I bought a used Marlin 45 70 and have experienced some misfires. I tried various things to remedy this problem to no avail. I took the gun to a gunsmith who supposedly was able to chamber the no go headspace gauge (not in my presence) and then said that it had excessive headspace. I finally got around to calling Marlin and they sent me a shipping label. I thought it would go to Marlin but it was instead sent to Williams Gunsite. The guy at Williams said it does not have excessive headspace. So either someone is incompetent or is lying to me. Williams was about to ship the gun back to me but I asked if they would instead send it to Marlin to see if they can figure out why it occasionally does not fire.
I noticed that when pulling the trigger on a fired case the bolt will often move forward about 0.015" which to me seems quite a bit and to me would indicate excessive headspace but I am far from expert in the workings of a lever action. I sure hope Marlin can get it running reliably.
Any thoughts on what is causing the misfires?
