Introduce myself

Welcome to the party.

You say you like the T/C family, but you go by leverfan - is there a type of lever action you like best?

So far I've generally gone for Marlins.

Greetings,
My lever guns are the other woman.
I have appreciated the look, handling and general all around appeal of the lever action since I was young and that seems to have been a long time ago.
I own a 1948 Winchester 94 in 32 wspl, a 1954 Win 94 in 30-30, a 1957 Win Model 88 in 308, a 1951 Marlin 336 in 35 Rem, a Win AE Trapper in 44 mag, and another Trapper in 357. I recently sold a Win Legacy in 45 Colt. and a Win 94 1952 in 30-30 to a deserving young man.
OK, that said I shoot the T/C and Encore for hunting small and medium game and just plain fun.
I'm an avid reloader and there aren't too many recipes you miss trying out regarding the Contender and Encore.

Couple times a year the gang loads up on guns, ammo, reloading components and gear then travels to the bitter brush country for a week of shootin and hootin.

Truth be told I spend as much time behind a rim fire these days as anything else.

Leverfan

That sounds to me like a worthy way of life.

How would you compare the .35 Remington and the .44 Magnum out of your leverguns? A lot of people seem to not see a role for the .35, but I suspect that they're missing something.

I believe and always will that the venerable .44 mag makes for an excellent hand cannon and a great medium game getter if that's all you have to work with and you respect it's limitation of shot distance.
The choice between the 35 Remington and 44 magnum in a lever gun will always go to the 35 because it will reach out and touch some one (thing) with greater authority (expansion/penetration) well beyond the range of a pistol bullet.
The exception would be a hard cast, GC with a big old flat nose at reasonable yardage.

I choose the 35 at 200 - 220gr to hunt, the 35 with 158 SP to plink. The .44 is for close work and pure fun.

I guess this should be carried to the firearms discussion.

Hard to call a difference between the two, honestly, it's more a difference between one hit and another as to which hit will work best.

I'd choose the .358 220 to the .429 240 simply because of greater initial SD.

Either one of the calibers will kill the hell out of a deer.

I would really like a lever action in .357 Maximum, but I guess I'll have to settle for other options. For anything west of the Cascades and south of the People's Democratic Republic of Canuckistan, a 9mm bullet is plenty for anything that walks the earth provided that the bullet is trucking along and provided I can get it on target.