New Marlin 1984 Cowboy Limited 24″ .44 Mag

New Marlin 1984 Cowboy Limited 24″ .44 Mag , New to me that is.

Well I did it again!!!  I stopped by Cabela’s this last Saturday, since I was on that side of town.  I stopped to see if they had a M1 Garand the I had seen listed in the Gun Library, it wasn’t there so I was looking through the used rifles, and found a Marlin 1894 Cowboy Limited with a 24″ barrel in 44 Mag.  I looked at it 3 times and then made  decision to reduce my my bank account and add this to my collection…  It took almost 2 hours to get through the line to finally purchase it, the one floor guy said that Black Friday the lines were clear to the escalators.  FYI Cabela’s  now processes the federal paperwork using computer,  for us computer geek that is great no more trying to make our hand writing legible, you just follow the instruction on the screen and type your info, They print it and all you do is sign.  Got it for a fair price!!

Marlin 1894 Cowboy Special

Based on the serial number the rifle was manufactured in 1998, it has the cross bolt safety,  and is in excellent condition with some minor wear in the bluing a few small superficial use dent in the wood from use and wear on the butt plate. This rifle appear to have been used for Cowboy Action Shooting, it has a hole in the tang that is drilled and tapped, appears to have been used with a tang sight.  The current sights are a XS ghost ring and front sight, with a folding Lyman leaf sight on the barrel. The checkering is sharp on the stock and forearm.  The action is as smooth as glass, and the trigger has no creep, is smooth and breaks at exactly three and a three quarter pounds, definitely been work on.

After getting the rifle home, the first thing I did was thoroughly clean the action and barrel, it is amazing how may people sale rifle with out cleaning them.  The rifle is well balanced, it balances just in front of the receiver and make for one sweet handing rifle.

Took the rifle out to the range this morning to make sure it functions, started with 44 S&W special  cowboy loads, they were 240gr lead flat nose ( lfn) at 751 fps. They felt a lot like shooting a .22, the recoil is mild and the report quiet. Then tried .44 mag 240gr jacketed  flat point (jfp) at 1100 fps, the recoil a noticeable,  a sharp push not a round for target shooting but it would not be that noticeable hunting. The brass ejects almost at your feet.

The sights are not to bad, but it is hard to tell shooting indoors, (damn aging eyes) need to get to the outdoor range and some natural sun light.