Marlin 1893 .38-55 help

[inclinebench]

Gents, I found out last night that my wife's uncle has been the holder of her great uncle's old Marlin 1893 .38-55. He has a son who is anti, and the uncle himself does not shoot it, just keeps it. He made clear his intention to pass it on to my sons in a few years. I think it is pretty cool that he wants to pass it on to my boys, but this is a gun that I know very little about. I tried some searches but have found limited information. I was hoping you all might be able to tell me a bit more about this gun. History, quality, collectability, availability of commercial ammo etc.

Thanks

 

[Vern Humphrey]

Ammo for the .38-55 is commercially avaliable and is a popular schuetzen cartridge. (Understand that "popular" is relative -- there aren't that many schuetzen shooters these days.) In its day, it was the most popular target round, as well as a hunting round. It's plenty of cartridge for deer and black bear.

When Winchester brought out the Model 1894, the original chambering was .38-55. The next year, Winchester brought out the first smokeless sporting cartridge, the .30 Winchester Centeral Fire (WCF) which was quickly named the ".30-30." The .30-30 is the .38-55 necked down to .30 caliber.

I would handload for this rifle.

 

[CraigC]

The .38-55 is a great cartridge and the original 1893 was a great rifle. Your son will have quite the little gem of a rifle. The only caveat is that it is really a handloader's cartridge and is best fed cast bullets. You'll need to slug the bore and order your cast bullets appropriately sized because dimensions vary quite a bit. The good news is that selection of commercial cast bullets is quite good and brass is easy to come by. Starline being preferred.

Value of the rifle itself depends solely on condition.