Rancid Loosehammer

Yup, pretty good shootin' pard. I'll be nice to you if we ever meet up in the Shortbranch Saloon! And nice pistola! The ivory grips will make 'er sweet 'n sassy. LOL

I have a Marlin 1894P (16" ported barrel, butt pad)(They don't make 'em any more) in .44 mag. That stubby little bugger is one awesome little rifle! When it goes off you know it, but it doesn't hurt you ... I call it "just a little snotty". I have a Leupold 4X9 scope on it in Mil Spec quick-release lever rings. What is awesome about it is its accuracy. From a sandbag rest I can consistently bust shotgun clays @ 100 yards, and then consistently bust up the shards that are left over. No kidding. I LOVE that little rifle. I have a nylon sling on it that holds 20 rounds of spare ammo, and a nylon ammo thingie on the butt that holds another 10. It's a grab it, toss it in the back seat and go affair. And it actually looks rather "tactical" and "mean".

Hmm. Do you want it for SASS shooting, or hunting, or both? I have a Rossi Puma 1892 44 mag, and a Uberti 1873 44 Special. Both have been slicked up. Both are perfectly adequate for SASS and the '73 is about as good as you can get for SASS. But NEITHER are really accurate enough for hunting in my humble opinion. For a rifle to be accurate enough for hunting, in my book at least, it had better put a full magazine into one ragged hole @ 25 yards. Neither of these two guns will do that. On the other hand, I also have a Marlin 1894P 44 mag (16" ported barrel with good butt pad) that has NOT been slicked up AT ALL and THAT WILL put an entire magazine into one ragged hole @ 25 yards. Unfortunately Marlin no longer offers the 1894P with its short barrel. Don't know why, because one simply couldn't ask for a better brush gun for deer. I think I have close to $600.00 into the 1894P but can't remember exactly. I only have around $500.00 into the Puma. But the Uberti 1873 cost has rattled right up to $1,800.00 with all its goodies. Big difference. Is there THAT much difference in the way they handle and shoot? NO! The Uberti does handle better/faster than the Rossi ... but is it $1,300.00 worth of "better"? I say NO. As far as handling goes, the Marlin 1894 is closer to the Puma than it is to the 1873 ... but it's more accurate than either. So I'm thinking you would be happiest with a Marlin 1894.

Well, I'm a simple sort, and was raised in Montana just off the Ft. Belknap reservation. My view is that Custer was an arrogant, narcisistic, egotistical, overly ambitious, stubborn, certified jerk who got exactly what he deserved. As was stated before, his men may not have deserved that fate, but Custer certainly did. As an American, what America did to the plains indian is a chapter in our history that I am absolutely ashamed of. If I had been in the military and had received the same orders that Custer did, I would have refused to obey those orders and the consequences be damned. Just the fact that he followed those orders defines him as a certified jerk in my book (along with all those who were responsible for issuing those orders, right up to the President). His arrogance, narcisism, ego, ambition, and stubborness simply add to my disgust for the man. My opinion of Custer is formed well before the actual battle ... just the fact that he was hunting the Indians in the first place is enough for my disgust. And yes, that means I am disgusted with 90% of America at that time.

After dropping right around $1,800.00 for my Uberti 1873 from Long Hunter, there is no way on this earth that I'm going to wear it out or break it by dry-firing it! Absolutely NO WAY! I don't dry-fire my revolvers either. If I never get better, well, then I never get better.

Dang it, that's probably the best, most sensible advice I've heard yet on this subject.

Well, if your emphasis is on "being competitive" then it goes without saying you have the resources to back that up and are willing to put those resources into the game. If you don't you're just howling at the moon. I am just a poor ol' regular geezer whose emphasis is on "being entertained" and "having fun" and "not taking myself too seriously", as I suspect most of us are. I started with a Rossi Puma 92 44 mag stainless 24" and had that slicked up at around $500.00. Later I bit the bullet and got a Uberti 1873 44 special from Long Hunter with all the goodies, and it ran me right arund $1800.00. The fact of the matter is that the 1873 is nice, but it's way more gun than I actually NEED to just have fun, be entertained and shoot matches. My 92 is a perfectly adequate backup. And so long as I'm mindful of which gun I have in my hands, I can't actually run the 73 all that much faster than my 92. Faster yes, but not by much. Another thing that may make me different from you is that my emphasis is on ACCURACY, meaning putting all rounds within a 3" circle in the center of that target ... as opposed to scattering lead all over that large target just for the sake of speed. The fact is that if one were using that rifle to actually defend one's self, all the speed in the world would get you real dead real fast unless you can hit what you're aiming at. And to maintain the same level of accuracy, I just can't run the 73 all that much faster than the 92.

And it probably wouldn't hurt if they haven't been washed for a couple months.

I don't remember the brand name - or if the gun even had one. I was 12 years old in 1959 and tried to pull a fast one on my folks who wouldn't let me have a handgun. I ordered a .22 cheapo pistol for $8.00 out of an add in the back of a magazine ... can't remember what magazine either except that it was some kind of macho adventure magazine, not a gun magazine. When it arrived, the front sight sat at about a 45 degree angle and the gun seemed to be made of pot metal. Even at 12 years old I was smart enough to know it wasn't safe and never even fired it. At the same time I had an old hand-me-down little Stevens rolling block .22 rifle that had a broken firing pin and that I kept making firing pins for from nails with a file.

The sock treatment works very well! Just put your gun in a sock, cram it all the way into the holster (POUND it in with your fist if necessary), leave it sit over night or 24 hours. That will stretch the leather just a bit and loosen the holster up. If doesn't loosen up enough with one sock, go to TWO socks, or even THREE. Leather will stretch quite a bit actually, and it will hold its shape once stretched.

What goes up ... must come ... DOWN!

All points well taken and true. Now let's switch from ice hockey to guitar playing. Nothing will dissuade a beginner from learning to play guitar like a cheap guitar! A cheapo $100.00 guitar will not stay in tune, has an action so high that it is literally blood-blister painful to play, and usually sounds like crap. Step up to around $300.00 and you get a very satisfying, easy to play guitar that stays in tune. Perfectly adequate for a beginner through intermediate. And when you become a serious blues guitarist like me, $3,000.00 isn't too much to pay for exactly what you want in a custom guitar. I got to where even that wouldn't satisfy me and turned to building my own with custom-wound pickups and my own circuitry and still having that much invested. So with guns there's a trade-off level at some point. You have to pay whatever is necessary to get a fully functional gun with decent accuracy. Anything less won't satisfy even a beginner.

I don't own a Marlin that's SASS legal, but I do own a Marlin 1894P (44mag, ported 16" barrel, padded rubber but pad) and dearly love that short stubby little monster. Even with the ported barrel it's a little "snotty" when it lets loose. I have a 3X9 Leupold scope on it in quick-detach rings, and that little bugger is a real tack-driver. If its accuracy translates to all Marlin 1894s, then you can't beat the Marlin for accuracy. I have a Rossi stainless 1892 with 24" octagon barrel in 44 mag and a Uberti 1873 in 44 Special also with 24" barrel. My Marlin is more accurate than both of them.

That was my original point. Make sure they don't survive to provide a different story. As for "having to roll them over", well, it is well-documented self-defense practice, as taught in most self-defense courses, to keep shooting until the bad guy is DOWN ... not fire one shot and wait to see if it had effect.

The definition I refer to as "excellent" is your reference to working in all kind of weather with all kinds of clothing.