I am seriously considering buying one of the Marlin lever guns, preferably a large caliber carbine. The model I am favoring at this moment is the 1895G or 1895GS "Guide Gun" in caliber 45-70. The blue one is nice, but man, the stainless version is gorgeous! The handy sized 18.5" barrel carbines are just a handsome and useful little gun. Of course there is nothing little about the 45-70 cartridge! Hehe. So, how does everyone like these and if you happen to own one, give me a rundown on performance and maximum practical range. How about recoil? Fairly mild or a bone bruiser?

I must say, I was kinda leaning toward a gun of this size and style in 45 Colt or 44 Magnum, as it would still offer a decent caliber but increased magazine tube capacity. I know they are at most a 100 yard carbine, but I still like them in their envelope. However I can find no carbine models in this caliber (other than the Cowboy types) on the Marlin website. Everything else are 20" barrel models. I was thinking there was a 45 Colt model similar to or under the 1895 label. Was this model discontinued or is it something specially built by some custom shop? If you have any info on the Marlin lever carbines in either 44 Mag or 45 Colt, please list the model numbers for me.

Thanks,

-Charging Handle

The Marlin 1894 is the pistol caliber model.  It's smaller than the 1895 action and has been made in modern times in .44 mag, .357 mag (the two most common, .45 Colt, .41 mag, .32-30 and .25-20.  The last four calibers were limited production numbers.  There were only about a thousand .45 Colt 1894s built.  Probably about the same for the others, give or take a few hundred.  These are not the recent "Cowboy" 1894's in .45, .41, etc.  They were standard commercial models (i.e. no cowboy features) made in the 1980's and are valued by Marlin collectors.  I bought one of the .45LC ones back in the '80's and they are a very nice gun.  Much handier and quicker than the cowboy model.

The .44 mag 1894s are pretty easy to find.  They are the most popular by far, though you can run across a .357 every once in a while.

The 1894 in .44 mag would be a great little gun.  Plenty of power at short range, and the action size is very efficient for a pistol cartridge.  There's no wasted extra action length, or weight, with the Marlins as there is with other leverguns.

I don't know what they are making right now, but the short carbine is the way to go IMO for these smaller calibers.

Ross

The 1894SS is by far my favorite lever gun (I have a bunch of levers).

It is a very accurate, beautiful handling gun. Recoil is very mild, it comes to shoulder just about perfectly, and it is gorgeous to boot.

44mag ammo is fairly cheap to shoot, and this rifle will digest Blazer, so that makes it even cheaper to shoot.

I picked mine up BARELY used(98%) for $375, which was a good deal.

I have a 444P.....444 Marlin.  Let me tell you, the muzzle brake on the guide gun helps a bunch when shooting from the bench for zeroing duties.

My friend has the 444 with the 22" barrel and recoil is a little stout.  Offhand, both of them a fairly easy to control.

They are a huge value at sub-$400 at almost every shop in town.

The only reason I would consider a 44mag or 45LC or 357mag, would be if I still had a revolver chambered in that round as well.

HTH....

I have a Marlin 336-ER (extended range carbine)20" bbl in .356 winchester. This was a limited offering back in 1984 when I bought it and have used it for every hunting season since, with no optics, I just use the open sights. They are GREAT guns. However I do like the scout set up with a lower power scope or aimpoint sight, might do that in the future.

Got a little cowboy blood, I love how the Marlin fits my hands. 336 that has been with me for over 30 yrs.