Thread: Personal Firearms

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

I'm not a hunter but speaking of heavy bullets and short range brush rifles, a Marlin 45-70 lever action has been calling my name since the first time I read about it and saw one.

This is why I had to jump on the .458 SOCOM when it came out. I was a envolved with a bit of load development. 45-70 bullet & stopping power in a semi-automatic. You can own anything out to about 200 yards & with enough practice (like the old buffalo hunters) I'm sure you could rainbow it much further.

Yea, you can rainbow it much further. I had the opportunity to watch a 1000 yard black powder match in Ottawa many years ago. I think quite a few were using the 45/70 round too. If you can dope the wind and know your elevation you can hit it. They were shooting from the prone position with micrometer peep sights. It was an eye opener as I found shooting that distance a real challenge with a modern bolt action target rifle with the same sights in 7.62 Nato and issue ammo.

Bob

Many, MANY moons ago, in High School my best friend and I shot all the time. We were young with good eyes and used open sights, we had deemed scopes for pussies, old men and city slickers. His dad was a gun collector, so we had access to a world of guns to play with. One time I remember well, we grabbed a couple old single shot 45-70's. A rolling block and a falling block if I recall. Went out to the Buttes where a friend had a great range set up, just don't shoot the steers. After getting tired of having to walk back and forth to put up metal silloettes, <sp>, we would walk them out farther each time. By the time we were done, they were out 200 yards and we gave up on them, too much trouble picking them back up and started shooting rocks on the hill. I was amazed at the round at that time, and have wanted one ever since! If anyone is really rich and really in a giving mood, I've attached a picture of a gun you could pick up for me. I just don't have the 6 or 7K laying around right now.

Cheers gang, keep your hand steady and your powder dry!! donv

donv

Now that is what I call a rifle. A friend ordered in a Shiloh Sharps many many years ago and I'll tell you I would not want to hump that gun too far, massive it was. If you find that rich and giving person see if you can have him order a matched pair of which I will be more than happy to relieve you of one of them.

Bob

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

I'm not a hunter but speaking of heavy bullets and short range brush rifles, a Marlin 45-70 lever action has been calling my name since the first time I read about it and saw one.

I have one Jimmy, the Guide Gun with the factory ports, that is the house gun up here, I have loads with the 405 gr Lazercasts at about 1450 fps in it the rifle is dead on at 75 yards..
When I built the loads I started at factory and worked my way up until the load was popping the lever open then worked back down for accuracy, pressure wise they can handle much hotter loads, but I see no reason the beat myself up

They are a fast handling hard hitting little unit, I feel just fine walking out the door to tell a Bear that the trash can is not really dinner, or to explain to a Moose that our front yard is not a good bedding spot


PS: The rifle is more accurate than the sights allow for, and the rear sight runs out of adjustment too fast, I put on an adjustable ghost ring peep in the back and love it.. IIRC it was a Williams and cost like $40 and 5 minutes to mount..

"pressure wise they can handle much hotter loads, but I see no reason the beat myself up ". A guide around here had a client on a bear hunt, had the bear treed and the client, a very small Korean guy, was to shoot it. The guide deemed the client's gun to be too small and loaned him his 45-70, scoped and with some pretty hot loads. Everyone was watching the bear and told the guy to shoot it, the shot was well placed and the bear came down like a sack of cement. When they turned around the guy was gone. He was found crawling out of the brush he was knocked back into. His arms were too short so he just slipped the rifle under his armpit and shot. The scope did a real number on him, guess it looked like someone took a cookie cutter to his head, had a helluva time to stop the blood. Rifles that kill on both ends are not always a lot of fun. Odd thing is, no matter how much of a kicker a gun is, you never seem to notice when you shoot at a critter, it's sighting them in that gets to be a problem.

Just for grins I was checking out what they want for a Ruger #1. Wow, I've been outa the rifle buying game for quite a while!!

@Don,

Yeah I own a "More Power Rifle" dumbest rifle I ever shelled out cash for

Weatherby 30-378, fantastic shooter accurate as hell period, not just as a factory rifle, hits like a tank at the muzzle end, not bad at the shoulder either.. But just way more power then one needs, doesn't kill any deader then any other rifle I own, and my farthest shot was made with a .308, not the Weatherby by 200+ yards.. Expensive as hell to stroke the trigger even with reloads, in fact the only cool part of owning it is in hunting camp or at the range on sight in days

The Marliln lever actions are tough. I remember many years ago they cataloged a version of the 336 called the Marauder. It was the standard 336, chambered for .35 Remington and had a 16 inch barrel. I have never seen but one in person at a gun show and the owner would not sell it. I have ofter thought that one of these with a Williams Foolproof rear sight and a sourdough front would make a wonderfull woods gun for deer, hogs and black bear up close. I have heard of people loading .357 pistol bullets in the .35 Remington to shoot varmits with. The Marlin .22lr rifles i have used have all been very accurate. They are good guns for the money.

Ah Marlins, they used to make a 444 cal that was just dandy if you liked levers. As mush as I did not get along with levers that thing put a shot in the kill zone of a moose silhouette target at 300 yards over open sights. Surprised the heck outa me and dumbfounded the moose hunter next to me that had just wiffed his shot with a bolt 300 Win mag and scope set to 9X power. No neither of the shots were off bags.

Everyone needs a more power rifle and I succumbed to a Brno ZKK 602 375 H&H. Wasn't satisfied with it's out of the box accuracy so I did a Devcon bedding job on it. I musta did right because I got it to turn in a 3 shot 3/4 inch outside to outside group off bags at 100 yards. It was a consistent 1 MOA or less rifle. Fun gun to turn the "veteran" moose hunters from work loose on. They rarely wanted a second round off of bags.

The most pleasant rifle to shoot was a Brno small ring Mauser in 7X57 commercial sporter from the 1950s. Pleasure to carry too at 6 1/2 lbs with a 24 inch barrel and no plastic anywhere on it.



And now back to honing.

Bob

Originally Posted by BobH

Ah Marlins, they used to make a 444 cal that was just dandy if you liked levers. As mush as I did not get along with levers that thing put a shot in the kill zone of a moose silhouette target at 300 yards over open sights. Surprised the heck outa me and dumbfounded the moose hunter next to me that had just wiffed his shot with a bolt 300 Win mag and scope set to 9X power. No neither of the shots were off bags.

Everyone needs a more power rifle and I succumbed to a Brno ZKK 602 375 H&H. Wasn't satisfied with it's out of the box accuracy so I did a Devcon bedding job on it. I musta did right because I got it to turn in a 3 shot 3/4 inch outside to outside group off bags at 100 yards. It was a consistent 1 MOA or less rifle. Fun gun to turn the "veteran" moose hunters from work loose on. They rarely wanted a second round off of bags.

The most pleasant rifle to shoot was a Brno small ring Mauser in 7X57 commercial sporter from the 1950s. Pleasure to carry too at 6 1/2 lbs with a 24 inch barrel and no plastic anywhere on it.



And now back to honing.

Bob

Love that 7X57. Always wanted a 6.5 X 55 set up like that. Beautiful rifle.