[mowgli]

I am a long time bolt action shooter/hunter. I just got, as a christmas present, a Marln Guide Gun. I love it when my wife does that.

Any way, I have a few more months here in the Gulf before I actually get to shoot it, and was wondering if any of you lever action folks have any general suggestions about making my transition to shooting a lever action more enjoyable.

Thanks.

[Preacherman]

Mowgli, a few suggestions.

1. Get a .22 LR lever-action as well. This will enable you to practice with the same action (get a Marlin, if possible, then you've got a twin to your Guide Gun!), and will also be a heck of a lot of fun.

2. Get an action job done on the Guide Gun. I send my lever-actions to Clark Custom Guns in northern Louisiana (http://www.clarkcustomguns.com/): they do an excellent action job, and really smooth things out for a reasonable price. There are other good riflesmiths out there, with varying expertise and costs.

3. If you plan on shooting with iron sights, don't use the Marlin factory units - they're very poor. Get a good set of ghost-ring sights (Express Sights [http://www.expresssights.com/], Jim Brockman [http://www.brockmansrifles.com/], Wild West Guns in Alaska [http://www.wildwestguns.com/]), or perhaps a Williams peep sight, available from Brownells (http://www.brownells.com/homePage.asp).

4. If you want to scope the Guide Gun, consider a Scout scope mount instead of the conventional scope-over-receiver arrangement. Express Sights make an excellent Scout scope mount that fits between the receiver and the rear sight cut-out, and this will mount the Leupold 2.5x or Burris 2.75x Scout scope easily. This makes the rifle a very fast-reacting piece, ideal for brush hunting or swinging onto a moving target: and with the relatively short range provided by the .45-70, the lower magnification of the scope is just fine for almost any purpose.

Have fun!

[Joe Demko]

Shouldn't be an issue with a lever gun in .45-70, but if you ever get the urge to try rapid fire ala "The Rifleman," be very careful. I saw a friend make a real mess of his trigger finger by crushing it between the trigger and the lever while frantically blazing away. I guess he was unaware that Lucas McCain had a little set-screw gadget that pressed the trigger as the lever was closed.

[mowgli]

Thanks,

Brockman's is about 3 hours drive away from where the rifle is now. I am sensing that some pleading is about to take place.

Also the finger crushing tale reminded me that I do have experience with lever actions. I am reminded of pulping my finger on one of those toy "little yellow ball" air rifles when I was about 5 or so.

I wonder if I have any other repressed memories that will come out under THR therapy.