Happy Trigger 1894 Marlin

[Rifleman]

Just thought I would post this since many Indiana hunters are now using Marlin's in 44, 45, and 357.
These are nice little rifles but they have 2 quirks that are common to them all. First of all once the barrel gets hot, they start to open up groups. Simple enough fix is to just don't shoot them until they get so hot. You can do a bunch of work to alleviate this as well, but it is expensive, time consuming, and still no guarantee. If one shoots 3 shot groups and spaces them out during warm weather, one likely will not notice this anyway.

The other problem is that most of these have pretty stiff triggers. Also some complain about trigger flop. Well I have no clue, nor do I care what trigger flop is. However once can fix this easily with a new trigger kit from Wild West Gun Works. Available at Midway USA or Brownells for about 80 bucks,the Trigger Happy kit replaces the factory two piece trigger and sear with a 1 piece combined trigger and sear. It is a simple change out, and takes about 1/2 hr if you are used to disassembling of the rifle and maybe an hour if you learn as you go. I recently changed out 2 rifles. One rifle had a trigger pull of 6lbs prior to the change and the other was off my scales ability to read. Both had a trigger pull that consistently broke at 2.5 to 2 3/4 lbs after the change. A small amount of roll, then a clean break. While I had the rifles apart, I cleaned and degreased the action and re lubed with a high quality while synthetic grease. The combination of a new trigger and grease job did wonders for both of these rifles.

[ozark]

I have to contend with a lot that I don't like but a bum trigger is not one of them. A bad trigger and I are soon to part one way or another. Rifleman I am sure your post will help several.

[Rifleman]

Ben, You know I am not that fussy about triggers, anyone who started their shooting career with stock M16's kinda gets used to managing poor triggers. When the M16A2 came out, we really had a trigger problem. That rifle has a 3 shot burst mechanism, so in semi, you get a series of 3 different trigger breaks on the same rifle. Two heavy then a light. During a match in slow fire, we cycled the weapon twice before shooting. In rapid fire, we just shot through it. I finally got to the place that I did not even bother to cycle the weapon in slow fire prone at the 600. But in the offhand, you bet we all did. So I am used to learning to shoot a gun with a poor trigger well. However, some these Marlin lever guns really do have stiff triggers and I decided I was not going live with it. Rarely do I bother to go to the trouble or expense to modify a trigger on a hunting gun, but in this case it was needed.

[ozark]

Dwight, I retired before any competitive shooting was done with the M-16. Like most others I was not a fan of the M-16. Reluctance to change I suppose. I retired about the time the discussions were rampant about the bullet of the M-16 tumbling after it contacted a human target. Some were saying that shot in the chest the bullet might well exit the foot. I guess it worked well for close jungle type terrain in Viet Nam. Question: Do you know of any members other than yourself and I who were competitive marksman in the military? Naturally because I was involved for so many years I tend to think of my military carreer as a shooter, coach and instructor. The other day I was remembering shooting at a interservice match in Va. Is it Quanico? The best to you Dwight. Ben

[Rifleman]

Ben, Quantico is where I shot the interservice match in 85. We gave the Army a lickin that year,LOL but we did not sweep them that if for sure. We also shoot the USMC Post and Station Team championship at that time as well, and MCB Quantico (MCDEC) was the heavy favorite to win, as always , since they are the home of the All USMC Team. I shot for Lejeune and we beat Quantico by 3 points. At the awards ceremony I met a LT COl from the Army who asked me to come shoot for him at Benning. He offered me two 3 inch guns and a Bolt Gun. Well I almost went, but decided I was not gonna make the military my career. Anyways it was a long time ago, but somewhere I still have that old Award ceremony program and that Colonel wrote his number on it, told me to call him when I was due out in Jan of 86. Never did call him. Turns out he was the CO of the the MTU at Benning. Maybe if I had went I would have run into you, but you were probably retired by then. I don't know of any other comp. shooters on this board, but I do keep in touch with my old Coach and one of our Rifle team armorers.

[northny]

Rifleman.. thanks for the timely post. I have been living with a Marlin 1894 in 45-70, I like the gun and cartridge, but hate the trigger. I had just about decided that I would sell it after this season. This seems like a better option to try. I only use it in thick woods where I expect the action to be close (less than 75 yrds), but I would still like an improvement.

[Rifleman]

Oh yeah, you will love it. Look at replacing the lever with a Wild West over size lever as well, you will like it with the gloves on.