- Location
- Niagara Region, Ontario. For now
I am not gonna make this a long drawn out post, as there is a ton of information on this gun and Tech Sights upgrades online already, but I felt I owed both Marlin & Tech Sights this little review as I am absolutely astounded at the value offered by both of these products.
First let me tell you that I have owned alot of the most popular, and many of the not so popular .22lr options out there, and have even put several thousand dollars into a couple 10/22 builds, so I do have some perspective to add to this review.
Anyways, first let me tell you that for $160 the Marlin 795 is hands down the best value in a .22lr rifle I have ever experienced. There is simply not another rifle that you can buy at this price that will perform this well, and out of the box I have still not had a malfunction after about 500 rounds. It is very light and compact, and will likely be my go to grouse/plinker despite the couple CZ's and 10/22 I own. Accuracy is outstanding as well, but I will get to that later. Magazines are also very reasonably priced at $16 each.
So what do you get for $160? Well the gun is cheap, and it is built with some cheap parts. The good news is that for only some small investment you can turn this cheap gun into a very good quality piece, and I have done so with this gun.
The first complaint is the cheap plastic trigger guard, and on some earlier models a plastic trigger as well. Mine came with a steel trigger but I have read of the plastic on others. The solution to this is a kit from DIProducts that includes a trigger guard/bottom metal as well as a much wider trigger, all made out of machined aluminum. This kit allows for creep and overtravel adjustment, and is easy to install. It does not affect the trigger weight, but the wider trigger and elimination of the creep makes the trigger feel a whole lot better. It is still heavy, but I have ordered a spring kit which I will add to the review once it arrives.
The second problem for me is the crappy sights, and I have heard so much from the Appleseed crowd in the US about the Tech Sights and how well they work so I invested in a set. All I can say is I am absolutely blown away at how well these sights work. I have never used peep sights previously, and I am now going to be looking to add some to other rifles for sure. Now they are not cheap at $70, but they are quality made, and work so well, I would gladly pay more, and if you are buying Canadian you will. Hical sells em for about $100, whereas I got mine straight from Tech Sights to a friends PO box.
So with these upgrades I now have about $250 into this gun, and that is still less than what a factory 10/22 is going to cost me. I have owned several, and can tell you that i will likely not by another 10/22 again. The only thing the Ruger has over the marlin is the rotary mags, as they mount flush, but I have no issues with my Marlin mags, and have 4 that work perfetcly right out of the box, although I have read about some tweaking for reliability in others.
And some #### for your enjoyment...
Anyways it all comes down to how well she shoots, and I just got back from the range to test her out. This was my second time out with her, and I learned the first trip that CCI Standard Velocity is the cheap ammo of choice.(as is usually the case) I have only run CCI SV, Win Xpert, and Federal Blue Box through her, and they all did OK. The Federal was the worst of the bunch and the Winchester was close to the CCI but I really wanted to test her out so I stuck with the CCI SV for the report.
Not much to say that a PIC can't do a better job telling so here you go...
Keep in mind this is only my second time ever using Peep Sights, and this gun. The trigger is also probably around 6 pound so I expect things will only get better with the spring kit, and some more practice.
All 5 shot groups, from a rest, and rear bag. Keep in mind these squares are slightly smaller than an inch as well...
Very first group out of a cold bore at 25m:
The average groups at 25m:
Best group at 25m:
Now moving out to 50m pretty much all of my groups looked something like these...
I did shoot several more, but didn't want to wait around to take pics, as I was cold and my feet were soaked by this time. I was just excited to have some decent groups, and have the rifle function so well.
In the end I am more than impressed with this gun, and it has lived up to every good review I have ever read. I am tempted to mount a scope just to see how well it will shoot, but I am afraid I will never go back to the irons if I do. LOL
Bottom line is, if you don't own one of these, and need a .22 for any reason at all, you would be silly to not buy one!
Hell you can buy 2 for the price of a friggin 10/22 these days, and I guarantee it out shoots the Ruger all day. Oh, and it has a last shot bolt hold open, and bolt release to boot.
Cheers
Mlehto...
First let me tell you that I have owned alot of the most popular, and many of the not so popular .22lr options out there, and have even put several thousand dollars into a couple 10/22 builds, so I do have some perspective to add to this review.
Anyways, first let me tell you that for $160 the Marlin 795 is hands down the best value in a .22lr rifle I have ever experienced. There is simply not another rifle that you can buy at this price that will perform this well, and out of the box I have still not had a malfunction after about 500 rounds. It is very light and compact, and will likely be my go to grouse/plinker despite the couple CZ's and 10/22 I own. Accuracy is outstanding as well, but I will get to that later. Magazines are also very reasonably priced at $16 each.
So what do you get for $160? Well the gun is cheap, and it is built with some cheap parts. The good news is that for only some small investment you can turn this cheap gun into a very good quality piece, and I have done so with this gun.
The first complaint is the cheap plastic trigger guard, and on some earlier models a plastic trigger as well. Mine came with a steel trigger but I have read of the plastic on others. The solution to this is a kit from DIProducts that includes a trigger guard/bottom metal as well as a much wider trigger, all made out of machined aluminum. This kit allows for creep and overtravel adjustment, and is easy to install. It does not affect the trigger weight, but the wider trigger and elimination of the creep makes the trigger feel a whole lot better. It is still heavy, but I have ordered a spring kit which I will add to the review once it arrives.
The second problem for me is the crappy sights, and I have heard so much from the Appleseed crowd in the US about the Tech Sights and how well they work so I invested in a set. All I can say is I am absolutely blown away at how well these sights work. I have never used peep sights previously, and I am now going to be looking to add some to other rifles for sure. Now they are not cheap at $70, but they are quality made, and work so well, I would gladly pay more, and if you are buying Canadian you will. Hical sells em for about $100, whereas I got mine straight from Tech Sights to a friends PO box.
So with these upgrades I now have about $250 into this gun, and that is still less than what a factory 10/22 is going to cost me. I have owned several, and can tell you that i will likely not by another 10/22 again. The only thing the Ruger has over the marlin is the rotary mags, as they mount flush, but I have no issues with my Marlin mags, and have 4 that work perfetcly right out of the box, although I have read about some tweaking for reliability in others.
And some #### for your enjoyment...
Anyways it all comes down to how well she shoots, and I just got back from the range to test her out. This was my second time out with her, and I learned the first trip that CCI Standard Velocity is the cheap ammo of choice.(as is usually the case) I have only run CCI SV, Win Xpert, and Federal Blue Box through her, and they all did OK. The Federal was the worst of the bunch and the Winchester was close to the CCI but I really wanted to test her out so I stuck with the CCI SV for the report.
Not much to say that a PIC can't do a better job telling so here you go...
Keep in mind this is only my second time ever using Peep Sights, and this gun. The trigger is also probably around 6 pound so I expect things will only get better with the spring kit, and some more practice.
All 5 shot groups, from a rest, and rear bag. Keep in mind these squares are slightly smaller than an inch as well...
Very first group out of a cold bore at 25m:
The average groups at 25m:
Best group at 25m:
Now moving out to 50m pretty much all of my groups looked something like these...
I did shoot several more, but didn't want to wait around to take pics, as I was cold and my feet were soaked by this time. I was just excited to have some decent groups, and have the rifle function so well.
In the end I am more than impressed with this gun, and it has lived up to every good review I have ever read. I am tempted to mount a scope just to see how well it will shoot, but I am afraid I will never go back to the irons if I do. LOL
Bottom line is, if you don't own one of these, and need a .22 for any reason at all, you would be silly to not buy one!
Hell you can buy 2 for the price of a friggin 10/22 these days, and I guarantee it out shoots the Ruger all day. Oh, and it has a last shot bolt hold open, and bolt release to boot.
Cheers
Mlehto...
