what they have and quickly grabbing any they encounter for sale. Another problem is that the two largest traditional sources of lever actions, Marlin and Winchester, are producing a tiny fraction of what they once did and prices of those guns are very high. Henry's don't stay on the shelf long at all around here, even at over $1k a pop. Last I heard, they were running production 24/7 and had something like five years of orders to fill. I wonder if Rossi will ever decide to bring back the Rio Grande. When Rossi introduced it, you could still buy nice American lever actions for the same price so I think most people didn't take them seriously. That's not the case anymore, and I bet they would sell like mad. I mean, people are dropping $700.00 on their 92's right now.

[hornetguy]

Most gunshows around here have a few Marlins, nearly all of them start around $800.... stupid money.
Occasionally, gunshops have new Henry rifles, which I think are very nice guns... I got a .357 side gate blued steel one, and it's very nicely made.
Ruger now owns Marlin, and is beginning to put them out on the market... the ones I've seen are usually just north of $1000, but I've heard that the quality is better than the old Marlins.
I also have a Rossi R92 in 45 Colt.... Their guns are nicely made, but they have been having problems lately with chambers that are oversized, which causes the brass to bulge when firing moderately heavy loads. Googly "bulged brass Rossi"....
If you get one with a good chamber, they are very nice rifles. My 45 is slightly oversized, so with heavier loads, my brass bulges enough to require extra care when re-sizing to reload. If I shoot standard low pressure 45 loads, there's no issue with it.

As stated earlier, the wood stocks on Rossis are "Brazilian hardwood" according to Rossi.

[3Crows]

Some of it is indeed the "modern sporting rifle" phenomena. But there were only three main players in the lever gun world. Sure there are a few specialty builders and such but the big three are 1) Marlin, 2) Henry, 3) Rossi and if you want a number 4) Winchester (Japan).

And Marlin has been out of production for nearly four years and Ruger is putting out three 1895 models now, I own two of them, an SBL and GBL they are amazing rifles but Ruger does not have Marlin back to speed and they are taking their time to make sure the rifles they put out are worthy of the name. That was/is a full third of lever gun production gone for four years. That alone is a huge part of the lever gun shortage.

I have not seen a new Winchester rifle on a rack for sale since about 1989 when I bought a 9422M XTR. I have not seen any sort of Winchester (lever gun) on a rack anywhere, new, since. So I do not even count them as a producer of rifles anymore.

[jstanfield103]

I own two new Winchesters. One in 45 Colt the other in 44 Mag. They are out there but they are pricey. Worth to me what you get though. One bought at my Small town LGS the other I had to find off of GB.

[FergusonTO35]

Some of it is indeed the "modern sporting rifle" phenomena. But there were only three main players in the lever gun world. Sure there are a few specialty builders and such but the big three are 1) Marlin, 2) Henry, 3) Rossi and if you want a number 4) Winchester (Japan).

And Marlin has been out of production for nearly four years and Ruger is putting out three 1895 models now, I own two of them, an SBL and GBL they are amazing rifles but Ruger does not have Marlin back to speed and they are taking their time to make sure the rifles they put out are worthy of the name. That was/is a full third of lever gun production gone for four years. That alone is a huge part of the lever gun shortage.

I have not seen a new Winchester rifle on a rack for sale since about 1989 when I bought a 9422M XTR. I have not seen any sort of Winchester (lever gun) on a rack anywhere, new, since. So I do not even count them as a producer of rifles anymore.

The 1895 that Ruger is currently producing would still have been pricey if JM or Remlin had made it, not really a mass market rifle. I think prices will come down to about Henry level once Ruger gets up to speed and produces 1894 and 336, which have more mass appeal. I rather doubt that they will ever bring back the economy version of the 336 or any other Marlin centerfire models. Once you build them right, they aren't going to cost that much less than the premium version. The last Remlin 336A's I saw on the rack were still north of $400.00 and looked terrible. The various $300.00 synthetic stock bolt guns have the economy hunting rifle market locked up anyway.

I've never seen a new Miroku Winchester for sale in person, and I've been frequenting busy shops my whole life. I think Winchester never had any plans for these rifles to be mass market, more of a premium product that the dedicated enthusiast would seek out.