New rifle score!

I've been looking for one of these for years. Found one every now and again, but they always shot out of my hands price-wise. Not this one though. I finally nailed one.

A Marlin 1894 FG. In the most awesome caliber.

.41 Magnum. Or ".41 Remington Magnum" if you want to be precise.

A great caliber, created by great men and great American companies. Alas, it fell victim to the concurrent rise of the .44 Magnum, which got a major boost from a movie cop named "Dirty Harry", who blew bad guys and audiences away with his Smith and Wesson Model 629. There were other problems too, like Remington trying to boost it's velocity to the point where it became impractical for law enforcement and self-defense, but the result was that the .41 withered on the vine despite being a ballistic work of art, and today it's carried and admired by a small cult following, and I'm a proud member.

My favorite N-Frame Smith, the Model 58.

Took me forever to find that one too.

The problem with these guns is that not many were made. Marlin has not made this rifle in .41 Magnum in 15 years and they draw a premium when sold, and many of these are being hoarded as collectors' pieces and not shot. But what's the point of a gun that you aren't going to shoot? My Model 58 is beat to tar, but it shoots well and I shoot it a lot. This rifle has a few small handling dings but is still 98% or so. Still, the seller told me that at least two people passed on it because he'd drilled the stock to mount a sling. They thought it ruined the collectibility. To the contrary, I thought it saved me the trouble. I plan to shoot this rifle and carry it afield in company with the Model .58.

There are advantages to a rifle and pistol using the same cartridge. It's easier logistically to just carry one round that works on both, and the rifle's longer barrel gives greater range and velocity over the handgun. Plus it's just plain "Cowboy Cool".


I already have one carbine/pistol combo consisting of a Marlin 1894 and a Smith and Wesson Model 66, both in .357 Magnum. I love that set-up for hiking and camping. And now I have a big-bore option for those trips. Or for my wanderings down Bourbon Street.

Lucas McCain, eat yer heart out.

Jigsaw puzzles can be fun

Or they can be quite vexing, especially if the "puzzle" in question is a Marlin Model 1894 lever-action carbine like the one that I took apart to replace a bad carrier due to a Marlin design flaw. It's even more fun when you reassemble it and find a part on your workbench that you absolutely don't recognize as ever having come out of that rifle.

Whoops. Cue the clown music. Now take it back apart and figure out where that mystery part* goes.

I did finally get it back together after about twenty minutes of fumbling, though, and bonus points: it functions! Now I'll just have to wait for the next range day to test it out.

Once again: Thanks for nothing, Marlin.


* said part was subsequently identified as a "locking bolt", and like the carrier I was replacing, it's another one of those "restricted" parts that Marlin would have refused to sell me had I lost this one and needed to order a new one. That's the main reason that you should buy Henry or Winchester rifles when you're in the market for a lever gun.

Thanks for nothing, Marlin Firearms.

So I've been having problems with my Marlin Model 1894 .357 Magnum lever-action rifle. When working the action, sometimes the carrier allows a second shell to leave the magazine tube partially during operation, binding the action completely with a jam that cannot be corrected in the field. This is apparently known to lever-gun enthusiasts as the dreaded "Marlin jam". This jam and it's fix are described on this helpful page.

Well I called Marlin to get another carrier to replace the one that's obviously worn and damaged from the sharp edge that they at the Marlin factory left on the cam edge of the lever when they built the gun initially. It's clearly a design flaw--their fault.

Not only do they not want to send the replacement parts out at no cost, but they don't want to send them to me at all. It turns out, per the girl who my call was transferred to at Marlin, that gun parts are considered "restricted" and only available to actual federal firearms licensees(FFL)--gun dealers.

I thought that she was mistaken at first. Whole firearms or firearms receivers--the serial-numbered part--are restricted per federal law, but simple non-serial-numbered parts?

Not by law, it turns out, but by Marlin's own policy. The carrier assembly is restricted; customers can't buy one. Hammers are restricted, triggers are restricted...you get the idea. If you own a Marlin rifle, you're not getting repair parts for it, at least not from Marlin. Seriously, what other gun company does asinine stuff like that?

So now I have a rifle that's down and no easy way to get the "fix-it" parts without going through a gun shop. And what makes it worse is that the failure is MARLIN'S FAULT! This is a common defect in their guns according to the lever-gun folks I've been talking to, and Marlin knows it as well as anyone. Yet they won't fix it without charging me substantially nor will they send me the parts so that I can fix it.

This stands in stark contrast to the wonderful customer service that I got from their competitor, Henry Repeating Arms Co., when I had a problem with a used Henry that I'd bought from a pawn shop. Henry took care of that problem like few other businesses would have and I sing their praises and recommend their products to this day.

Marlin...not so much. In fact, Marlin just went up on my "Do not buy from" list, right alongside Colt Firearms.

Shame on you, Marlin. And screw you, too. I will get that part, but I will not get another Marlin product.