Although I am a long time shooter, I have just acquired my first lever gun - a NIB Marlin 1894c in 357mag. I am having fun with the gun, but I have an annoying problem -- the loading port has such sharp edges, and the loading door spring is so tight, it really chews up my finger tips when loading rounds in the magazine. I understand that there are gunsmiths who specialize on lever action rifles and can smooth this all out. Can anyone recommend a good smith to talk to on this? Thanks. This is a great forum. Pete
Welcome to the forum.It might be one of the new marlins made buy Remington.If thats the only issue you have sounds like you done good, if you can bare to send it in. Marlin should be able to fix it at no cost to you
Welcome to the Marlin Forearms Forum CTPete !! I would google gunsmiths in your local CT area first...
I just bought one and nearly every machined surface including the tip of the trigger was knife to razor sharp. I smoothed and tuned the action myself. If smoothing sharp edges is all you want any qualified local armorer should be able to do it. Tuning them is not rocket science because they don't require any major mods. I used this sight to tune mine and it functions as well as the pro tuned examples in my cowboy club. http://marauder.homestead.com/files/tuning_m_1894.htm
The Marauders site is a "Peach". With a bit of steel wool, 400 grit paper and a screw driver you can smooth out the rough on a Marlin 1894 on a rainy Sunday afternoon. I'd recommend shooting 200 rounds out of it first.
Welcome Pete and I'm going to start breaking in my 1894C this fall (bought it last winter but life and work have been busy!).
Thanks everyone for your kind remarks welcoming me here. On other forums (S&W, Beretta) I am known as Ted1Trading. Since this is my first Marlin lever gun, it was obvious I had to join here to learn about these guns. I wil let you all know how this turns out with this rifle..
