Long Range Flat Shooting Levergun

[SteelEye]

I need a suitable pistol cartridge levergun for silhouette.  I'm partial to the 44 mag but keep coming across posts where shooters have problems with accuracy.  

This rifle will be primarily for PC but also serve for the 200 yard game with the big fat heavy rams.  It is my understanding that 200 gr 357 will knock them over.  

The question is,  what group sizes can I expect from the 44 mag and 357 mag with optimal loads and how flat do they shoot?  I might be more partial to a rilfe that require less sight adjustments.


Thanks,
SteelEye

[TX Charlie]

I have a .44 Marlin and have shot both the pistol cartridge range and the center fire silhouette matches.  The difficulties I found came from the two opposite ends of the power curve...
1. Plan on shooting different loads for the 2 matches.
2. JHP bullets will do less damage than the hard cast lead bullets.
3. Accuracy does increase when shooting bullets faster than the very light .44 spl. loads I have been shooting (1200 fps), but the recoil  increases also.  We have some target damage problems on the hunter pistol targets with the true .44 mag loads.  We found some target dimpling with light loaded lead bullets also.
I have been able to shoot 2-3" groups at the 100 meter distance, iron sights.  My best scores have been 53,52,50,49/60 using this .44 marlin rifle.  200gr Ranier HP, 5 gr. Titegroup in a .44 spl case, is my current hunter pistol cartridge load.
If I did not have this rifle and was looking for one to play these games, I would purchase a .357 Marlin.  Get the longest barrel they have.

[K2]

Flat shooting and flat nosed bullets used in the game don't belong in the same sentence  :-D

I need a suitable pistol cartridge levergun for silhouette.  I'm partial to the 44 mag but keep coming across posts where shooters have problems with accuracy.  

This rifle will be primarily for PC but also serve for the 200 yard game with the big fat heavy rams.  It is my understanding that 200 gr 357 will knock them over.  

The question is,  what group sizes can I expect from the 44 mag and 357 mag with optimal loads and how flat do they shoot?  I might be more partial to a rilfe that require less sight adjustments.


Thanks,
SteelEye