[Aliasdave]

not my gun, but my exact model.


I just purchased this beaut on Saturday... I have nine more days till I can pick it up... you guys know the drill. I don't know if it's federal or state law but 10 day wait period. I'm so amped to shoot it!

Few questions:

1- does anyone own one or any other Marlin lever action?

2- It's a powerful gun, but not so long range, so I was thinking a receiver sight instead of a scope. Any other suggestions for sights?

3- If SHTF, how do you think it handle in a survival scenario?

 

[test]

not my gun, but my exact model.


I just purchased this beaut on Saturday... I have nine more days till I can pick it up... you guys know the drill. I don't know if it's federal or state law but 10 day wait period. I'm so amped to shoot it!

Few questions:

1- does anyone own one or any other Marlin lever action?

2- It's a powerful gun, but not so long range, so I was thinking a receiver sight instead of a scope. Any other suggestions for sights?

3- If SHTF, how do you think it handle in a survival scenario?

The wait on long guns is state not federal, here in Wisconsin you can walk out the door with a rifle or shotgun if you get an immediate response on the brady check.

As far as short range goes, I dont think so! Remember they used to use the 45-70 for buffalo at 500 yds regularly. If you hand load look at some 300 to 350 grain .458 dia hollow points. and work up a loading, with Hornadys, I think you will find that that rifle will develop maximum accuracy near the maximum loading for Marlin rifles. You will find two different sets of loading data for this caliber, one will be for older rifles designed around blackpowder loads duch as the old springfield trapdoor, and the other data will be for strong modern actions such as the Ruger #1 and #3 as well as the Marlin. I've been shooting a Ruger #3 carbine 45-70 since 76 and love the rifle. It is fast handling, fairly light and extremely accurate (measured to sub 1/4 moa with a machine rest and accuracy loads). Unfortunately it also kicks like a mule with the loads I worked up for it so I installed an inerta type recoil reducer which made a major difference (I'm not recoil sensitive but since I had the reducer available I figured why not?). The caliber is a will do the job variety and if you can take the recoil you will quickly learn to love it!

Edit: Something you might like to look at for it is a variable power scope, something small with a maximum power of 6, I have a 1.75 - 4 on my ruger, and it really makes it a faster handling gun due to the quick aquisition of optical sights. Avoid red dot type sights though, due to the size of the dot they can limit longer range accuracy, and bear in mind, that heavy bullet is very accurate and not affected by wind as much as lighter bullets are. I am dead serious when I tell you that you will fall in love with the caliber, there is a reason why it has a cult following!

 

[Aliasdave]

Thanks, Palladin

A friend of mine has 13 45/70 caliber rifles! He was the one who turned me onto the specific caliber.

Yea, I hear they kick like a mule, but what doesn't kill me, right?

Thanks again for all that valuable advice!

 

[Highpower]

Right now I have 3 45-70 rifles but none are the Marlin. It's a great old caliber and fun to shoot especially if you reload. My Ruger No.1 can be loaded up to 458 Win. Mag. velocities for bear of moose. Most of my reloads are on the other end of the scale. It doesn't take much to kill a deer. Enjoy!

 

[TBULL55]

Nice rifle :thumb: I have started a hankering for a lever action in .44 mag or 30-30.

Tbull

 

[MarkJones]

I have that same weapon with a Leopold 1.5 x 4 scope both weapon and scope worth every penny. Try leverreveloution ammo for deer and garret hammerheads for bear.

 

[test]

My dad used a Marlin lever action to hunt deer with for years in a 30-30. My younger brother got that one and I got his new 30-06 Remington Semi-auto. What I'd really like to have is a Winchester 94 in a 30-30. Not the fancy ones, just a good carbine model to ride around in the truck.

I've been interested in getting a 45-70 also, but had not really thought about it past a single shot. I did not know that Marlin made one in a lever action. I'm thinking a Ruger would be good for it. Any thoughts on a good gun that won't break my piggy bank after all of the other guns I've bought recently?

HiPoopus

 

[avalanche5]

I have the Marlin guide gun ...being ported the kick isn't that bad.
Because it was slated to be a high power "brush gun" I went with XS Ghost Ring sights....quick sighting and very accurate when you get used to your sight picture....(front post in circle).
You can use the high pressure ammo 300-325g variety....or the big 400+ in lower pressures for the older guns in that caliber. It loves the 300-325g stuff!
Hornady leverevolution is some really good stuff...325g.

 

[trekker111]

I picked up one of those a few years ago and absolutely love it. That rifle is what finaly lit a fire under my butt to start reloading. With factory ammo the recoil isn't that bad. My handloads kick worse than my 375 H&H Mag.

For jacketed bullets I prefer speer 400grain jacketed flatnose softpoints. the 300 gr hollowpoints don't hold together well at the higher velocities the rifle is capable of. They kill deer with great abandon but I personally don't like to have an exit wound so big I can reach in and start fielddressing without a knife.

I eventually backed off my loads and started shooting cast bullets. Mainly for economy. Lazercast 350gr flatnoses are good, but they still leave a big hole.

 

[sh0ot3r95]

I'm 13 and me and my grampa made a deal to get my grades higher... a gun for 1 6 weeks period of all a's and b's a nd a scope for the second 6 weeks. 7 days till i get the whole package. perfect timing for the thanksgiving break ehh?

 

[Rifleman336]

Marlin Levers are great guns I own several myself. As far as SHTF it should do OK, just keep so spare firingpins, a spare mag tube (historical weaknes OF ALL tube feed leverguns) and some spare extractors (I've never had one break but they look fragel).

As far as sight look in to Skinner sights, you have to ask for it, for they don't list it (WHY??) have the perfect ladder sight to make you rifle a long range menace to be feared.

Rifleman 336

 

[JRNC26]

I got a .45-70 marlin and I love it.Check on some the leverrevolution rounds that Hornaday makes.they have a polymer tip for a little longer range and speed.

 

[trekker111]

Oh and I forgot. The rifle will hold, cycle, feed. fire, and extract 2 3/4" .410 shells. But it won't pattern worth a darn.

 

[Trebuchet]

Well... you'll never have to worry about not having enough gun for whatever critter on the North American continent you go after. Hell, short of a few African big game animals your covered for the planet.

 

[Rifleman336]

Well... you'll never have to worry about not having enough gun for whatever critter on the North American continent you go after. Hell, short of a few African big game animals your covered for the planet.

Are you kidding!!?? Go to Garret AMMO's hompage and read the artical of a man that took everything including an elephent with a Marlin 1895 in .45/70. use the right ammo and you can take anything that walks on planet earth.

I just watch a History channel documentry a about the Civil War battle of Antetem (I hope I spelling it right.) and the hidious wounds the muskets of the period could inflect on the human body. The level of peritration was incredable a bulliet could easliy travel through 3 people before stopping in the 4th! Even the black powder equivilant loads of the .45/70 on the shelf are nothing to laugh at for sure.


Rifleman 336