Stalking Rifles For Modern Hunters

Above, yours truly strolling the property with a Winchester 94. 

There is currently a rise in interest in lever-action rifles. More gun-makers are producing them.

Western Outdoor News refers to them as "stalking rifles". A stalking rifle is for hunting at short range with open sights.

They posted an article on stalking rifles that begins with:

With all of the hoopla lately about long-range rifles, cartridges and sights, one would think that anything not in the next zip code would be dismissed as too close.

Yet concurrently, there is a trend in the shooting sports industry that is exactly opposite – a focus on handy rifles chambered for short to medium-range cartridges that wear open barrel sights. What gives?

Certainly, it is not some kind of revolt within Gundom where those who don’t want to shoot from here into tomorrow have become iconoclasts, hell-bent to go the opposite way.

Rather, it is merely a parallel situation in which there are lots of shooters who want to go long while there are other shooters who want to go short. Both can be fun and effective. And there’s nothing wrong with a hunter doing both.

In fact, if there is one overriding trend in the industry these days, it is to be totally inclusive of everything imaginable. There seem to be several reasons for that, not the least of which is the fact that the ranks of gun owners spiked so much during the COVID/social unrest period that the base has expanded in all directions, including the kinds of guns and cartridges these different folks prefer.

Also, very deep in the psyche of gun owners, both old and new, is the ever-present desire to be able to defend themselves against all manner of threat, ranging from common violent criminals to who knows what.

When they first appeared on the scene in the 19th Century, lever-action rifles were the high-tech, high-capacity arms of their time. And they are every bit as valid today as they were then. Times may change, but the effectiveness of lever rifles hasn’t, doesn’t and won’t.

The bottom line is that the market these days is being flooded with rifles intended to be used with open sights, and which shoot cartridges that are effective to 100 yards, perhaps more in some instances, maybe a little less in others.

We’re talking about an influx of lever-action rifles chambered for cartridges ranging from .357 and .44 Magnum (traditionally considered handgun cartridges) to oldie but goodie traditional rifle cartridges like the .30-30 Winchester and .45/70 Government. There are even new straight-wall cartridges for lever guns like the 360 Buckhammer.

Making these new lever guns are companies like Marlin, Winchester, Uberti and Henry. And that list is growing.

To read the full article, go here.