Do lever action rifles need to be 'worn in'? Doubts about my Marlin 1895

Tengoo

Tengoo

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
24   0   0
Location
Fed Riding of Calgary Confederation
I have a Marlin 1895 in .44Mag that I bought years ago and hardly ever shot...it seemed to have feeding problems. [The barrel is stamped JM...that's a pre-RemLin era gun, right?].

After doing some tinkering and applying lots of lube, it seems to feed better, but it's still clunky and rough when I cycle it. Also, the lever tends to pop out when I fire it, but I'm thinking that's just my bad technique firing it off the bench.

I've got a deal going to sell this rifle to a co-worker, but I want to be sure it's working properly before it changes hands. Any ideas or suggestions?
 
I've never owned a Remington produced Marlin, but I've owned a bunch of them that were produced before the takeover.

Most of them needed some work on the extractor to get them to feed acceptably well (the tip of the extractor interferes with the cartridge in many rifles). People told me that they'd "wear in" but that never happened. There is lots of information on the fix on the Marlin Owners forum, or at least there was five or ten years ago.

This post shows a picture of what commonly happens. I have filed a little material off of the extractor rather than the screwdriver fix.

http://www.marlinowners.com/forum/j...-round-entering-bore-steep-angle-jamming.html

Chris.
 
If it means anything my rossi 92 is noticeably smoother after a couple hundred rounds than it was out of the box
 
I owned a marlin lever, once. Ops description sounds similar to my experience. I bought the gun on sale and sold it a few years later for the same price. I will never buy another marlin lever, winchester all the way.
 
When we get a new levergun paw strips it apart and checks for defects and then cleans the parts of grit and machine cuttings and smooths off really obvious metal burrs.
He then swabs inside the mag tube with a gun cleaning rod with very little lube on the swab to keep the tube from rusting inside yet not enough to contaminate the ammo (oil and primers are deadly enemies).

He then reassembles the gun and lubes the action very sparingly (a drop or 2 worked into the action).
He cycles the action a couple of hundred times in front of the tv while watching a football or hockey game.
He doesn't go hog wild on polishing and filing like some do.
The gun will self polish any contact wear surfaces.
If surfaces are not in contact what's the point?
He then strips the gun apart and degreases and cleans the parts and then relubes with clean oil.
On reassembly the gun is slick as eels snot.
 
paul792 said:
Wait wait wait, I thought the magical JM stamped marlins were next to God in quality? At least that's what all the hub bub on the EE is about.
Click to expand...
It is tough to escape the Johns and Max's of cgns, If ones actually able to wade through the some of the very passe and biased opinions on here its not so bad. Although regarding newer marlins, as they so eloquently say " I wouldn't even #### that with your ####"

And every lever Ive owned or handled in a newer condition, except my lone henry needed a bit of loving. My worst was my rossi, clunk, clunk clack. Few k's rounds later shes greeeheeheesy.
 
gunlaker said:
I've never owned a Remington produced Marlin, but I've owned a bunch of them that were produced before the takeover.

Most of them needed some work on the extractor to get them to feed acceptably well (the tip of the extractor interferes with the cartridge in many rifles). People told me that they'd "wear in" but that never happened. There is lots of information on the fix on the Marlin Owners forum, or at least there was five or ten years ago.

This post shows a picture of what commonly happens. I have filed a little material off of the extractor rather than the screwdriver fix.

http://www.marlinowners.com/forum/j...-round-entering-bore-steep-angle-jamming.html

Chris.
Click to expand...

Thank you! That's very helpful...I'll be giving that a try. It certainly sounds like the problem I'm having.
 
torontogungal said:
When we get a new levergun paw strips it apart and checks for defects and then cleans the parts of grit and machine cuttings and smooths off really obvious metal burrs...
He cycles the action a couple of hundred times in front of the tv while watching a football or hockey game.

He then strips the gun apart and degreases and cleans the parts and then relubes with clean oil.
On reassembly the gun is slick as eels snot.
Click to expand...

This sounds a little more involved than I want to get into, although it's probably a good practice for someone who wants to get a lot of use out of their rifle. I just want mine to work well enough that I won't feel bad selling it off... Thanks for the advice tho'...
 
Grock-co said:
lever action the worst one to buy, all are rough to use
Click to expand...

Well that comment deserves a challenge...I have a dozen or so lever guns you are welcome to go a round with anytime you want, guaranteed they will be as smooth as anything you have ever used.

Granted some lever guns don't come out of the box without needing a little tweaking, I can say the same thing about most every bolt gun I have ever owned as well...a trigger job or stock bedding/floating even screw shortening/adjusting.

The fact is that I can name a few cowboy shooters (rest and get well soon Too Dusty) that are so proficient with their lever guns that they would compare favorably with most any 3-gun semi-auto user, I have timed one shooter (Battle River Kid) dumping 10 rnds from a Marlin 94, hitting all 10 targets in 3.5 sec.
 
Tengoo said:
This sounds a little more involved than I want to get into, although it's probably a good practice for someone who wants to get a lot of use out of their rifle. I just want mine to work well enough that I won't feel bad selling it off... Thanks for the advice tho'...
Click to expand...

My 13 year old nephew can strip and reassemble a marlin 336 or 1894/5.
John marlin made sesame street simple guns for 10 thumbed wonders like me.
John browning liked the complicated stuff.
The win 92s/94s are a bit more involved but not much.
Once you've done it a couple of times it's child's play.
 
Last used Marlin I recently purchased had all the dirty work done to it.
Two pound plus trigger and a super dewper slick action.
I suggest pulling the hammer back before werk'in the lever.
Makes for lighter lever crank'in.

Oh, thanks J.J..............:wave:
 
I had a Winchester 94 that was a bit rough when I got it, took it apart right down to the bare frame and scrubbed it spic and spancleanand the I gave it the G96 treatment. 100% improvement in feeding and ejection and trigger pull was noticeably better. Shoulda never sold that gun !!!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom