Doc Brown's lever action sniper - Just for fun.

[Beltaine]

How viable would an actual working version of Doc Brown's lever action sniper rifle be?

Does anyone make long barrels for these things?

[gregintenn]

I don't have much faith in that scope mount setup. You could custom order those back in the day for pretty much whatever barrel length you wanted.

[Beltaine]

Yeah, the scope from the movie is too crazy to be viable. I was thinking maybe find a giant scope and find some place to brass plate it.

[roverboy]

Is the rifle a 1866 Win. or what? The barrel is way long. The round nose or flat point bullets would have a terrible B.C. but then somebody forgot to tell the old buffalo hunters that. Hmmmmm.

Edited September 12, 2011 by roverboy

[1gewehr]

Totally Hollywood. In other words, all appearance, no reality. First, look at the loading port. It's obviously chambered in a pistol-length cartridge. Low power and short range, limitations. Second, the frame is brass. So even if it WAS chambered in a useful long-range cartridge, the frame couldn't handle it.

If you want to build a useful long-range lever-action rifle, I would start with a Savage 99 action. They handle .308 pressures just fine, have a rotary magazine so you don't have to worry about pointy bullets hitting primers under recoil, and the barrel is easily free-floated. I think one in .260 Remington with a 24" varmint barrel might be interesting! Another choice might be a Browning BLR for the same reasons as the Savage.

[roverboy]

Yeah, brass frames were used on the early lever rifles and carbines. They were black powder cartridges and low powered compared to anything today. I don't know what cal. the 1866 Win. (Yellowboy) was in. Probably .44 Henry or maybe .44-40. The Henry cartridge was very low pressure and velocity. Doc had a pretty neat rifle though.

[Guest GunTroll]

Sure why not?

Maybe sons of guns will do it one day. Tacticool cowboy crap from the bayou. It will sell.

[Jonnin]

You could make one but his, as noted, is a hollywood prop. I have a 9X scope on my 30-30 and its a killer at 100-200 yards, extrapolate that to a long range caliber should be easy. The hard part would be finding a lever gun in an acceptable caliber, I do not know what is out there, but I do not think there are a lot of 335s, 308s, 30-06s, 7mms, or the like in lever guns to be found... However, remember that back when, a sniper rifle was only used at a couple hundred yards, 350 or so yards is a pretty common sniper shot and the real long range stuff is much more rare. A lot of men have died to a 300 or so yard shot, a 4 power scope, and whatever rifle.

[Jonnin]

I dont know about that loading port comment. Its not that much smaller than the port on my 30-30. ??? The port on mine is about 1 inch long and 30-30 shell wide.

[Troutburger]

Sure thing, As posted before RedJacket will whip you one right up. .308 Marlin Express ammo, 26" Krieger barrel, and a picatinny rail. You'll be acing Zombie indians out to 1000 meters! Would only cost you around $2500 or so...

[daddyo]

It is, indeed, a Winchester Model 1866 "Yellow Boy":

Back to the Future Part III - imfdb :. guns in movies :. movie guns :. the internet movie firearms database

[Beltaine]

If I pay Red Jacket to do it, what fun is that?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Dumb question-- Of the older lever-actions, were they typically brass or gun metal? Gun metal is supposedly some kind of bronze.

Gunmetal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Think I read somewhere that gun metal is stronger than typical brass for receivers and such. Can't recall. Dunno if gun metal would be any better than brass for a high-power round. Only curious.

[roverboy]

It is, indeed, a Winchester Model 1866 "Yellow Boy":

Back to the Future Part III - imfdb :. guns in movies :. movie guns :. the internet movie firearms database

Thanks DaddyO, intersting stuff.

[1gewehr]

Dumb question-- Of the older lever-actions, were they typically brass or gun metal? Gun metal is supposedly some kind of bronze.

Think I read somewhere that gun metal is stronger than typical brass for receivers and such. Can't recall. Dunno if gun metal would be any better than brass for a high-power round. Only curious.

Bronze (gunmetal) was used primarily in Naval cannon because of it's corrosion resistance. It is not significantly stronger than brass for small arms use. By the time of the 1866 Winchester, iron and steel frames were becoming inexpensive enough that brass (and bronze) quickly went by the wayside. At the same time, cartridges were steadily getting more and more powerful. So brass or bronze were no longer used in small arms production.

During the War Between the States, Southern arms manufacturers intentionally tried to design firearms capable of using brass as a major component. This was due to the scarcity of iron and steel.

[Guest GunTroll]

Those toggle action designs which I believe most were on a brass receiver, are indeed not strong at all. I had a 38 spc Uberti Henry type action, forget what year repro this one was, that was so badly out of head space. I mean it was a joke to even put in my gauges! Could have measured with a tape measure. If I remember correctly it was pushing 1/16, .0625 or worse!! Indeed not a strong action. The toggle pin hole was very oval-ed shape due to the loads or the amount of firing this thing had seen. I think this is common amongst the CB action shooting firearms of this design that are popular these days and get more shooting time logged than perhaps they should. Dunno.

I was looking at my Marlin 1895 CB in 45-70 last night. Its got a 26 inch octagon barrel, 10 round capacity, and a Leupold FXIII 6 power on it. So yes, that sort of design is out there more or less without a custom shop needed. Also the load port is very small when compared to the case. Never really thought of the size issue until this thread or the post that pointed it out.

Cool info 1gewehr.

[dlm37015]

i have a marlin 336 that i rebarreled to 38/55 with a 28 inch green river barrel it shoots very good