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Anyone have one? How's this for a handy little lever-action rifle. I love mine. Can shoot .38 Spl bulk ammo in it and makes for a good home defense gun too if need be.

I have one, and LOVE it. It's a pain in the butt to load, but pretty dang accurate. Mine was made in the mid 80's. It was given to me by my step-dad over a year ago - he only fired about 12 rounds through it. He probably thought it was too hard to load, and put it away in the gun safe. Small, light, barely any recoil - great rifle.

Do you have a hard time loading yours?

I would call it more versatile than the 44 mag version I have. The 38 special/357 cartridge is a lot easier to handle in a companion pistol than a 44 pistol. Get a Ruger Vaquero in 357, they are a blast to shoot. Also, the ammo is cheaper and easy to reload.

Mine is not easy to load either. I wish they made the loading gate a little bigger. Still, that's the only gripe I have for it.

I love mine, My grandfather left it to me when he passed. That is one that will never leave me as long as I'm alive and kicking!

so, what is so difficult about loading these?
I've been seriously considering a .357 lever for a while. Probably will be my next long(ish..) gun since I have a half dozen .38/.357 wheelies.
Overall review & opinions on the marlin?

I have a Marlin 1894 .357 that I got for Cowboy Action Shooting some years ago. It shoots light "cowboy" loads (5.0 - 6.5 grains Unique, 158g lead RNFP) very accurately, but the microgroove rifling is not great with full-power lead bullets and I have not tried gas-checks. Full-power jacketed bullets, from 125 g to 158 g, group cloverleafs at 100 yd prone with a tang sight. I think Marlin produced them with Ballard rifling too - would have no problem with cast bullets at higher velocity.

It is a great little carbine. It is fun, accurate, and useful. The only "problem" with loading it is that the loading gate spring is strong and you have to insert the next round at the right angle hold the gate open and to push the previous round up the tube magazine - and this is not a real problem, it just takes practice and it is slower than swapping out a box magazine like on an AR-15.

If you find one and buy it, I think you will be very pleased.

Regards,
Andrew

Tallinthesaddle wrote:I would call it more versatile than the 44 mag version I have. The 38 special/357 cartridge is a lot easier to handle in a companion pistol than a 44 pistol. Get a Ruger Vaquero in 357, they are a blast to shoot. Also, the ammo is cheaper and easy to reload.

Actually the .44Mag can shoots .44Mag, .44SPL and if you have a .44Mag wheelgun, it can shoot the same

Those wheelgun/leveraction combos are very very very versatile...and believe it or not the .357 and .44 Mag really don't "come alive" till they come out of a longer barrel.

just finding one is proving hard!

..because nobody who has one wants to let it go, and anyone who used to have one is looking for one to replace the one that got away. They're out there, just takes patience.

I've got one. It's a great little rifle. Mine is pre-safety also.

finally found one! Out of state purchase so it is winging it's way to me as we speak. Found a guy that does $6 ffl transfers in Pfulgerville! Took me about 3 days of hard searching to find that little gun!

When I took Urban Rifle at Thunder Ranch, there was a couple from Chicago that were using these guns. (They wanted to use something they could legally have at home.) We fired between 1200 and 2000 rds in that week long course and by Tuesday, they both had their fingers covered in white medical tape. I don't know how they did it.

Chas.

The cowboy shooters sometimes wrap the lever loop with rawhide strip, to cushion the fingers when you open the lever. There is a way to wrap it so the ends of the strip don't show - they are covered by the wrapping.

BobCat wrote:The cowboy shooters sometimes wrap the lever loop with rawhide strip, to cushion the fingers when you open the lever. There is a way to wrap it so the ends of the strip don't show - they are covered by the wrapping.

They used tape on their fingers (thumb and index finger) because they were getting torn up loading!

Chas.