Well fellas, I finally succumbed to the allure of the silver screen. For all those with Model 29's because of the Dirty Harry movies, all the members here that own Beretta 92's because of the Lethal Weapon or Die Hard movies, etc etc... I too have joined your ranks of purchasing a firearm for no reason other than I saw it in a movie and just thought it was cool as could be...
Without further ado- I present the Marlin 1895 SBL in 45-70!
I'm justifying this as my "much needed"... "bear gun" but really I saw it in a Jurassic Park movie some years back and Marlin's marketing just knew how to hook me... here's what I'm talking about/explain the post title...
All that said- I've been smitten with this particular rifle for some years. Of course Remington owned Marlin for the majority of the times that I would seldom run into this model in one of my LGS and it was always... something. The pic rail wasn't aligned straight, the stock was poorly fit with huge gaps between it & the receiver, one particular model I remember the front sight post being mounted severely canted... ugh it seemed every chance I had to purchase this particular model there was something noticeably unacceptable (and not some sort of cosmetic nitpick).
Well you know the story- Remington (or at least their holding company went bankrupt)... Marlin was one of the brands that was liquidated and Ruger purchased them. And this particular model all but disappeared from the market for a spell... but was also one of the first Ruger Marlins to be brought back...
And there was some incredible scrutiny & anticipation on what Ruger would do with the Marlin brand and no shortage of critics to nitpick the bejesus out of the 1895 SBL. Well... in my opinion at least Ruger knocked it out of the park with their improvements, increase in quality/consistency etc... but the one huge 'problem' often raised was the MSRP seemed to just about double when it was brought back.
Now this likely is twice the rifle as compared to the Remington owned Marlins that I was able to see but.... yeah it's not a $1,600+ rifle either which is what they were going for (when you could find them).
Well I caught an email from a somewhat familiar online retailer that they not only had this model in stock but they were liquidating it at prices not seen since before the whole Remington/Ruger handoff...thing I'll call it. So... I bought it.
I'm just getting her cleaned up tonight but from what I can see thus far- the build is exactly as one would expect it to be. I'm avoiding calling it 'perfect' but dang if the Remington models I kept running into just didn't have some rather severe quality issues.
Like I said- my own fantasies aside- I really have no practical need for this rifle but I just think it's cool as hell and am super stoked that I finally got one for myself and at what I believe to be a reasonable price. Granted- I'm probably going to buy another couple hundred dollars in fine leather goods to "dress it up" a little bit to a proper leather gun but I really do need to start looking for reasonably priced 45-70 ammo since this is a new caliber I've added to the stable.
Anywho, thought I'd share.
-LD
Without further ado- I present the Marlin 1895 SBL in 45-70!
I'm justifying this as my "much needed"... "bear gun" but really I saw it in a Jurassic Park movie some years back and Marlin's marketing just knew how to hook me... here's what I'm talking about/explain the post title...
All that said- I've been smitten with this particular rifle for some years. Of course Remington owned Marlin for the majority of the times that I would seldom run into this model in one of my LGS and it was always... something. The pic rail wasn't aligned straight, the stock was poorly fit with huge gaps between it & the receiver, one particular model I remember the front sight post being mounted severely canted... ugh it seemed every chance I had to purchase this particular model there was something noticeably unacceptable (and not some sort of cosmetic nitpick).
Well you know the story- Remington (or at least their holding company went bankrupt)... Marlin was one of the brands that was liquidated and Ruger purchased them. And this particular model all but disappeared from the market for a spell... but was also one of the first Ruger Marlins to be brought back...
And there was some incredible scrutiny & anticipation on what Ruger would do with the Marlin brand and no shortage of critics to nitpick the bejesus out of the 1895 SBL. Well... in my opinion at least Ruger knocked it out of the park with their improvements, increase in quality/consistency etc... but the one huge 'problem' often raised was the MSRP seemed to just about double when it was brought back.
Now this likely is twice the rifle as compared to the Remington owned Marlins that I was able to see but.... yeah it's not a $1,600+ rifle either which is what they were going for (when you could find them).
Well I caught an email from a somewhat familiar online retailer that they not only had this model in stock but they were liquidating it at prices not seen since before the whole Remington/Ruger handoff...thing I'll call it. So... I bought it.
I'm just getting her cleaned up tonight but from what I can see thus far- the build is exactly as one would expect it to be. I'm avoiding calling it 'perfect' but dang if the Remington models I kept running into just didn't have some rather severe quality issues.
Like I said- my own fantasies aside- I really have no practical need for this rifle but I just think it's cool as hell and am super stoked that I finally got one for myself and at what I believe to be a reasonable price. Granted- I'm probably going to buy another couple hundred dollars in fine leather goods to "dress it up" a little bit to a proper leather gun but I really do need to start looking for reasonably priced 45-70 ammo since this is a new caliber I've added to the stable.
Anywho, thought I'd share.
-LD
