1st Levergun

[stevemb]

Hey Frnak, just poked my nose over into the Marlinownersite. Thanks. stevemb

[Frank V]

Jul 31, 2013 7:45:53 GMT -5 stevemb said:

Hey Frnak, just poked my nose over into the Marlinownersite. Thanks. stevemb

You are welcome Steve, glad you enjoyed it.

I'm over there a lot. Same name, c'mon over & join us!!!
I'm mostly on the .45-70 & 94 Marlin threads.

[stevemb]

Alrighty then, am awaiting contact info from the seller. Hope to see him and the 1894 one of the next two Saturdays, his choice. Been going thru my already loaded .44mag stuff and seeing what I'm reasonably sure won't work in the Marlin and deciding to either run it thru the SBH or pull bullets,etc.. stuff like that. Frank V ? Our mailman says your mailman might be looking for ya Sat..just sayin'. stevemb

[stevemb]

Things getting goofy, guy says since I'm not a Penn resident, gotta tranfer thru FFL.. What ? Hand to hand transfer, cash deal. Got family all thru the state going back to service in the Revolution. Bleep, Bleep here now. Ok, deeeep breath. Whats up ? Its just a lever gun Marlin in a pistol caliber. Is there REALLY a problem, legally ? stevemb

[COR]

I already emailed this but you need to buy that gun and stop convincing that man you are bonkers...if the "Revolution" statement didn't scare him away you need to seal the deal (great line BTW). My LGS did say it should go thru an FFL since you are out of state. So do it.

Stop kicking those tires and get that damn thing out in the woods along the Clarion river where it belongs...It's everything you wanted.

Do it.

[stevemb]

Ok, Ok, I'll probably end up meeting him at Grice's in Clearfield I believe, next Sat.. I prefer weird, to bonkers. Don't have a play-pen account(I can spell when I want to)and don't want one. I don't mind him being careful, I try to play by the rules myself.Hey, my sister was just at a DAR convention last week , Daughters of the Revolution, we have paper work ! Of course, that's the side of the family where the weird comes from. stevemb

[Frank V]

Aug 2, 2013 10:39:33 GMT -5 stevemb said:

Alrighty then, am awaiting contact info from the seller. Hope to see him and the 1894 one of the next two Saturdays, his choice. Been going thru my already loaded .44mag stuff and seeing what I'm reasonably sure won't work in the Marlin and deciding to either run it thru the SBH or pull bullets,etc.. stuff like that. Frank V ? Our mailman says your mailman might be looking for ya Sat..just sayin'. stevemb

Got the stocks Sat. Steve, thanks. They were here waiting for me when I got home from fishing. Shot it today too & I really like them, thanks.

Steve....... shooting them is WAY more fun than pulling......
Do you have a good RNFP bullet? I run SWCs through a .45 Colt Marlin without any problems, but have never had one in .44 Mag.
I don't remember if you said you cast or not??

[stevemb]

Everything here, now, is cast. Of the bullets coming from Matt's are some 160gr TC's and some 250 SWC-HP's. Also some 173 SWC .357's. None were ordered with a levergun in mind at that time. I'll nab 2-300 XTP's for break-in first. The only thing that should work that's in the basement stash right now is some 275gr hard cast TC's. My Ruger cordless drill bullets. Yeah, gonna have to find some RNFP's. COR had sent me some in a bullet trade a while back, but I went and shot'em up, go figure. Soo, some light, some mid-heavy, RNFP's to shop for too. Then....a Skinner rear sight for huntin' ? stevemb

[Frank V]

Steve, you'll like the Skinner rear sight. I've one on a Marlin 95 & love it. You may need a bit taller front though. Andy should be able to figure out what you need.

www.skinnersights.com

[stevemb]

Alrighty then ! After a saga-worthy amount of e-mails, we have a deal. Gonna meet Sat 1pm-2pm at Grice's gun shop."Largest gun shop in Pa". This, in Clearfield Penn.. Am probably gonna over night at camp in Lake City, Elk Co.. Anybody nearby and gonna be bored silly otherwise ? stevemb

[Frank V]

Aug 6, 2013 11:27:12 GMT -5 stevemb said:

Alrighty then ! After a saga-worthy amount of e-mails, we have a deal. Gonna meet Sat 1pm-2pm at Grice's gun shop."Largest gun shop in Pa". This, in Clearfield Penn.. Am probably gonna over night at camp in Lake City, Elk Co.. Anybody nearby and gonna be bored silly otherwise ? stevemb

Oh boy oh boy, you are going to like it. We will need a range report!!!

[stevemb]

OK ! Am quite elated at the moment, my typing may suffer, more than usual. Due to mix of people and activities I didn't shoot the rifle at camp, then hurried home Sunday am...and didn't shoot it again. But this am woke up to wife telling me the kitchen sink was leaking.After a trip to county courthouse to re-new CCW, thought a couples hrs of plumbing, gonna be too late for work, so a vacation day. Then on to, heh, heh, heh, some shooting ! About that time the rain backed off and it was ON. Didn't want to chase brass around on the still wet patio so I shot from the 2nd story window that overlooks the river valley and my range. Set the target stand at @ 40yds, and of course downhill from the house now. Had 3- 20 rd boxes of mixed 44mag stuff. Corbon 180 and 240 HP's, and Hornady 225gr FTX's and XTP's. Tried one of my 265gr SWC copper-clads over 18gr of 2400. This last, kinda long, took some wiggling to get into chamber. The never been fired rifle is "crusty" as you'd expect, trigger, well you know factory triggers. Some were shot off-hand, others with elbow on window sill. In all, 61 rds down range, of four different loadings and got a somewhat ragged 4, maybe 4 1/2" group. Am quite happy at the moment. With all the horror stories of "Remlins" going around. After another 1-200 jacketed, probably 240gr XTP's, for hunting, I'll find a cowboy play load. Maybe a Skinner rear sight. stevemb

[Irelander]

Sounds like you got a nice rifle there.  Good choice of the 44MAG.


I went with a Rossi '92 stainless levergun with a 16" barrel in 44MAG for my first levergun. I LOVE IT! It is my hunting/HD gun. Its bone stock with just a little smoothing up it runs real nice. Very handy for the brushy woods here in NW PA, or for maneuvering through my house. I'd take a 44 for a HD gun over a .223 any day!  I run a 200gr NOS JHP over 21.3gr of 2400 for my hunting load.  I get great groups with it out to 100 yards.  FUN FUN FUN.  

[bibbyman]

I've shot two deer with Mary's Marlin 1894 44 Mag. One fork horn at less then 50 yards ran a bit and jumped a fence, fell and and was getting up. Wanting to end it and not risk having him run off wounded, I shot him again. He went down but again tried to get up. I was within a few steps and gave him the coup de grace.

I packed the 1894 again a couple of years later and had just entered the woods when four small bucks stood up from their beds to see what was coming. I picked the easiest shot. The shot, broadside through the lungs looked good. He was obviously hit hard. All four ran off. A couple of seconds later I heard a KARBOOM! Followed a couple of seconds later by another. I walked with caution in that direction. Son, retired Marine Corps sniper, called out. He had a fork horn on the ground. He had heard me shoot and seen the bucks coming and took one with his 7mm Remington Magnum. He noticed one of the others limping badly and got a raking shot on the side opposite the side I shot. It was about sundown so we followed up quickly. Quicker than we should have maybe. About 50 yards further we found a pool of blood where it had laid down. We tracted that deer for nearly a mile. One place we found a 2" section of leg bone. I came back to where we left off and searched the area. There was no more blood trail. Never found the deer.

That was the last time I used the 44 Magnum. As I remember, the ammo was 240 jacketed soft nose. My conclusion was not enough perpetuation. I went back to my 1895 Marlin 45/70. No problems.

If I were to use the 44 on deer again, I'd go with a real heavy hard cast flat nose bullet.

[Irelander]

bibbyman,

Thanks for sharing your experiences. I will take them into consideration when preparing for this deer season.