The handicap is in your brain. Dad gave me a Model 94 Winchester he bought new in 1957. It looked new when he gave it to me as he had only fired 7 rounds thru it. I was 20 when he gave it to me, and now at 58, it's my go to gun, but it doesn't look new anymore. It looks like family. In my early years of law enforcement I carried it as a tracker, and in the patrol car, but gave in to the mini-14s and the ar's, and bolt guns. I had found the 94 would not group well at 100 yards. I would get it down and mess with it occasionally, and put it back up for the newer more accurate guns.
A few years ago I called a custom lever gun smith and told him of the problem, but assured him the gun was not going in the mail to him, and did not blame him for not giving me any ideas on fixing it (I'm a pistol smith) myself. He told me where to look, and walla! A bent barrel band screw (bent at the factory in 1957) was pushing against the barrel and causing it to scatter groups.
Well, I had told my boys that if I ever got that gun to shootin I'd sell the rest, and I have, except for a Model 92 Winchester clone in 357 mag. It and the Model 94 3030 are my small, medium, and big game rifles. And elk's ribs are not much thicker than a whitetail's, or a buffalo's for that matter, and dead is dead. What a round, and what a history.
When one of my son's gets my Model 94 3030, they'll also get the newspaper clippings with the pictures of me doing a track on a man, carrying that ole Winchester, and they'll also know when and where the rifle came from, to go along with where it's been. A lever gun is not a handicap, it's a life style in the way of hunting, regardless of what you hunt.
