Home Forums Lever Action Central Big Bore Levers Marlin 45/70 SBL

My son and I went on guy shopping trip the other day. Mom was working, so we played. We did a bunch of guy window shopping, guns stuff, tractor stuff, hardware store, pawn shops, went to a BBQ joint for lunch etc.

A recent post in Hunting Rifles got me thinking about levers again.

I have owned some really nice lever actions, but was never infected with leveritis. They all went down the road, sold to more appreciative people.
A 1930's Winchester 71 that had a factory bolt peep that I killed a couple does with.
A stunner of a 444 Marlin that only saw the range.
A Browning BLR in 358 Winchester that shot a doe and a couple of hogs.

My older son loves his Winchester 22 magnum and would like to get a gig game lever action.
We have a couple of friends that have hunted with a 1950's Marlin 336 in 35 Rem and a 94 in 30-30.

So during our travels, we looked at lever action rifles. I think we looked at ever lever action available: Winchester, Marlin, Savage, Uberti, Rossi, Ruger, Browning.

The rifles that fit the best were the pistol grip Marlins, 336's and 1895, even though I would really like an 1894 in 44 mag. The straight stocks do not fit me, and I do not like the feel.

So after much research and handling, a Marlin 1895 SBL in 45/70 came home. After checking everything out, cycling the action, cleaning, and remounting the rail it is time to go to the range. Bought a box of Hornady 325gr FTX, only factory ammo all they had.

To be continued........

Yep! Enjoy, I am.

Great gun. Simple action to take apart and polish certain parts to smooth it up really nice. Wild west makes a stainless trigger that makes it feel like a target gun. But those are all things that can be done anytime. Out of the box it should do well.
Lots of load choices and handloading gives even more options.

Well that was FUN. The box of 20 did not last very long. Target was an interactive cube, started at 30 yards and ended up about 70 yards. Through a bunch of snow and never even checked zero with the open sights.

PIctures

Son had a blast, ordered brass, bullets, and dies last night along with a Burris Fast Fire III sight for the rail. Love the skinner open sights too!

Already looked at the replacement safety and trigger.

Have not been this excited about a new rifle for quite awhile, I finally may be afflicted with leveritis.

What safety? A safety blank? I wouldn't recommend a safety delete with the wild west trigger. The trigger is quite light and in a hunting situation, it's nice to have the safety to rack all those cartridges out after hunting. Or when on a sling

Yeah, I was thinking of the safety blank. No alterations are going to get done for awhile. Just going to shoot it and enjoy.

Installed Wild West SS trigger yesterday. Even easier than videos make it look. Tool familiarity helps but just watch a couple videos on 1895 disassembly and maybe one on trigger install and go for it...slowly and thoughtfully. Love the WW trigger and it is a big improvement.

I have a SS wild west trigger which I have kept through several rifles. It puts the Marlin lever action ahead of most bolt actions so far as trigger pull.

I also use a safety delete from Clyde Ludwig but you can achieve almost the same thing by torquing down the screw under the butt stock a bit more. I had a bad experience with my first Cowboy 1895 and a very protective mother black bear with 2 cubs. When we got all done, I looked down and saw that the damned cross bolt was in the safe position. That would have been the loudest "click" in the world if I'd needed "kaboom". I didn't know about either the safety delete or adjusting that screw at the time so I sold the gun.

Tom

A rubber O ring also works to keep the safety off.
Dropped the hammer on the safety with a deer in the scope. He didn't mind the click, but he really didn't appreciate the 250 grain Barnes through his lungs the next time the hammer fell a few seconds later.

Great rifle. Recommend 405-420 WFNGC (.459) with RL-7, H4198, 5744 or Unique, especially if you are a handloader. Get yourself some 3M Ultra (black) scouring pads and your finish will always look new.