Dad's Old Marlin

I inherited a rifle from my father a few years ago, and have recently completed some research. It is a 1889 38 40, in very good condition. My father loved to trade, I inherited that from him as well. He bought this rifle from a co-worker in the late 60's. The guy who had it got a round stuck while levering, and was afraid it would "blow up" . My dad gave him the $20.00 he asked for. The rifle then had a beautiful tooled leather scabbard, I wish I knew where it went, and needed a very good scrubbing.
My father would take me shooting up behind the house, mostly with a old pump Remington 22, except for late in the summer when he brought the "38-40" to practice for deer hunting. . We lived on about 50 family owned mountain acres, with hundreds of acres of woodland around us. I would get behind a Oak on the hill and roll a old tire with a piece of plywood in it down past Dad.
The hill is steep and that tire would fly! It would bounce 5' in the air at times, Dad said it was the best target practice to hit a deer on the run. My father could hit a drink can at 250 yards off his hind legs. I am a LEO firearms instructor, specialized in carbine training, have 100's if not 1000's of hours on ranges, and can not make the shots he did so casually. When I was about 13 he traded it to a preacher for a fancy Spanish double barrel. I raised cain and he got it back, but the preacher stayed mad at him till his death.
I will cut to the end. I paid the fine folks in Cody to research it, along with 9 Winchesters. The Marlin 1889 turned out to be manufactured in 1889, it now is even more special. I have recently bought a couple of Marlin shotguns, a 1898 and variants, a 17 and a 42, y'll know much about these? . I found a nice 1892 22, and am starting to lean toward Marlins in my whole collection. I did have several 1892 Winchesters, and still have 4 or 5. I look forward to the wise advise of your membership, and hope to be a
ble to contribute myself. Chief Eric Tinsley, Biltmore Forest Police

 

By the way, this is my first post, I thought I would tell y'all my Marlin story.

 

It's funny how folks, like me, will save, trade, sale and do without, to buy that ultra cool, top of the line firearm, but would let it burn in a fire to save a $200 22 or shotgun from Dad. I think there is a life lesson in there.