Tuppence Worth Donations

[gotmilk]

The Marlin 94 .30-.30 Lever Action Rifle

Like most boys my age (of course I'm not a boy anymore) I grew up enchanted with cowboys and Indians, cops and robbers, the old west and mountain men. Television heroes like The Lone Ranger, and movie heroes like John Wayne brightened my days. And it seemed to me like every one of those cowboys had a lever-action rifle of some kind. So, throughout most of my childhood I pictured myself on horseback, single-handedly slinging the rifle down and back up by the lever to feed in the next cartridge - because I had to hold the horse's reins with the other. As I got older reality set in, but my fascination with the lever-action didn't dwindle. Just after I turned 18 I went out and bought my first Marlin 94.

Now in all those movies I had never once seen a cowboy or mountain man rub his shoulder after shooting the rifle. In fact, it almost looked like he could do it one handed. So you can imagine my (uneducated) surprise when I fired that first .30-.30 round. I was all of five feet ten inches tall and weighed (soaking wet) maybe 140 pounds. The butt plate on the rifle was a thin strip of plastic. No padding. Ouch. Those days are a few years past and I've a little more organic padding of my own (can you say, "fat" and some muscle?). I've learned more about firearms and improved my shooting techniques so I'm not getting hit quite so hard. And I still have a Marlin 94 .30-.30 lever-action rifle in my gun safe. Since it's the only weapon I have that I consider usable for hunting anything other than squirrel and rabbit, I thought I'd take a look at it for this week's review.

For the rest of the story:
http://www.borelliconsulting.com/recevals/huntfish/marlin94.htm
Frank Borelli