It 's fun reading the trials and tribs and triumphs of some of you new lever users! For background, let me say that my first rifle was an '86 Winchester, .45-90. I was 12…that would have been back in 1947. That rifle went West when I entered military service. Didn't own another rifle 'til '62. That one was a 336SC (20" bbl, half magazine) in .35 Rem. caliber. That was my 'do everything' rifle for three years: deer to woodchucks. Learned reloading with that Marlin and a Lee Loader in a box. Pistol bullets with a hefty charge of IMR 4227 blow up varmints nicely! I literally shot that rifle's bore out...when it started hitting sideways, I traded it off. Made do with a Remington 700 for a few years (the lean years while the kids were growing up) but got bit by the Marlin bug in '81, when I spied an 1894c .357 in K-Mart, of all places. That little rifle is still in my safe, and is my favorite long gun among a dozen or so others. Accurate, powerful enough, a great plinker. In 1985, though, I joined the big bore club, with a beautiful and accurate 1895/336 rifle, in .45-70. I figure with these guns, I'm covered from prairie dogs to dinosaurs. Still, I'd pick up a nice .35 336 if one stumbles by me one day. As a long time
Marlin owner and reloader, who has had his share of problems with sights, and Microgroove/lead bullet accuracy, and stock finishes, I've seen and done just about '...it all'. Get a kick out of reading how history repeats itself for each new generation of Marlin fanciers. Now that the company has been sold, and prices of new guns are so high, I don't think kids like I was will have the same chance to learn how good a lever gun can be. But that's a part of growing old. Have fun, children, live and learn, so that someday, like me, you can read of your NEXT generation's problems, and smile!!!