Pennsylvania Game News - December 2024 - 58

They were easy to carry in the woods
when deer hunting, accurate and lethal
at practical ranges, and quick to operate.
What more could a hunter need?
Even though in my part of Pennsylvania
there were a lot of local hunters who
carried scoped bolt guns chambered in
higher velocity cartridges, the lever action
rifl es with their medium velocity cartridges
still were very popular. The advantage
went to the Marlin 336 and Savage
99 since they could be easily scoped on
top of the receiver, which extended their
accurate range. If someone wanted to
scope on their Winchester Model 94, it
had to be brought to a gunsmith to be
drilled and tapped for a side mount.
This mount would place the scope off
to the left of the receiver so the top ejection
of the case would clear the scope.
Even though it worked well enough, it
still cost money to get it done, as well as
making the rifl e aesthetically awkward.
Another advantage of the Savage 99
was that it was strong enough to handle
the short, higher-velocity cartridges in the
.308 class (like the .308, .243, 7mm-08
and .358 Win). But unfortunately, by the
late 1990s, Savage dropped this model
due to increasing production/machining
costs, and the fact some parts needed to
be hand fi t during assembly.
As the 1970s, '80s and '90s progressed,
I saw many articles in outdoor magazines
touting the notion that the newer, more
accurate, high-velocity cartridges and bolt
guns were going to put the old lever action
designs and their mediocre cartridges by
the wayside.
Somehow as time went on, that didn't
exactly happen. Even though the newer,
sexier, more expensive, " reach out and
get 'em " cartridges in the new sleek58
looking
bolt guns did put a good dent in
lever action popularity, there was still a
strong enough demand for Winchester
and Marlin to keep manufacturing and
selling the Model 94 and 336 in .30-30
and .35 Remington.
In 1964, Marlin brought out the .444
Marlin cartridge, adding a short-range
powerhouse to its 336 lineup. In 1969,
it brought back its Model 1894 in .44
magnum, which has turned out to be a
popular, sweet little woods carbine. In
1972, it brought back an updated version
of its Model 1895 rifl e in .45-70, which
has become very popular in several versions
over the years, especially in areas of
close-quarters bear country.
All of these are still in production.
In 1983, to put itself on equal footing
with Marlin, Winchester updated its
Model 94 with the angle eject feature, and
drilled and tapped the top of the receiver
for scope mounts, to eject cases to the
side rather than straight up, in order to
accommodate a top mounted scope over
the bore.
In the late 1970s or early 1980s, Winchester
brought out the " Big Bore 94 "
model, along with three new cartridges,
the .307 Win, .356 Win and .375 Win, to
compete with the .308 Win & .358 Win
class of cartridges.
To accommodate their power, Winchester
beefed up the sides of the rear
portion of their 94 action. The Marlin 336
was already inherently strong enough to
accommodate those new cartridges without
any modifi cation.
The popularity of the Big Bore rifl es
and their cartridges never reached the
level that Winchester hoped for, though,
and the rifl es were discontinued by 1998
(I believe due to the fact that the enlarged
rear of the receiver was not aesthetically
appealing). Still, the cartridges are still
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2024

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