Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Marlin 882 past due love

Marlin 883 22 mag. Terrible trigger - 12 lbs. Cut trigger return spring down and polished sear. Now a crisp 2 lbs.

Detail strip, cleaned and lubed. She's like a new gun. She's never been cleaned in the 20 years I've owned her. Been on a thousand hog hunts in knee deep mud in and out of boats hundreds of times, never cased and dunked in the river or sprayed off with a hose pipe when too muddy to handle.

Bang the butt on a concrete floor and make sure it doesn't go off. Some of these factory triggers need 12# for a reason.

Thanks - I sure did. With and without the trigger being pulled HARD. I always used it on hogs with dogs so the trigger didn't matter. Now I'm stalk hunting them from the boat so needed to clean it up.

Hard to imagine a better rifle for what you are doing.

Yep - I agree. That's the only reason I bought it and it's been a fine one. Never a moments trouble and shoots great. The crappy trigger actually helped when you get run over by a pig with 2 cur dogs hanging off it.

22 Mags are great as well as the old Marlins

Good post, Thanx.

Nice work Geno ... beautiful!

I got the blue laminate version of that ordered it the day I turned 18 that thing has been thru hell and back

I can't see the difference but mine is labeled 882 SS 22wmr. Good shooter with cci & ww 40 gr fmj and hollow points. Tried ww Dynapoints with the copper plated bullets they leaded the hell out of it. The Hornady factory v maxes are the tits 1_2" groups at 50 yd. It's a solid gun.

Indeed. It's a law thing in three states in the area. You can kill pigs with anything legal for whatever is open. Can legally use it for skwrls. Works fine with solids and head shots on pigs.


You're very welcome poboy.


Thanks scrooster! It's kind of a red-headed stepchild - used and abused tool.


Oh man, I bet that gorgeous.


Basically the same gun as far as I know MB, I think the parts even interchange. I've tried 4 or 5 different loads with her and she shoots all of them well. When I had good eyes, I could hit a silver dollar every time from 50 yards with irons. I have only used fmj or solids for head shooting hogs from touch range out to about 20-30 feet. It's never killed anything else and I haven't fired more than a box of ammo through it at the range. That will change when the weather improves - I put a 3-9 on her and will dial her in while doing some comparisons. I have about 5 different brands/types. I don't think I have any hollow points, just solids/fmj/tmj and soft points.

I always wanted one but never found one.

Nice Rig!!

Thanks L2S. I got into this one kind of oddly. I had been using a ruger 10/22 lr forever for the same thing. My buddy bought it almost new from a fella that needed money. He didn't do the hog thing but he loved to go to camp and ride around in the boat in the swamp with us. I would use it just because he was there. When he moved to CO a couple years later he said "well, you might as well buy that rifle - you used it more than anybody".

but but but but but but…field and stream and a few old campfire coxsuckers said they are useless

LOL - they probably weren't limited to public land and it's sometimes weird laws. It may not be ideal but it's what I have to work with. If you realize the limitations of the round and weapon you can kill with it consistently and cleanly. If not, shoot it a lot.

It's good for head shots on a pig out to 150 yards or so. Same goes for just about anything not on the african continent.

I use mine for blasting uninvited pond sliders (turtles) off of logs in our catfish pond.

Mfers got eyes sharp as turkeys.

When they know they're getting shot at they sure do. It works great for them.

The local slaughterhouse prefers .22 mag FMJ.

Ive got the older 783 blued steel and walnut version. Mine loves the 50 grain federal soft point

Happen to pick my boy up from school one day years ago.Went to check some trail cams ran into some turkeys the rest is history that boy is deadly when he puts his mind to it😉