The Marlin Guide Gun is in my opinion a very
handsome gun that does indeed fill a unique niche in the gun
market. Lets take a closer look and examine the individual
features of this rifle.
Finish
The stainless steel contrasts nicely with the
dark honey colored stock that came on my individual rifle. The
finish is a brushed type finish that allows for the corrosion
resistance of stainless steel, yet somewhat dulls the reflective
properties of the finish. According to Marlin, the receiver,
barrel, lever, trigger guard plate, magazine tube and loading
gate are made of stainless steel. The remaining parts appear to
be carbon steel left in the “white”, continuing with the
stainless look, however, there is a slight color change in these
parts. This is most evident in the forend cap.
Stocks
My particular specimen was fitted with a dark
honey colored buttstock and forend. Both parts were finished in
a flat non-reflective finish. The deep cut checking is offset
with diamond patterns in the buttstock and forearm and offers a
good grip. The wood is relatively straight in grain and is
purely functional rather than fancy. The rear sling swivel stud
is slightly recessed into the grain and has a somewhat puzzling
white dot with a black center approximately 1 inch forward of
the stud. I have yet to find out the purpose of this dot. The
ventilated recoil pad is wide enough to help distribute the
recoil and the stock also is of sufficient length to prevent the
dreaded half moon over the eyebrow from the scope.
Barrel and magazine
Although the barrel is 18.5”, it feels much
shorter. This is perhaps due to the bull barrel feel of the
rifle due to the relatively large caliber. Early models of the
Marlin Guide Gun offered barrel porting, however, later models
did not retain this feature. The rifling crown is rounded and
slightly recessed, offering a little protection for the rifling.
Instead of using a barrel band, Marlin decided to used a
dovetail wedge to secure the barrel to the magazine. The
magazine ends approximately 4” from the end of the barrel,
leaving one to wonder if an extra round of capacity would be
gained by extending the magazine tube the full length to the end
of the barrel. Given that there is 4” of room from the end of
the barrel and the .45-70 cartridge measures approximately 2.5“,
this theoretically would leave 1.5” of room for the follower
and compressed spring. It looks as though Marlin decided to
leave the dead space out of the design of the rifle. However, it
would seem that a slight barrel length increase to 20” would
have left enough room for one more round. The magazine follower
is red and can be seen by depressing the loading gate while
looking into the magazine. This provides positive confirmation
that there is not a round stuck in the magazine. The front sling
swivel stud is also attached to the forend cap rather than the
wood.
Hammer, safety and trigger
I decided to combine these three because they
are interconnected with each other.
Lets start with the hammer. The hammer spur is
serrated to help provide a positive purchase, however, a factory
supplied hammed spur extension is a great aid when using a
scope. This extension is attached to the hammer spur by sliding
it onto the spur and tightening a tiny set screw with the
supplied wrench. I found that a dot of blue Loc-Tite to
the screw was necessary to keep it in place, otherwise it would
work loose every few shots.
The safety is a push button safety located just
forward of the hammer. Pushing it to the left puts the safety in
the “fire” position with a red indicator showing. Pushing
the safety to the opposite side places it on “safe”.
Although there is no color indicator to show “safe” the
safety button has a circular pattern in the metal to aid in
pushing and perhaps offering a tactile indicator. The button on
the opposite side is left smooth. Engaging and disengaging the
safety is positive, with no worries about the safety engaging
during severe recoil. One note that I will add is that in
addition to the safety, Marlin retained the half cock feature of
the rifle. Personally, I could live without the safety as it
serves no function except to prevent the hammer from contacting
the firing pin. It does not prevent the hammer from falling, so
you will get a surprise if you forget to remove the safety
before firing. There is nothing like the sound of the hammer
falling and nothing happening to alert your prey.
Coincidentally, it’s also a fine time to find out you have a
nasty flinch!
The trigger face is slightly rounded and
polished smooth. However, it does retain a bit of an edge.
Although I would not call this a sharp edge, I would say that it
is a “hard” edge. The trigger pull is very reasonable, and
although no trigger pull gauge was available, I’d estimate it
at 5 pounds with a good release. My only complaint is that it
does have the “trigger flop” which is noticeable when you
shake the rifle. This is more of a glitch in the design that has
no affect on the function or safety of the rifle.
Sights
The sights on the rifle are serviceable with a
brass bead up front and a semi buckhorn rear that folds down for
scope use and is ladder adjustable for elevation. Both front and
rear sights are blued. The sighting system also utilizes a
protective front sight hood. Although the front sight could be
seen in good light, the rear is left colored black. Given the
nature of the rifle, I would have preferred an express gun
sighting system rather than the one supplied. I decided to
forego the sights altogether and mount a scope for hunting use.
On this particular rifle I mounted a Nikon
2-7 x32 shotgun scope on a standard Weaver mounting base
to aid in accuracy. One note to add is that the front and rear
of this scope utilizes the same Butler Creek rear scope
cap. I found this beneficial and mounted a rear scope cover on
both the front and rear. This would allow me to use a lever to
flip with front and rear caps, something useful when wearing
gloves.
Handling Characteristics
The Marlin Guide Gun is designed to be a fast
handling short to medium range rifle. Used as the name implies,
it is a secondary implement to back up a client in the event of
an emergency. The short barrel length combined with the straight
stock give it the pointing characteristics closer to a shotgun
than a rifle. In fact, the Remington 870 with a 18”
barrel is approximately 1“ longer than the Guide Gun. Although
it is extremely fast to put into action, engagement of long
range targets are definitely more of a challenge. The stock is
of sufficient length to allow enough room when using a scope. My
only complaint is that the relatively narrow lever loop may
cause some problems when wearing heavy gloves.
SHOOTING THE GUIDE GUN
The very fact that I’m using a Marling 1895
Guide Gun in stainless steel instead of the 1895 Cowboy version
proves that I’m not a purist. To even further my chances of
obtaining the best accuracy out of the guide gun I used Hornady’s
LEVERevolution 325 grain ammunition, a polymer point bullet
designed specifically for lever action rifles. The guide gun did
not disappoint! I was amazed and pleasantly surprised at the 1.5”
groups at 100 yards. Shooting the 45-70 lets you know that you’ve
just touched off some serious firepower, with the accompanying
muzzle blast. After shooting 20 rounds I began to wonder…Since
the .45-70 cartridge at one time was the official military
cartridge, am I am wimp when compared to our early soldiers?
Overall, the recoil is significant enough to not want to train a
novice on this rifle, yet it should be easily handled by the
experienced shooter. Just don’t sit down and expect to bench a
couple of boxes comfortably. Feeding, extraction and ejection is
positive with no problems encountered.
IS SHE A KEEPER?
I give the Marlin Guide Gun two thumbs up. Due
to much of the terrain being comprised of mixed woods and
planted pines here in Northwest Florida, the guide gun serves as
a superb hunting firearm due to the short length and ease of
handling. Given the size of some of our local feral hogs, the
45-70 cartridge gives some measure of confidence that you will
not become the victim of an angry hog. In addition, our black
bear population in NW Florida is also very healthy, reaching
nuisance status on managed lease lands. All the more reason for
a little extra protection. If you are wanting something unique
that is sure to turn a couple of heads at the local range when
they realize that you are not shooting a 30-30, then the Guide
Gun is for you.
Kelly
Watkins
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