Winchester Ranger 94AE 30/30 (NIB), Marlin 336SS 30/30, Marlin 1894C .357 mag, Rossi 92 38/357, Henry Octagon Frontier model 22LR (not shown)
I own five lever actions. Not because I am paranoid, but because they are fun to shoot. They do make excellent home defense guns. One tip is to load a round only 7/8ths into the loading gate and push it in with the next round. You can load the rifle fairly quickly this way. You don't need to stock up on expensive or hard to obtain magazines. The lever action slows the firing rate just enough so that you take your time to aim and make hits. They are very accurate. They are usually on the exempt list on Assault Weapons Bans.
The down sides are that the mechanism is intricate, hard to repair, and can be case length sensitive. I broke an overly heated treated rear barrel band screw on my 336SS (easily repaired with new part), the Rossi often balks at feeding 357's into the chamber (I use it as a 38+P plinker), the Winchester is hard to top off with extra rounds, elevation settings can change markedly with the 357/38 load, 357/38 ammo has recently sky rocketed in price, only the Henry 22LR is inexpensive to shoot, and although generally reliable you must test fire a good amount with your chosen load for function and sighting in.
The Marlin 1894c is a very good choice and mine has been ultra reliable and a pleasure to shoot. Since we won't have to shoot beyond our property line, it is all most of us would ever need for home defense. The 357 Mag is a proven man stopper in a revolver, and you get much more energy out of the round in a rifle. I would also pick up the 22LR Henry Frontier model as a practice/small game rifle; it is a slick-handling tack driver.
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