Ordered a new Marlin (Remington?)1894

[66GTO]

I've got my fingers crossed on this one. This may be the first of the Marlin 1894's in .44 Mag manufactured since the Remington/Cerebus takeover. Does anyone know if there have been production line changes made by Remington?

I got an email from Bud's that they now have 1894's (20") in .44 Rem. Mag in stock for the first time since Marlin was bought out. I bought an 1894 in .357 Mag a couple of years ago and it is my favorite rifle. The comparison between the two will be interesting.

I bought an LSI Rossi '92 stainless .44 mag a year ago, but decided to buy the Marlin for three reasons.

One, my eyes ain't what the used to be after the onset of old age and two detached retinas. I need to scope the rifle if I want to hit anything. And I want to hit a big ol' pig this winter.

Two, the curved steel butt plate on the '92 turns my old shoulder to hamburger. I need the recoil pad on the 1894.

Three, my Rossi has the infamous over bore. It shoots jacketed factory ammo OK, but I want to reload and shoot cast bullets. From the comments I've read here, the buyout of Rossi by Taurus (what is up with all the buyouts?) may delay any warranty replacements of defective barrels untill Taurus gets the '92's back in production. And that assumes that they correct the problem and honor the Rossi warranty.

Anyway, I'll post again after I receive the Marlin and let you know what it looks like cosmetically. A range report will have to wait until I get over this flu bug that everyone in my house has. It also may be after hurricane season is over before I can get back to the range. I have spent the last three weeks getting prepared every time a storm points towards the Gulf of Mexico. No time for shooting.

[Old Savage]

I looked at a new one yesterday in 357 - I thought it looked very good.

[AJMD429]

Yes, I keep hearing about all the BAD Marlins and BAD Pumas out there, and it is worrisome, yet I've bought several leverguns over the past 2-3 years, and NONE have been at all "bad" other than a slight stock/receiver gap on one Puma which doesn't bother me in the least.

I need to 'slug' them all and see the diameters, but unless that's off, I'll not have anything I can complain about.

Yet I keep hearing about "quality control going down the tubes" so I suppose/hope most of this is just due to hearing about the bad but the good goes unspoken of, which is just normal human nature, magnified by the wonders of the internet.

[Lefty Dude]

Marlin can be over bored also, I had a 1894CB 24" that slugged .432". Good luck, hopefully they got there act together and now have barrels .429". Accuracy was at best marignal even with jacketed bullets. It no longer resides in my 44 stable. My Rossi 44-40 slugs .429" and is very accurate with lead bullets sized .429",

My Puma I just bought used slugs out at .431", a little on the long side but I can live with that. LaserCast and several others have lead bullets .431". If need be I will buy unlubed/sized bullets and get a luber/sizer die at .432", depends how they drop raw from a mold. I loaded up some 240 gr lead SWC sized .431" and am going to the range tomorrow to see how the piece groups.

[AJMD429]

It WOULD be nice if they didn't perpetually over-bore leverguns...

- a) WHY do they do it?

- b) do they do it with BOLT guns?

It WOULD be nice if the bullet and mould and SIZER manufacturers ALL realized this, and realized that according to the GUN manufacturers, ".357" really means ".360" and ".429" really means ".432", etc.