Regarding Marlin 1895 SBL and Similar

[JGreen83]

Hello all,

I'm considering getting myself a rifle for deep backwoods camping in the pacific northwest for protection from bears and sasquatch Not really doing any hunting at the moment, but possible in the future. Ran across the Marlin 1895 and have always loved the lever-action rifle style although I've never owned one, and have a few questions for experienced users.

Are these CA compliant out of the box or would I need to make mods to it? I can only seem to find "the list" in regard to handguns, so a little unclear on rifles.

It is a BEAUTIFUL gun, but would this be considered "overkill" for the use case? (if ever there was such a thing) This would just be shooting for fun outdoors, and for protection from big stuff while out in the deep forest.

Having never shot the 45-70 rounds before, what kind of kick am I in for with this rifle? My current home protection is an old 1950's Sears and Roebuck JC Higgings Model 583.18 Smoothbore 16 Gauge bolt action shotgun that kicks like a mule, am I looking at about the same kickback?

I know that may not be a fair comparison, but just looking for ball park, I know its likely going to be quite a kick with the 45-70.

Finally, are there any other similar guns like this Marlin that I should take a look at, being interested in a bolt action?

Thanks!

[ahom]

I have an 1895 SBL in 45-70 and love it. Although it was a sour start. Had to send it in to get worked on because of lever lock. Almost had to do the same for the Marlin trapper for jamming/fail to feed issues but narrowed it down to just needing a good breaking in (I hope). Quality could be due to Remington buying out Marlin creating the Remlin issues.
As far as legality in CA, they are compliment out of the box. Although I don't know the rules/regulations as far as your reasons for it. I'd definitely love it for that type of outting.
Recoil isn't bad, I'd say about the same as a shotgun more or less.

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[Imageview]

Manual rifles (like a lever) are basically all compliant, unless it's like integrally suppressed or something weird. 45-70 is more than plenty, you might also consider 44 mag or even 357 in a Marlin 94 as it's sufficient for your uses, depending on the size of the squatch in question, and much cheaper and easier to shoot. Recoil is hard to compare apples to apples, but having shot a 16g jc higgens bolt action (with target loads to be fair) I'd say most 1895 ammo will be stouter. If you reload, recommended for 45-70, you'll be able to load super mild to very wild. Some of the cowboy action ammo isn't bad for factory stuff for just plinking.

Loved my 1895 sbl, but letting it go because I didn't shoot it enough. Other lever gun manufacturers are Henry, chiappa, Rossi, Browning, and Winchester. If you visit the manual rifle forums there are a bunch of lever nuts who all have strong opinions on the merits of the 73 action vs a 92 vs the Marlin style and will expound at length. They are worth listening to.

[JGreen83]

Thanks very much for the prompt and detailed response.

[Sabby]

Beauty and the beast SBL 45-70

Recoil is not as bad as peo. Make it out to be.. drops critters in their step so your not chasing food after you shot it ....then again lose a lot of meat in the process ...hell of a bush gun

Paired up with a BFR makes a great combo

[200Apples]

.45-70 ammunition although not inexpensive can be had in more than one level of ballistics with commensurate perceived recoil.

For the scenario in the OP (Welcome!), you will find that commercially-made cartridges that have "Safe In All Rifles" on the box would be the most comfortable to shoot due to the lower chamber pressures developed and the lower perceived recoil.

Remington CoreLokt #29473 consists of a 405-grain semi-jacketed soft/flat point bullet to the tune of 1330 feet per second. This is a "Safe In All Rifles" load, meaning the chamber pressures developed will not damage .45-70 carbines and rifles made 100+ years ago or their replicas. It is also surprisingly comfortable to shoot.

The thing with "mild" loads using such big, heavy bullets is that, surprisingly, they will still kill just as well as they did "back in the day" and for your purposes of personal defense at close range against dangerous North American game they are more than sufficient.

I could go on, but for now you want to remember the fundamentals of paper ballistics in the form of, A) caliber (bore and bullet diameters), B) bullet weight (in grains) and C) advertised velocity (in feet per second/fps). It is with these three fundamental parameters that you can compare various available loads of commercially-produced ammunition in any caliber and it will be necessary to understand it anyway if you wish to begin to handload your own ammunition using your previously-fired brass cases. Save some money! too.

Good luck to you. I love my .45-70. It is a Marlin 1895 GS made in 2007. I handload for it now but I first used in it the #29473 Remington loads described above.

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