Ruger Reintroduces the Marlin Model 1895 Guide Gun Lever Action Rifle

1. If it is anything like other new rifle introductions, it will be virtually unobtainable and then only at a MSRP ++ price. So I’ll check back in a couple of years when it is more sensibly priced–it is something I would not mind having in my safe to go with my Spencer target rifle.

   • Levelguns sure are hard to get these days, god knows why. I’ve been waiting on a pair of Henry Carbines for almost a year now.

     • Lever guns are “Cowboy Assault Rifles”. Less likely to be regulated, with short length, fast cycling and OK capacity. Henry is advertising on every conservative talk radio channel too!

2. Have they started making the .357 and .44 lever guns again?

   • I’d get either caliber. Interestingly enough last week Paul Harrell did a comparison of 357 vs 30 carbine in a handgun. 357 won even in longer barrel. For what I’d do 357 would be great as well as 44magnum…

     • When I bought my Ruger gp100-7 I almost bought a Winchester lever gun in .357. I should have went ahead and got it.

       Now that Ruger is running Marlin I will wait. Before their qc went to hell I liked the Marlins better.

     • Me, I want one in .41 mag, to go with my Monson-mfg’d Dan Wesson .41 mag pistol pak.

       • Is anybody still making new guns in .41 mag? I had a buddy in Ohio decades ago that had a S&W .41. 4 inch barrel. Fixed sights. Maybe model 58?

         That gun was a monster.

       • JWM Ruger makes their New Model Blackhawk in .41 magnum.

       • Kap. Cool. I really like Ruger products. If I was going to buy a new Blackhawk it would be in .45. A late friend of mine had the Blackhawk and the Vaquero in .45. We had a lot of fun with those.

       • Smith still makes the 57. Henry makes a .41 Big Boy, but it’s tube only for now. Starline has brand new .41 Special brass as well if you wanted to download.

       • No one’s making them in .41 mag anymore, but you can find them on GB if you look – https://www.gunbroker.com/item/948835687

   • No .30-30s yet either.

     • My son liked my Marlin .30-30. He borrowed it. About 15 years ago.

       I doubt I’ll ever get it back.

       • The next time you watch the grandkids, tell him you’ll swap him the kids for the lever gun… 🙂

       • I’ve got the Remlin 336BL which is essentially the .30-30 twin of this new Guide Gun (sans threaded barrel). Fortunately I waited for Remington to halfway get it’s act together before purchasing and I’ve had no issues with reliability or QC (bearing in mind you get what you pay for and I paid a little over $500 for it new).

         Also be nice to see a decent quality walnut stock on one of these Rugerlins.

       • Geoff. My son would sign the kids over to me. Then I’m stuck. 🙂

3. That’d be great if they had gotten rid of the crossbolt safety. Not sure why they didn’t ditch the crossbolt considering that Ruger is King of the transfer bar concept….

   • Unless they adopt a front load magazine like Henry I’d prefer the cross bolt safety to stay right there. It makes it impossible (provided it’s used) to accidentally (negligently) fire while cycling out the magazine. Probably less chance of spooking a deer than pulling the hammer off half cock as well (.45/70 is a short range hunting round).

     • Gov, not difficult to unload from the loading gate. There’s a vid or two on da u-toobs.

       • Maybe it’s just my Remlin, but it’s way too stiff for that.

   • RGP, nyet, rifle is good (half c@ck safety, just as whatshisname intended it).

     • Im not sure who makes it, but a fellow Marlin shooter at the gun range replaced his with a saddle ring / safety crossbolt eliminator. None of my Marlins had safeties, or I’d have done the same…maybe
       Brownells?

       • Beartooth Mercantile makes it

     • I’d prefer the old fashioned half cock myself but these days I don’t think their lawyers will let them just go back to that after someone added a superfluous POS crossbolt…

4. Neat gun, I’m curious why no one has thought to modernize a lever gun with 458 SOCOM or .450 Bushmaster yet. That’d be a hoot and people don’t typically run pointy non-plastic tipped bullets in those, do they?

   You’d gain a round with the 458 or .450.

   • I think that the problem would lie in that the 450 Bushmaster and the SOCOM have a rebated rims and I don’t think that they would feed very well in this type of lever action design. It would work in a Browning BLR, but not in a tubular. As I remember one of the reasons that the 44-40 was loaded in Winchester 92 was that it would feed and extract better than the 44 LC with its small rim. However who know may be CNC of parts it could be made to work, but then you still have the pointy bullets that could not be used in a tubular magazine unless the are solt polymer.

     • Do you mean .45 LC, not .44? I have a .45 Colt Winchester that has no problems with extraction or cycling.

       • Might be referring to the .44 Colt which predated the .45 Long Colt by 2 years.

     • marlin made a belted round (450Marlin) work through the 1895 back in the late 90’s, so I don’t think a rebated rim would present Ruger enginers that much of a challenge… so there Ruger, gauntlet thrown.

   • Andrew, I actually run the pointy rounds in my .450 Bushmaster AR. My gun loves the Hornady Black 250 grain FTX loads. I was trying to decide on a big bore AR and had to pick the round, and went with the .450 because the .458 SOCOM really comes into its own suppressed (which I don’t have because I’m too chicken to file the paperwork), and the .50 Beowolf and .458 HAMR are way too expensive. I already have too many pet calibers. And everything you said is correct.

5. A friend just found a SS one for a mere $1250, needless to say hi snapped it up within seconds.
   Now to sit on the front porch waiting for a T-Rex…

6. If I was to get a 45-70 gun, it’d be a Sharps falling block. So I could load em up extra hot and have the smug satisfaction of being able to safely shoot a cartridge that would grenade a weaker action.

   • I wouldn’t say no to a Ruger No. 1 in 45-70 for the same reason.

7. anyone been able to compare these to the the Remlin pieces of garbage that were produced before remington went bust? For now I’ll still stick with Henry.

   • If not unsold shop-stock, the Remlin guns will probably be exported.

8. I already have one in Stainless Steel. I might use it for hunting elk this year rather than my Remington Bolt Action .338 Magnum.

9. .45-70 in stainless with a composite stock would make a dandy truck gun… 🙂

   • I don’t hunt trucks.

     • A trandy duck gun then? Sorry…

   • Exactly!
     However; given the abundance of President Obama’s bastard sons as well as their enablers in the area, I carry a Stainless Steel Ruger Mini-14 with a Butler Creek folding stock and a Redfield reflex site as backup for a Glock 17 with a few 33 round magazines for varmint control.

     Did I say that I have a fetish for Stainless Steel?

     • “I carry a Stainless Steel Ruger Mini-14 with a Butler Creek folding stock…”

       Are you aware that someone is making an excellent reproduction of the famous ‘A-Team’ Ruger GB folding stock? It ain’t cheap, but looks really nice…

       • Yes.
         Have not gotten one yet.
         My daughter who resembles the Teeminatrix in Terminator 3 and occasionally smokes cigars does a hilarious impersonation of George Peppard.

   • Yeah Geoff it’d be a good one. Wouldn’t raise a lot of eyebrows in certain places and would get a lot of the work done

   • Dang! I missed the threaded barrel!

     Now I’m contemplating working up some sub-sonic .45-70 loads… Using low pressure ‘cowboy’ powder, maybe? How heavy of a ‘pill’ is available in .45-70, anyways?

     Be really neat for a suppressed ‘piggy-popper’… 🙂

     • Geoff, I found some 500 grain bullets, but I’ve never heard of these guys.
       http://www.acmebullet.com/45-70/500RNFP

       Also found some 405, 420, and 440 grain pills from Grizzly Cartridge, a company I absolutely adore. If you come up with something fun please share! I’m JUST starting reloading and am dying to learn some new stuff.

       • @ChoseDeath

         Just as one data point, but I’ve had good luck with the Acme bullets in 9mm, and work well in my guns. My father has also tried a few different ones (not sure if in the .45-70 or not!) with success. They seem to be reputable company, and ship the bullets in cute wooden boxes.

     • Here’s a few more.
       https://www.midsouthshooterssupply.com/dept/reloading/rifle-bullets/-point-458-dia?grain=500gr

     • Pretty sure that 500 grains is the biggest you will find. The 50-70 used the 500 grain pills, but the 45-70 was adopted with a 405 and 70 grains of BP, good for 1200 fps. Some writers suggest that for medium game, a minimum of 1500 fps is needed for a quick kill, so you really do not want a subsonic velocity. The 400 grain and up are intended for use with large game animals, not pigs. The Hornady 300 grain FTX will provide more than enough power and expansion for pigs, and works well in a tube fed lever gun. But this is just a taste. There are a huge number of bullets for this caliber.

       • “Some writers suggest that for medium game, a minimum of 1500 fps is needed for a quick kill, so you really do not want a subsonic velocity. ”

         Weeeeeell…

         I’ve heard .300 BLK subsonic rounds have been found effective for swine eradication. Am I in error on that?

     • All depends on the range. Your “hunting” over a feeder at 40 yds then you can get away with it. Your stalking at 200yds on an open wheat field then your pushing it.

       • Here in Florida, feral swine are open season, all year long, and if I remember correctly, you don’t even need a hunting license.

         They just want them *gone*…

     • @Tim. Thanks buddy! Sounds like a good endorsement to me. I’ll give them a try, they had a few other products I found interesting, thank you so much for the tip!

10. lol
    Facebook
    What a joke!

    I’ll likely pick one up at some point from the LGS.

11. Finally a threaded barrel on a standard model Marlin levergun. I can’t wait till they make the 357mag/38 spcl. In 2022 all rifles should be threaded from the factory.

    I also wish pistol manufacturers would make a separate SKU for a “suppressor” model which would include a threaded and regular barrel or have the barrel flush with the slide and have an adapter to expose external threads.

    I think people would pay for it and a lot of manufactures make OEM threaded barrels so it isn’t like they don’t have the parts to make a special SKU. Maybe if we could ever get suppressors off the NFA or get rid of it entirely firearm manufacture’s would think more about threading of barrels. Seems like the “comp” trend might also facilitate this as well.

    Factory comps are the new RDS cut in my opinion.

    • “In 2022 all rifles should be threaded from the factory.”

      If we get cans removed from the NFA, what’s more than likely to happen… 🙂

    • agreed…on all counts

12. That’s kinda nice

13. Alloy steel, what’s that mean?
    Sounds like new and improved to me, which always means it’s made as cheap as it can be and still work.
    Its looking to me that our investments should bee more emu.
    I’m pretty happy right now so I’ve gotta brag.
    Birthday was the 23 , youngest son had a Bparty for me today. Came to the table and handed a sock full of .22’s and said ” Well Dad, there it is the last of my bullets. ” I’m kinda like ‘Whut’. – – tik tok tik tok jabber jabber, grandson wreck s bicycle WHAH, bandaids n ice. tik tok jabber jabber.
    Byes sees yah laters love.
    Looked in my back seat and it was full of emu cans. Heavy they were.
    🙂

    • “Alloy steel, what’s that mean?”

      I’m pretty sure it’s a homogeneous mixture of different metals to get performance advantages no single metal can provide.

      Then again, I probably picked the wrong day to quit main-lining Fentanyl… 🙂

    • “…youngest son had a Bparty for me today.”

      Say, sounds like you had a good day, and a pile of boolits to boot! Hope you have many more to come.

14. I learned to shoot with a .30-30 Marlin Lever Action back in the ’90s. Ended up handing it down to my little brother when I had to take a job as an over the road truck driver in the early ’00s. It’s still in use by him and his kid to this day.

15. I happened to stop in a sporting goods store yesterday and saw a brand new Henry BigBoy lever-action rifle chambered in .45-70 Gov’t (the version with the pretty brass receiver) on the shelf for $1150.

    I am starting to wonder if I should buy it. I don’t really have any use for it though. And if I am going to spend that much cash on a lever-action rifle, I am thinking that the same rifle chambered in .44 Magnum would be WAY more useful for me since I have two .44 Magnum revolvers which I DO carry afield when camping, hiking, and hunting.

16. i get more use out of .44 than .444.
    early wins/ mars only had enough twist to stabilize 240gram plugs. the later miroku wins could toss 300’s okay.
    1 in 26″ may be the sweet spot. depends on length…

    • While I also use my 1894 Marlin in 44mag more often than my 444, the old wives tale of 444s not shooting heavy loads was long ago laid to rest. I have worked up loads with 405 grainers, but the pet load for mine is a 355gr. gas checked LFN over a healthy dose of H322
      for a little over 2000 fps. Sized at .432″, it shoots between 1″ and 1 1/4″ @ 100 yds (3 shots) from a microgroove barrel cut back to 21″ and threaded, but no muffler or brake hung off of it. Cases for it from Starline are unobtanium at the moment though

      • Yup, the .444 Marlin is an awesome levergun round, but given the popularity/ubiquity of .45-70 I fear it’s likely to fade into obscurity.

        Buffalo Bore does offer some hammer rounds for it:
        https://www.buffalobore.com/index.php?l=product_detail&p=156

        And believer it or not, there actually is a .444 Marlin revolver out there:

        https://gundigest.com/gun-reviews/handguns-reviews/review-magnum-research-bfr-444-marlin

        I’d pass on shooting it, however. That’s just nuts.

      • i’m referring to the .44mag, the usrac 94ae twists too slowly for 300’s.
        the jm .444’s spin way heavier.

17. I can only imagine the demand and sales for the .357 or.44 mag lever carbine. They probably could not keep up with sales. What I would really like to see is Ruger bringing back the “Deerfield” semi-auto carbine in 357 or the original 44 mag. I imagine the original tooling is sitting in a warehouse somewhere. Have been looking for one for years.

    • I’d take one of those… if it was the short lived 96/44 with detachable rotary magazine and integral scope mounts. Right about the time that the aftermarket started supplying large(r) capacity magazines and stock options, Ruger quietly dropped it from production… why Ruger, why?

      • And as long as we’re dreaming out loud here, I’ll take mine in stainless with a laminated stock, please.

    • Wally1,

      Yeah, I dream of some day owning a Ruger Deerfield semi-auto carbine in .44 Magnum. Alas, I don’t think that is ever going to happen, especially given the fact that Ruger does not make them any more.

      Ruger is potentially missing a huge opportunity in my opinion since several states have recently allowed use of .357 Magnum and .44 Magnum in carbines and rifles for white-tailed deer hunting. A few days ago, a friend of mine purchased a rifle for white-tailed deer hunting. Local gun stores do not have carbines nor rifles chambered in .357 Magnum nor .44 Magnum so he purchased a rifle chambered in .350 Legend. As far as I know, he wanted that same rifle chambered in one of the Magnum handgun calibers but cannot find them.

      Sure, .350 Legend is a nice caliber for white-tailed deer. I prefer .357 Magnum (over .350 Legend) instead since it shoots larger diameter and heavier bullets. Of course I prefer .44 Magnum over .350 Legend because .44 Magnum shoots MUCH larger diameter and heavier bullets. If your shots will be inside of 100 yards, .44 Magnum is the clear winner. Bonus: .44 Magnum ammunition is less expensive than .350 Legend ammunition. And until recently .44 Magnum ammunition was more widely/readily available.

      • from the smith 350 review:
        “The .357 Magnum and the .350 Legend barrels both share the same SAAMI barrel bore and groove diameter, and both should have a bullet exiting the barrel at .355″ in size.”

        • Doh! Brain fart. Thank you for the correction tsbhoa.p.jr

          (While the article and caliber designation are absolutely crystal clear, I was thinking of .350 Legend as being .30 caliber in my head–clearly that was wrong.)

          The only advantage of .357 Magnum would be some heavier bullets such as 180 grain hardcast bullets.

18. What the heck does “match-polished” mean?

    • They struck a match on it that you can then use to burn your wallet. 😉

19. marlin made a belted round (450Marlin) work through the 1895 back in the late 90’s, so I don’t think a rebated rim would present Ruger enginers that much of a challenge… so there Ruger, gauntlet thrown.

Comments are closed.