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Charles,

Oh! I never thought of that, I assumed that cycling the lever was what was tearing them up.

biggyin,

Many people like Lyman receiver sights, or tang sights on their lever guns. Longer sight radius, and the "peep" helps with depth-of-field.

There are some web sites that discuss modifications and upgrades, but I can't find them now - bookmarked at home. One is:
http://www.levergun.com/articles/Race_Tuning.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; but it is not the one I was thinking of.

EDIT: But this one is! http://marauder.homestead.com/files/TUNING_M_1894.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Enjoy your new lever gun!

The cowboy shooters sometimes wrap the lever loop with rawhide strip, to cushion the fingers when you open the lever. There is a way to wrap it so the ends of the strip don't show - they are covered by the wrapping.

..because nobody who has one wants to let it go, and anyone who used to have one is looking for one to replace the one that got away. They're out there, just takes patience.

I have a Marlin 1894 .357 that I got for Cowboy Action Shooting some years ago. It shoots light "cowboy" loads (5.0 - 6.5 grains Unique, 158g lead RNFP) very accurately, but the microgroove rifling is not great with full-power lead bullets and I have not tried gas-checks. Full-power jacketed bullets, from 125 g to 158 g, group cloverleafs at 100 yd prone with a tang sight. I think Marlin produced them with Ballard rifling too - would have no problem with cast bullets at higher velocity.

It is a great little carbine. It is fun, accurate, and useful. The only "problem" with loading it is that the loading gate spring is strong and you have to insert the next round at the right angle hold the gate open and to push the previous round up the tube magazine - and this is not a real problem, it just takes practice and it is slower than swapping out a box magazine like on an AR-15.

If you find one and buy it, I think you will be very pleased.

Regards,
Andrew