I got my Marlin 1895 sbl about a month ago, but still hadn't had a chance to fire it yet. At home, I haven't yet found a good crown land shooting spot, i'm still waiting for my application to be processed at the local range, and my friends with more rural properties have all been busy, so it just hasn't happened yet.
But this week we're camping north of lake superior, and following a thread here on how to use the crown land use atlas to find shooting spots (a really good thread, even if it was like ten years old), I located a big tract of general use crown land just 5 minutes from the camp ground down an old dirt road.
I went down there today and set up my target and tried her out.
I shot my browning x-bolt 308 with some 180g rounds first just to get warmed up, and then went for the marlin using some 350g rounds.
I gotta say, I was so impressed. It shot so smoothly, so nicely. Mind you, I did install the matching muzzle brake on it, but all the same, the recoil was definitely less harsh than my 308. My 308 packs such a kaboom, sometimes I actually worry about it jumping out of my hands! But the marlin felt really smooth and easy, it was great to shoot.
The only problem was, it hit the target so hard, it snapped the bolt holding the chain on! I"l have to find a replacement so I can go shooting again before we leave.
But this week we're camping north of lake superior, and following a thread here on how to use the crown land use atlas to find shooting spots (a really good thread, even if it was like ten years old), I located a big tract of general use crown land just 5 minutes from the camp ground down an old dirt road.
I went down there today and set up my target and tried her out.
I shot my browning x-bolt 308 with some 180g rounds first just to get warmed up, and then went for the marlin using some 350g rounds.
I gotta say, I was so impressed. It shot so smoothly, so nicely. Mind you, I did install the matching muzzle brake on it, but all the same, the recoil was definitely less harsh than my 308. My 308 packs such a kaboom, sometimes I actually worry about it jumping out of my hands! But the marlin felt really smooth and easy, it was great to shoot.
The only problem was, it hit the target so hard, it snapped the bolt holding the chain on! I"l have to find a replacement so I can go shooting again before we leave.