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The Marlin '94

The rifle is a decent CAS gun if you treat it well and do a few mods to make it run smoother.  An action job can be done by you if you're not afraid to do a bit of disassembly.  Couple things I did to make mine run efficient.  NOTE:  I'm not responsible for any mods you make.  I am giving out free ideas which you can use at your own risk.

• The white diamond rear site isn't SASS legal.  Some people just mark it out with a permanent Sharpee marker.  However, I suggest turning the white diamond piece around on the rear sight.  Loosen the screw, pull it up and then spin it around and put it back in.  Maybe not as easy as making it black with a Sharpee but flipping it does much less permanent damage.  Now your sight picture is SASS legal.
• Wrap the lever with leather, avoids bleeding knuckles after a full day's shoot.
• A buttstock cover is a good idea for two reasons:  1) Keeps your stock looking nice and keeps it from getting scratched up, and 2) the leather pad allows it to stick into your shoulder and doesn't slide around.  I custom-build my own from fairly thin leather and put the rough-side out.  There are many places on the net or in the back of the Cowboy Chronicles that sell leather buttstock covers.
• Replace the hammer spring.  A marlin magic spring is a good choice, although there's others out there as well.  Any of them will get the job done to make it cycle quicker and smoother.
• Smooth out the bump on the bottom of the bolt that cocks the hammer.  This allows the action to feel smooth as you operate the lever.  Don't grind off too much, just make that bump less pronounced but large enough to cock the hammer.
• Weaken the loading gate spring.  Easier to load, especially on the stages where you may need to load extra rounds.
• Cut down the rear buckhorn points making the rear sight more flat.  This allows better sight picture and more target picture.
• Stuff a rubber washer on the safety so it never gets engaged or replace it with a Marlin Safety Replacement Kit.  I've seen a number of shooters blow a stage because the safety accidentally gets engaged and the shooter just levers out all the rounds thinking he's got dud primers or a broken firing pin.  The Marlin Safety Kit is essentially a new bolt that replaces the plunger-safety bolt.  Flat on one side, looks like a screw on the other side so it blends in well on the rifle.  In case the link fails, here's the nice gent's address:

Clyde Ludwig
PO Box 26156
Wauwatosa, WI
53226-0156
phone 414-536-1101 after 6:30 PM CST
$9.95 plus $3.00 S&H
(if you order more than one kit, the shipping is still only $3.00)

Just remember that if you do sell the gun, remove the safety kit and replace it with the original plunger safety bolt!  Any lawyer worth his salt can win a case against you for negligence in selling a gun with a removed safety!

• I shoot 38's in mine with completely reliable feed.  The trick I found to make that happen was to run an OAL of 1.49" and a truncated cone bullet (I'm shooting Bear Creek moly-coated in 125 gn).  This allows the carrier to completely feed and cycle the round without jamming.
• Once piece titanium firing pin.  I got mine from Long hunter Shooting Supply.  There's been a lot of discussion on the Wire about if it's safe or not or if it's really a good idea to have it.  I really like mine for three reasons:  it eliminates that extra "bump" in the lever cycle that the two-piece gave which makes the stroke smooth and easier to run quicker, it allows a weaker hammer spring to fire, and it solves firing ping breakage that many people experience.   I've run thousands of rounds with the new firing pin and it's really made a difference.  If I was ever to sell my Marlin, I'd pull out the one-piece firing pin and the Safety Kit and install the original firing pins so there would be zero liability issues with the person buying it. 

Marlin parts can break.  I have a spare set of the following (ordered from Brownell's) in my range bag.  Note these parts are for a Marlin 1894 Cowboy in .357:

* Of course, if you use a one-piece firing pin you wouldn't need these items.

The front and rear sight pieces are obviously optional and not a breakage part.  However, I managed to lose my front sight after a match and about 9 months of usage.  It had worked loose and came off!  I bought a complete rear sight at the same time so I could experiment on cutting down the tips off to make the sight picture easier.  It's probably a good idea to check your sights during a cleaning session to be sure they aren't working loose.  The carrier assembly is something that should be replaced after a good couple of years of solid use.  I keep it in the bag just to keep Murphy's law from ruining a match.

Email me: glahti@gateslinger.com                                                                             Last edited: 11/11/2007