Rossi or Henry lever 357

[ScottyD]

[quote="bladeracer"

I have a Rossi 92 .357, and a Henry .22LR, and I would not recommend Henry. If somebody wants one I won't talk them out of it, but I wouldn't want anybody to buy one on my recommendation and end up disappointed. I also have a Winchester 94 in .30-30, Marlin 94 in .44 Mag, and Uberti 66 in .38 Special, all of which I would recommend ahead of Henry for quality. The Henry though is probably half the price of those, or less, and I agree, the Henry finish is lovely.[/quote]

Is there any one of these rifles that you'd single out as the best (mainly for pigs in scrub at short to medium distance)?

[bladeracer]

I have a Rossi 92 .357, and a Henry .22LR, and I would not recommend Henry. If somebody wants one I won't talk them out of it, but I wouldn't want anybody to buy one on my recommendation and end up disappointed. I also have a Winchester 94 in .30-30, Marlin 94 in .44 Mag, and Uberti 66 in .38 Special, all of which I would recommend ahead of Henry for quality. The Henry though is probably half the price of those, or less, and I agree, the Henry finish is lovely./quote]

Is there any one of these rifles that you'd single out as the best (mainly for pigs in scrub at short to medium distance)?

No pigs around here, but I really like .44 Magnum, and the Marlin 94 is a nice rifle. You can also load the .44 Mag down to the levels of .357 for smaller beasts if you went to. The Rossi is also available in .44 Magnum. One big advantage the Uberti .38 Special has, is its twist rate allows 200gn bullets over the more-relaxed twist rate of the .357 Rossi.

The Uberti, Rossi and Winchester are all top-eject, making it difficult to mount conventional optics, and leaves lots of openings for crud to get into the action. The Marlin is side eject and much better enclosed.

[ScottyD]

No pigs around here, but I really like .44 Magnum, and the Marlin 94 is a nice rifle. You can also load the .44 Mag down to the levels of .357 for smaller beasts if you went to. The Rossi is also available in .44 Magnum. One big advantage the Uberti .38 Special has, is its twist rate allows 200gn bullets over the more-relaxed twist rate of the .357 Rossi.

The Uberti, Rossi and Winchester are all top-eject, making it difficult to mount conventional optics, and leaves lots of openings for crud to get into the action. The Marlin is side eject and much better enclosed.[/quote]

Hmm, ok. Thanks for that

[ScottyD]

I've been looking at the Marlins for a while now (mainly in 30 30, but now I'm contemplating pistol calibre's too), and haven't been interested in the Henry offerings mainly because I don't think I'd like the tube loading for the bigger calibre's. But now I see they're bringing out side-loading gates on their guns, whilst retaining the magazine tube. Now they've got my attention.

They look pretty cool/well made, although I'm not sure how the polished brass would go when stalking stuff like pigs. All the reviews I've seen/read rate them too.

[bladeracer]

I've been looking at the Marlins for a while now (mainly in 30 30, but now I'm contemplating pistol calibre's too), and haven't been interested in the Henry offerings mainly because I don't think I'd like the tube loading for the bigger calibre's. But now I see they're bringing out side-loading gates on their guns, whilst retaining the magazine tube. Now they've got my attention.

They look pretty cool/well made, although I'm not sure how the polished brass would go when stalking stuff like pigs. All the reviews I've seen/read rate them too.

Think about it this way, you just dropped two pigs of a bunch, with a gate you can top-off while moving without even taking your eyes off the pigs, with a tube-loader you have to pull the tube out to drop rounds in, and when you close the tube you slip and launch the inner tube into the bush, scaring the game off...then all your ammo falls out of the rifle

I hate loading from the noisy end, stupid idea that should've disappeared the same day gate-loading appeared. I thought I saw something about a .22 gate-loading lever but haven't seen it again, anybody know of such a thing?

[ScottyD]

Think about it this way, you just dropped two pigs of a bunch, with a gate you can top-off while moving without even taking your eyes off the pigs, with a tube-loader you have to pull the tube out to drop rounds in, and when you close the tube you slip and launch the inner tube into the bush, scaring the game off...then all your ammo falls out of the rifle

I hate loading from the noisy end, stupid idea that should've disappeared the same day gate-loading appeared. I thought I saw something about a .22 gate-loading lever but haven't seen it again, anybody know of such a thing?[/quote]

Yeah, I totally agree. A side-gate loading makes a lot of sense to me, and these new Henry rifles look like being a bit better quality than the Marlins. I've been looking at the side-gate loading 30 30 and the 38 55 so far, and they reckon the 45 70 and other calibre's aren't too far away as well. I haven't come across a 22 version yet though, but id be surprised if they haven't covered those as well.

[Jt-2019]

I here the rossi in 357 mag goes ok the cheaper Henry's 22lr are about the same price