Llama Bob
member
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2016
- Messages
- 2,258
I'm a sucker for homeless rifles, especially those that are in decent overall condition, but have somehow slipped into an unshootable state.
Today's rescue is a "magic years" .444 Marlin. The .444 has been around since 1964, but there's about a 10 year window between 1998 and 2008 or so where the guns have the preferable 1:20" twist Ballard riffling (as opposed to 1:38" microgroove) and before Marlin's financial problems caused quality to decline in the late 2000s leading to the eventual acquisition by Freedom Group, ensuing factory move and quality collapse, and eventual discontinuation of the .444. During those 10 years there were two models available - the base model labeled either "SS" (for Sporter Safety) or just 444 and the 444P/Outfitter which is ported and has a shorter barrel. I'll leave the Ps to be someone else's project, but that's just my preference.
This rifle is a 2006 444 (22" barrel). The sighting system was a mess - broken rear sight, loose front sight and missing front sight hood. The action had some strange gunk in it but was otherwise OK. It looks like it's been shot very little. The wood was good but had some dents and dings and needed oiling. The grip cap was finished over, and the finish flaked. A little ugly.
I fixed the front sight, removed the rear sight, installed a dovetail protector and installed a Skinner peep sight in the "black gold" configuration. The new sight picture is pretty decent.
Cleaned out the action. I don't think it's been shot much, because just cycling the action 20 times smoothed it out quite a bit. Still not to the point where you can work the lever and maintain sight picture, but closer.
A new grip cap is on the way. Hopefully no fitting is required.
Here she is resurrected:
<see below>
I'm not sure there's much of a purpose to having one of these - maybe if I ever hunt Ohio (and Indiana now?) where straight walls are required. It'll be interesting to see how it shoots - may be pretty high recoil.
Today's rescue is a "magic years" .444 Marlin. The .444 has been around since 1964, but there's about a 10 year window between 1998 and 2008 or so where the guns have the preferable 1:20" twist Ballard riffling (as opposed to 1:38" microgroove) and before Marlin's financial problems caused quality to decline in the late 2000s leading to the eventual acquisition by Freedom Group, ensuing factory move and quality collapse, and eventual discontinuation of the .444. During those 10 years there were two models available - the base model labeled either "SS" (for Sporter Safety) or just 444 and the 444P/Outfitter which is ported and has a shorter barrel. I'll leave the Ps to be someone else's project, but that's just my preference.
This rifle is a 2006 444 (22" barrel). The sighting system was a mess - broken rear sight, loose front sight and missing front sight hood. The action had some strange gunk in it but was otherwise OK. It looks like it's been shot very little. The wood was good but had some dents and dings and needed oiling. The grip cap was finished over, and the finish flaked. A little ugly.
I fixed the front sight, removed the rear sight, installed a dovetail protector and installed a Skinner peep sight in the "black gold" configuration. The new sight picture is pretty decent.
Cleaned out the action. I don't think it's been shot much, because just cycling the action 20 times smoothed it out quite a bit. Still not to the point where you can work the lever and maintain sight picture, but closer.
A new grip cap is on the way. Hopefully no fitting is required.
Here she is resurrected:
<see below>
I'm not sure there's much of a purpose to having one of these - maybe if I ever hunt Ohio (and Indiana now?) where straight walls are required. It'll be interesting to see how it shoots - may be pretty high recoil.
