Marlin Guide or H&R in 45-70

[petemi]

I'm new here, a neighbor not too far to the south....Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I picked up on this website from a CGN member posting on GBO.

If I didn't believe Handi rifles were a great value for reliability and accuracy, I wouldn't own 16 of them. I will not discredit Marlin either, since I am a Marlin Owner too. My .45-70 Handi was my first. My best shooters are my .45-70, .30-30, 7.62x39, .357 Maximum and 7mm-08. I believe my new .356/.358 is going to be among them. I also know that I have become a better hunter and marksman using the single shots. A friend once told me "If you can't do it with one, you probably can't with five or six".

Remington, or more correctly, the conglomerate that owns Remington bought Marlin and H&R/NEF a couple of years ago and dropped the NEF trade name. I can't speak for service in Canada, but from my experience I can only rate Illion, NY as superior.

Pete

 

[Boomer]

Its a shame that Marlin has become such a questionable purchase, until recently the purchase of a Marlin was a guarantee of quality in terms of material and workmanship. Today I'd pass unless I could find an old model.

The one H&R rifle I owned was quite some time ago, so my experience might not be relevant to the new products that are now available, or to what shooting such a small rifle in .45/70 might be like; mine was a .22 Hornet. I really enjoyed that little rifle, but it wasn't perfect and the 16# trigger left something to be desired. However, if I had time to make a careful shot it would keep 1.25 MOA with handloads.

The only quality .45/70 that is reasonably priced today is the Ruger #1. If I was after a .45/70 this would be my choice. These rifle more often than not come with nice wood, a decent trigger, are accurate, and will handle the heaviest loads without complaint. The #1 I had in .416 Rigby broke two butt-stocks and would have continued to brake them if I didn't have it properly bedded so that there was equal bearing on both sides of the tang. Any #1 that is purchased in a powerful chambering should have the bedding checked.