Lever Action Rifles at Shot Show
BY Herschel Smith
4 days, 22 hours ago
If someone had asked 20 years ago what type of firearm would make the biggest waves at SHOT Show 2025, few – if any – people would’ve said it would be the lever-action guns. Yet, here we are, finding more lever-driven long guns and handguns than ever before.
Except none of them are in 460 or 500 S&W magnum or any big bore cartridges. I want to see a lever action rifle in 500 S&W magnum. Oh, except Rossi, which to my great delight is offering .444 Marlin. I am an advocate of the .444 Marlin cartridge. It’s nearly 45-70, but greater muzzle velocity. It can put down large hogs easily. Ask me how I know. If I had a spare $820 I would spring for this even though I already have a Marlin .444.
On February 14, 2025 at 6:44 pm, X said:
The bankruptcy of Remington/Marlin and USRAC a few years back left a huge hole in the lever gun market that had been taken for granted for many years.
I remember back in the 1990s every fall K-mart and Dicks and Walmart would blow out cheap Winchester 94s and Marlin 336s for $239-249 and .30-30 was $5-6 a box. Nobody wanted ’em. I remember looking at them and thinking “Kinda neat and affordable but what the hell am I gonna do with this?” They weren’t target guns and bolt-actions were better for hunting.
So… meh.
I also think a big part of the contemporary market for lever guns has to do with gun bans in blue states like NY, CA, IL, WA, etc. etc. where you can’t buy an AR and you can’t have a magazine over ten rounds. Lever guns remain legal just about everywhere and tend to not stampede the gun-ban liberals in the Blue states.