My ears were burning...
Yeah, I played with those crude, clanky, rickety, inaccurate, outdated old things for a little while and just got sick and tired of them. Underpowered, inaccurate, couldn't hit the broad side of a barn if you were standing inside of it. Finally gave up and sold 'em all and bought a bunch of these new fangled black plastic rifles. The kinds that use batteries to power them into the 21st century and beyond.
But, well, I did learn a few things during all of those sad, misguided years I was playing with that rusty old junk. I guess I could share some of it, in the hopes that no one else has to suffer as I did.
So, pistol caliber lever guns? About as old as, well, lever guns - the very first ones were essentially "pistol calibers". The old .44 Henry rimfire, then the .44-40 WCF (Winchester Center Fire), then the .38-40, .32-20, etc. - all started out as "rifle" rounds, but were so darn short that they were easily chambered in revolvers as well. The Colt Peacemaker was the first, best known, and most common. They even stamped "Frontier Six Shooter" on the barrels of the .44-40's to emphasize that use - out on the "frontier", where ammunition commonality between rifle and pistol were a really big selling point.
Interestingly, the .45 Colt was never offered in a lever gun until fairly recently, like the end of the 20th century. There was a reason for that - the rim was too darn small on the original ammunition to allow it to extract reliably in a lever gun. The rim was subsequently enlarged, to where it is now the same size as that on the .44 magnum, so now it functions reliably through lever guns. And just about every pistol caliber lever gun made today is available in .45 Colt. My current example (that I'm still suffering with) is one of the first gen (1990's) Marlin Cowboy examples with a 24" barrel and full length magazine (that holds 13):
This is a wonderfully accurate rifle that will handle any .45 Colt load, including my heaviest 300 grain "Ruger only" handloads. My Ruger single actions will get about 1,250 fps with them, and this rifle will approach 1,500. It is absolutely viable as a 150 yard-ish deer or hog rifle. I did have to modify the cartridge lifting ramp to accept my longer than SAAMI spec 300 grain load, but that was pretty easily accomplished. But, you know, even with SAAMI spec, "Colt safe" loads (250 to 270 grain bullets at 900 fps from a revolver), it will still hit 1,200 fps and remains entirely useful as that 150 yard-ish hunting rifle.
Unfortunately, like everything else "firearms" these days, I bet it's almost impossible to find a rifle like this. Lots of manufacturers make similar lever guns - Winchester Model 92, various Henrys, Uberti Model 73's and '92's, etc. Out of all of those, the Marlin 1894 in its various guises remains my favorite, followed by the Winchester Model 92. My only recommendation would be to stay away from the Model 73 - it has a notoriously weak toggle link style lockup and is not suitable for heavy loads. Other than that, find one, if you can - you'll learn to hate them as much as I do...