The Countdown Continues: Sloppy Seconds Part 1

If you've been keeping up, then you know all about the challenge to take at least one game animal with every rifle in my safe without choosing the same rifle twice. You also know that for the up coming 2011-2012 season, I already get to use an old French MAS 36 and the venerable M1 Garand. But if this season is going to be like last year's, then I'm going to have to use more than two rifles.


So, in line next for this season are some rifles I have owned for years but rarely see the light of day and so far, never get carried afield. These are the guns I bought because they appealed to my (and I mean this very loosely) collector's eye, and they only get taken to the range to punch holes in paper and test handloads. Oh, did I mention that they're all leverguns?

A pair of what they used to call "Gold Trigger" Marlins.

First up is the Marlin Model 1895SS in 45-70 Government. The cartridge was adopted by the U.S. Army back in 1873 for their Springfield Trapdoor rifles. It was an "Indian Fighter" cartridge, though, in the Trapdoor Springfield, a crazy retro-refurbishing of the Springfield muskets from the War Between the States, the rifle and cavalry carbine were single shots. That fact might have help put Custer's men in the ground (what was left of them). The Warriors were armed with levergun repeaters while the cavalry were armed with the single shot trapdoor, but that's another story!


The bullet is .45 caliber obviously, and the cartridge started life as a black powder number. And any factory loads you buy are stoked to a chamber pressure with that fact in mind. The big corporations don't want to blow up your old Trapdoor or vintage Winchester Model 1886 by making their ammo too hot for older guns. Luckily for us handloaders, there are many sources that give you data for loading your own cartridges to specifications commiserate with the modern-manufactured models.


My Model 1895 wasn't made way back then. This modern action is similar to the ubiquitous Model 336 that came out in its present form in 1949, but called 1895 I reckon because it hearkened back to when the old model '95 was a big bore hunting rifle as well. My rifle was manufactured in 1981 when I was 15 years old, but I didn't see it until I traded into a few years ago. It wasn't until 1984 that I was old enough to buy my first Marlin which was also my first rifle ever. I still have that one by the way, but it has to wait until I get through the rest before I can hunt with it again.

The 45-70, note the Williams sight.

This 1895 Marlin sports a Williams receiver sight and the factory brass bead out front. The success of the open sight hunts last season with the 1903 Springfield and the Model 30 Remington have me thinking I can pull it off again. Also, with modern jacketed bullets, and plenty of smokeless powder behind them, this gun kicks as hard as any rifle I have ever shot. If there were a scope atop it, I daresay, I might have a matching ding in my brow from practicing off the bench at the range. I just don't want to worry about that, so she'll stay as an iron sighted shooter for this upcoming season.


The only problem I can foresee is the same thing I encountered with the Marlin .444 last season. It might be too much gun--hell, it is too much gun for deer. Shot placement will be key for harvesting a deer without blowing the animal inside out and ruining more meat than necessary. I'll be up to it I'm sure, and I'll let you know what happens.

The .375 gets a vintage Leupold M8.

Next up is the Marlin Model 375 in, you guessed it, .375 Winchester. Winchester came up with this cartridge in 1978 for a variation of their Model 1894 which they called the "Big Bore" because they had to beef up the receiver to handle the cartridge pressure. Marlin saw some promise in their competitor's creation, but since the Model 336 receiver was already plenty strong, all they needed was to re-barrel their rifles in the "new" cartridge even if it were from Winchester.


I said "new" because this cartridge closely resembles the good old 38-55 Ballard that was a black powder number from 1884. Somewhere along the line, Winchester hung its name on the cartridge as well. The two are only closely similar in dimensions rather than chamber pressure. In fact, you could chamber a .375 Marlin cartridge in a rifle chambered for 38-55 Winchester from back in the day, but the gun would blow up in your hands--not good.


My Marlin was made in 1980 and I bought it from my buddy Brian at his shop a few years ago. (Remember, he's the reason for the countdown.) Having shot it already with cast lead bullets and jacket soft points, I know for a fact that recoil isn't too awful. So with that in mind, I topped this rifle off with a vintage M8, 4X Leupold. Since the rifle's from the eighties, I figured the scope ought to be too. The "low" four power doesn't bother me, and shouldn't bother anyone else who knows what they're doing. It does a fine job in North Carolina woods.


I do admit that a scoped rifle is better than one with just open sights. There's no comparison--especially for *gulp* 45 year old eyes like mine. The old saying, "I can get on target quicker with iron sights," is just hard to believe at dawn and dusk. Cross hairs are the original "red dot" sights, and if you've done your range work, you know the bullet will go where the cross is, more or less, out to a hundred yards or so in these lever guns. I'll only use iron sights in the morning as the day gets brighter and brighter and the sights get easier and easier to see and use.

Tentatively on the queue this season I also have a different model of Marlin: A Model 1894 in .44 Remington Magnum. This diminutive little carbine hasn't changed much since, well, 1894 except that it's made with stronger steels for modern smokeless powder of course. The cartridge it fires was introduced around 1955 for handguns and the hunting with them. And Marlin followed in the tradition of "cowboys" who liked to have a rifle chambered for the same cartridge they stoked their sidearm with.

Poor "Dead Guy's" gun. Mine now.

The Bullet is really .429 caliber and not .44, but it doesn't matter; it's a hard hitting, hard kicking combination. The recoil is pretty hefty due the the light weight of the little rifle and the heavier weights of bullets. And since it was never a blackpowder cartridge either, even factory loads will be as powerful as any sane person would need for taking game or defending hearth.


The rifle is straight-stocked and very handy. The downside however, is that while the .44 Magnum is a stomper cartridge, it only does so for a somewhat limited range. All these Marlins require flat-nosed bullets since they all are loaded by a tubular magazine. And when filled, all the bullets rest upon each other head to tail so that if a cartridge's bullet were pointed and was poking the one above's primer, and it gets jostled under recoil, it could detonate a whole column of cartridges in the magazine which of course rests in the shooter's hands! Again, not good. 


So flat bullets it is, but when they're fired, they loose velocity very rapidly meaning that past that aforementioned hundred yards or so, they might not be as reliable. With that in mind, I'm not going to stretch the 1894 out past 75 yards or so. To do so means I'd probably end up having to track a deer even if it were hit just right. I mean, the cartridge and carbine will kill game, but sooner's better than later when shooting deer. I honestly think the results of hunting with this carbine will be the most interesting of all three of these.


The 1894 I have was made in 1975 and I bought it from Brian's predecessor at the shop. Coincidentally, his name is Brian too. Anyway, he told me it was brought in by a widow and when I bought it, I christened it, "the dead guy's" gun. I hope somehow this "dead guy" who passed before he could get all his shooting done knows that his little old Marlin found a good home. And now, after ten years of bruising friends' shoulders and ringing steel at the club, it's going hunting.

The .44 Mag also featuring a Williams aperture sight.

I wouldn't dare put a scope on this little gun, so it too has a Williams receiver sight and the factory front bead which means this rifle will be primed for a morning hunt. To scope such a fine little and lightweight carbine would be silly and silly looking--I know, I've seen it done by another hunter. Even the smallish M8 would be a third of the Marlin's length and add eight ounces or so, so forget it.


Well, as for Marlins, the only three I have left are another Model 444 in .444 Marlin from the '80's , another Model 336CS in .35 Remington from the fifties, and a modern 1894 in .357 Smith&Wesson Magnum. I hope I have enough time for them this winter, but if I don't, there's always next year, right, lord? The only one that gives me pause is the 1894 in .357 Magnum which is chambered for a handgun cartridge that many, myself included, think is just at the edge as "enough gun" for deer.


Oh, the .357 Magnum will do it, but the deer better be close, and the shot placed right where all the picture books on hunting highlight. Again, handloading to the rescue as I'm sure I'll get the heaviest jacketed bullets (or lead solids that seem to be gaining popularity lately--everything old is new again) and charge them as fast as I safely can to make sure that any shot I take will be lethal.


Well, that's where we're at for now. As always, I'll keep you posted. I have a feeling that there will be a lot more disappointment this year as I use more rifles with open sights. I just don't think I'll be able to connect as much without the ease of magnification. Not that I'll miss, but that conditions and positions will have to be just right before I commit to squeezing the trigger. A slightly irregular shot with a scope is easy, but with open sights I'll be waiting for the classic broadside...so what if one wanders off on me...remember, it's North Carolina, there'll be another deer along in five or ten minutes.