Some of my favourite memories of shooting matches involve the times we got into the (then) informal fun matches with lever rifles.
After a .22 pistol silhouette match, out would come the .22 lever rifles to be used on the same steel targets (chickens at 25M, Javelina at 50M, turkeys at 75M and rams at 100M). After a big bore match with full sized targets - just double the distances - out would come the centerfire lever guns.
It sounds pretty easy using a rifle on pistol targets, but it isn't when you consider the very expensive pistols used and (except for standing pistol matches), the rock solid Creedmoor position compared to standing shooting with a rifle.
Unlike shooting at paper it's a very noisy and exciting affair. I never tired of it.
I'd only ever owned two lever rifles since hunting distance are long here, and so more suited to powerful calibres in a bolt gun with pointed bullets. I bought a used Marlin 39A in .22LR made in 1951 - so smooth action and no added modern safety - to use in .22, and used a borrowed Marlin 30-30 for big bore. Later I used my brother's Winchester 30-30 rifle with heavy octagonal barrel - and every other calibre of Win and Marlin as people in the club began to collect them. It's a LOT of work casting bullets and match prepping brass which is why learning about the guns was a joint effort. Like everyone else who has read rifle books, we were expecting levers with two part stocks, barrel bands, heavy triggers, and made for once a year hunters to be inaccurate. What we found out is that with some work and sizing cast bullets to match the barrel, they as as accurate as the sights they come with and with better (peep) sights they are better than most people standing.
When I got the 39A I was incredibly disappointed because it sure wasn't in the mint condition it was described and priced at. Nevertheless I had a weekend to test it out and so cleaned and scoped it and headed to the range with a bunch of target ammo to test it. Luckily it was a very still day and I was very impressed with the accuracy and decided to keep it. Since the main challenge to 100M shooting with a .22LR is wind drift, the accuracy of the gun was more than sufficient. The surprising point for me was that the gun was accurate with all ammo tested whereas lots of .22's have a real preference. We saw the same characteristic with my friend's 39A.
With the Marlin 30-30, we simply took it out from where it had been sitting for decades and I loaded up some shells since I had previously shot 30-30 in a pistol and was set up. Accuracy at 200M with jacketed bullets was simply awful with us not being able to hit a ram and the bullets missing by a wide margin all around it. It was hilarious with neither of us as champion shooters being able to hit a ram! It was fun because once we saw the shape and size of the spread, we could apply the JB and Sweets to the bore, then move directly to .310 cast bullets. Then the misses stopped. Somewhere around I have the excel spreadsheets of all the bullet/powder/alloy/lube/primer/ crimp/load combinations and the work it took to make that rifle one of the most competitive I ever shot or went up against.
My brother insisted that I use his centennial Winchester rifle - which was made to be a wall-hanger. It was literally a pain to shoot with the back of the butt-stock being so concave and a brass liner - but it sure shot and won enough times.
What I've been trying to get at with the above is that if a person both reloads and casts their own bullets, a lever gun can be very surprising. If you both reload and cast, then it's very inexpensive to shoot, and that shooting with flat nosed low BC bullets will raise wind doping skills beyond belief and with lots of fun.
So I'd say that a lever gun is a wise investment - and if a person doesn't reload then the 39A is incredible and has lots of fans.
