Been holding out on most of you guys... <lmao>
Christmas this year was a new rifle for me. Brand new Marlin 1895 GBL, the big loop.
I was in a local place looking at handgun sales, and I saw the rifle in the rack - I thought it was the 30/30 lever, so I asked to look at it. As soon as I saw the barrel diameter, I knew it wasn't 30 caliber! This rifle is a 45-70 Govt.
I immediately called my resident Marlin lever gun expert, Jon. I told him about the rifle, and he said he'd drive up to Casa Grande and look at it for me, so see if it was a "good Remlin, or Marlington..." <thumbsup> Some bad rifles made it into production after Remington bought Marlin, and Jon didn't want to see me get a bad one.
He called back a very short time later, and told me he'd call Sportsman's in Tucson, and see if they had one - they did. He asked me if I wanted him to go over there and check it out, and then he tells me he'll call me back in 10 minutes... <laughs> He did call me back in 10 minutes, and tells me that it's a very good one, it's got my name and number tagged on it, and it's in the back on hold for a week. See Heinz to pick it up.... :eek:
So, I drove my a$s down to Tucson and picked it up a week later, on the Saturday night before Christmas week. That Sunday, I took it to the local shooting spot and put some ammo through it. 100 yards out was the steel target, standing (shooting offhand), 3rd round was on steel. Pretty damn good considering it was literally straight out of the box, not lubed at all, just stuffed with 6 rounds of 45-70. I love it!
Took it down to the Range Fest last week, and everybody got some through it.
I only bought one box of ammo for it initially - Remington Core-Lokt 405gr soft points. A box of 20 of those things was $43! I immediately started buying reloading components, and had to find them before the Range Fest. Picked up a 50rd box of Hornady new unprimed brass, 250ct box of Laser Cast 405gr projectiles (with gas checks), and some IMR 3031 powder. Been loading that to 50.0 grains, and that's what we were shooting at the Range Fest. Good stuff.
I didn't clear the pic-taking event with TactiCat first, so he had to inspect the rifle before I could get any pictures... <dontknow>
I'll have a different sighting system on the way for it next week - no windage adjustment on that rear sight setup, and it shoots left. That will change.