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Post by squawberryman on Sept 30, 2013 6:43:16 GMT -5
Care to give any info and share any pics? I haven't got a 22 in quite a while, thinking about one of those. Stories and photos please...
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Post by vonfatman on Sept 30, 2013 8:58:25 GMT -5
Yes sir....the first gun I ever shot was a Marlin 39a.....my father had one when I was a kid. His was a pre-Golden trigger unit....pre-1957 (I think). I asked to shoot it a few years back and much to my dismay, he'd traded it off! Ugh!! So I got the bug and went in search of my own. I managed to pick up a 1968 vintage rifle....then a few weeks later a 1961 vintage 39a Mountie. Both are nice guns and are here to stay. I am kind of a rimfire guy and have several flavors. I even have a Marlin Model 56 Levermatic. I think if I were looking, I'd stick to pre-crossbolt safety guns. Bob
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Post by alukban on Sept 30, 2013 9:51:11 GMT -5
Care to give any info and share any pics? I haven't got a 22 in quite a while, thinking about one of those. Stories and photos please... Connecticut has had a very rich history in american firearms and thus all that is classic americana. There are many old timers and families here who have deep roots in the firearms manufacturing industry... and industrialization in general. The die casting process was invented and used in the NW corner of the state (where I am now) by the original Collins axe company. The workers there went on to Colt and the rest is history. The Marlin factory is at Exit 13 on the I95 in the South central portion of the State. I still have a place at Exit 8 along the river in what was once known as Fairhaven but is now just a historic (and quixotic) part of New Haven. It was only a 5 minute drive from me. You can see the Marlin factory to your right as you drive north along the I95 autobahn to go to Blue Trails gun shop and range which is at Exit 15 - home base and past proving grounds of the Lyman family. Their peeps were invented and used here. A Lyman still runs that range and the family still has orchards over at the next exit North. That is where I found my much treasured, first year production (1939, that is) Marlin 39A wearing Lyman No.1 tang mounted peeps and globe front sights of the same vintage. It sorta matters to me that it's barrel is stamped with the New Haven, CT address. There were all kinds of gun companies that used to call New Haven home, Whitney, Winchester, Savage - a few. Those histories are interestingly intertwined and incestuous. Hartford is a swift half an hour ride up that I95 speedway. Another half an hour from Hartford is Springfield, MA. You all know who is and was in those cities. My Marlin 39A is the quintessential New England small game gun to me. You can still find Marlin 39's here and there but they are not rated for high velocity ammo. I tend to shoot my rifle with .22 CB Shorts. With the Shorts, I limit my kill range to 30 yards for a kill zone diameter of about 0.6". The 39A with Shorts is quieter than a similarly powered airgun AND it is about 2 lbs lighter even with 25 rounds in the mag tube. The squirrel pictured below was got at a mere 12y and the was a completely pass-through (double lung shot). Rabbits are total pass throughs with Shorts also. Shooting quietly is extremely pleasant and one does not need to go NFA to do it. Another pair from a nippy cold morning. - Lyman peep - side view
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Post by AxeHandle on Sept 30, 2013 9:53:28 GMT -5
Not a knowledgeable Marlin guy but I always liked the look of the Marlin lever 22. Stumbled upon an older one in a local emporium a few years back. Looked up the serial number and fiqured it was made in the late 60s. Old gun was not in bad shape to have that many years behind it! Went back to cut a deal. Salesman pointed out the letter prefix to the serial number and the meaning of the letter. Turns out it was manufactured in 52! Just like me! It lives at my house now.
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Post by squawberryman on Sept 30, 2013 18:25:36 GMT -5
Bob with you I shoulda known...
Alukban thank you very very much for the story. I love stories such as that. I've got a line on a non crossbolt, I'll know in a couple of days. Wanting to take advantage of the 24" pipe and not wanting a scope, it's good to know a peep can probably be had. I can't see in the picture, did you plug the rear on the barrel? Thanks again folks. Anyone know when they went from ballard rifling to microgroove?
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Post by alukban on Oct 2, 2013 10:45:30 GMT -5
Hey squawberryman, I'm not quite sure what you mean about "plug the rear on the barrel". Microgroove supposedly started in the early '50's. Andrew
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Post by squawberryman on Oct 2, 2013 16:22:21 GMT -5
I meant did you remove the rear sight and "plug" the hole with blank of some type
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Post by alukban on Oct 2, 2013 19:06:37 GMT -5
Gotcha I did have to remove the Rocky Mountain rear sight for the Lyman to work at short ranges. I replaced it with a Lyman folding leaf instead of just a plug.
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Post by bradshaw on Oct 14, 2013 10:06:28 GMT -5
alukban.... fed myself rabbit and grouse dinners while in school, early sixties, collected with Marlin Model 39 Mountie. Put a Williams Foolproof peep on it. Hunted around the tobacco farms north of Hartford. Paid twenty skins, used, for the Mountie, as memory has it. Bought an S&W K-22, also used, for fifty, with another five skins for an S.D. Myers Jordan holster, the one with snap release, steel shank, and the 2-snap hammer strap. Jordan said he never wore his revolver strapped, unless it was to run and he happened to not have sixgun in hand. Those two artifacts of Yankee gun making accounted for important protein those days. The K-22 probably took as many ruffed grouse as the carbine. I used Long Rifle Hi Speed hollow points for excellent results.
A kid I met at the NRA Junior Rifle Program had an octagon barrel Marlin lever .22, barrel likely 26 inches. Stingy little buckhorn rear sight; no front sight. The youth sighted down the top flat of the barrel to nail numerous squirrels, and a lesser number of other edibles. He favored .22 Shorts with the 15 grain round nose lead for quiet, efficient kills, bullet generally captured in body. Recall youth stating his grandfather bought the octagon Marlin in the 1890's.
My great grandfather Edward Bullard worked in a machine shop in Windsor, Vermont. Later hired by Colt. Attempt during the Civil War to enlist in the Union Army was rejected, with notice to effect, "You'll kill more Rebels working at Colt than you ever could on the battlefield." Founded the Bullard Machine Tool Company, starting in Manhattan, moving shortly to Bridgeport. Invented the vertical turret lathe and other tools. Helped put Budd Wheel and Ford into mass production. My grandfather Harold Bullard told me they made naval rifles on 100 foot lathes during the First World War, something to that effect. Remember him saying women were the best crane operators on the giant overhead cranes in the foundry and shop.
Were I in the market for a .22 lever action today, I'd take a hard look at the Browning. Fully aware it's not Gun Alley. David Bradshaw
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Post by toroflow on Oct 14, 2013 12:48:29 GMT -5
I agree with Bradshaw on the Browning lever. Very finely made and usually a bit less $ than a Marlin.
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Post by squawberryman on Oct 14, 2013 13:29:22 GMT -5
Missed a '64 39A at the gun show this weekend that was in unbelievable shape. Missed it by ten minutes
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Post by 500fksjr on Oct 14, 2013 13:35:56 GMT -5
I have my Fathers Marlin 39 from the 50's I have shot 1000s of rounds through it. Over the last 40 years...
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Post by bradshaw on Oct 14, 2013 14:31:48 GMT -5
While I never toured the Marlin factory, I would expect a modest assortment of late-1800s to early 1900s guns to be on display. These guns show amazing workmanship, inside and out. A look at the Stevens single shot rifles from that era, on display at Savage, show that beautiful case hardening, bluing, polishing, hand fitting were appreciated and yet common skills in Gun Alley----which really takes its name from gun making in the Connecticut River "Valley"----as the Connecticut River floodplain was called. As with polishing, fitting required real skill, and there were plenty of files, stones, and lead hammers on the bench. When we visited the Savage factory in the early 1970's, we were handed books and told to order parts by number, as only a few of the older workers knew parts by name. A group of young management types walked past in polyester suits, with plastic belts holding their pants. To sooth my eyes, I looked at the rack of beautiful old drop lever single shots and thought, I was your boss, I'd drop a wrench in a barrel of oil and you punks would reach your necktie suit down there and get it. And you'd learn to take apart and assemble some of these firearms before you ever issued an order on the shop floor. David Bradshaw
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Post by squawberryman on Oct 14, 2013 16:25:53 GMT -5
Mr. Bradshaw that's why I want an early sixties 39A
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Post by bradshaw on Oct 14, 2013 19:52:04 GMT -5
squawberryman.... as reflected in photos of Marlin lever .22's posted by members, your reasoning cannot be faulted. If I were stranded far from civilization with a lever action .22, I'd view with confidence the meat-and-potatoes Marlin. Cherished the brilliant takedown feature on my Mountie all the time. Cleaning the carbine was country simple. Which brings to mind the clean-from-breach feature afforded by the take down. As my marksmanship rose under the hand of serious riflemen, careful cleaning was never open to question. Riflemen understand we do NOT swab a .22 bore EVERY time we shoot it----unless adversity mandates. Thinking on the kid's octagon barrel Marlin, perhaps my imagination runs loco recalling traces of case hardening on the receiver. The kid, along with a mutual friend, used to collect a few squirrels around cosmetics queen Helena Rubenstein's mansion. The young boys gave the caretaker a giant bottle of cheap beer----don't ask how they got the beer----and the old drone let 'em shoot squirrels out the trees. Probably where the kid got serious for .22 Shorts on squirrels. Don't remember at all that octagon Marlin having the takedown. It had a long tapered octagon barrel, which magazine it took a palm full of bullets to fill. Recall a crescent buttplate screwed to black walnut furniture----grain tight as a bull's touch hole at fly time.
My Mountie, a used carbine in 1960, had the vulgar gold trigger, which, because everything else was so good, I contrived to ignore. Receiver drilled & tapped for both iron and scope. Walnut with plastic butt plate. Polished blue barrel and receiver flats, frame bead blasted on top. Microgroove rifling. Reckon Microgroove was a prototypical button rifling, with the shallow multi-grooves offering less resistance to the carbide button. Followed by the PR boys making hay of it. Tube magazine under 20" barrel holds plenty bullets. David Bradshaw
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