I bought a 1894 Cowboy Limited in .45LC a little over a year ago. The bolt didn't close all the way, and I got a little blow-back from time to time. The bolt also had issues opening if the rifle was tilted on its side, or the barrel was tilted up. I shot it in CAS and while it performed well (I never took it off my shoulder when working the lever), I was never happy with it.

Back at the end of July I took the rifle on a Boy Scout activity, and almost every boy had a problem working the lever because they tilted the barrel up to do so.

I sent the rifle back to Marlin at the beginning of August. It became very frustrating because every time I either checked on-line or called, the only information I received was "item received and logged in". This went on for three months. Three weeks ago UPS dropped off a big long box. However, it didn't contain my rifle: It had a brand new rifle with an invoice that stated, "Receiver miscut. Replace."

Terrible service communication, but wonderful resolution...and a fantastic out-of-box trigger.

Glad you had a happy ending. My older .45 1894 Cowboy is very accurate and very smooth, but the chamber is a bit large, so it needs loads with enough pressure to obdurate the case to seal it or it will blow back small quantities of gas.

I switched to a .357 cowboy for SASS. It is just as assurate, but lower recoil and cheaper to feed.