Marlin's .45-70 Government Lever Actions

The original Model 1895 design began life as a Model 1893 derivative, an L.L. Hepburn enhancement of his own rectangular bolt, closed top, side eject Model 1889. The Model 1893 enhancements featured longer cartridge capacity, a stronger locking bolt system, a revised two piece firing pin, and it could not be fired unless the breech was closed. The same design was used, by appropriately scaling, for the early Models 1893, 1894 and 1895.

The New Model Marlin Model 1895 is a Model 336 derivative. The Model 336 introduced in 1949 has a fully supported round bolt, solid receiver, upgraded locking system, a highly improved feed system, and coil main and trigger springs. The New Model 1895 was introduced as a limited production firearm in 1972; straight cut stock, 22″ barrel, 4 round magazine. In 1980, a pistol grip stock version was added as the sporter model. The 18.5″barrel Model 1895 Guide Gun was introduced in 1998.

I am not sure how I arrived at the Guide Gun. I had a very long history with Marlin lever action 30-30 WCF and 35 Remington rifle. I also had a good deal of exposure to old Trapdoor 45-70 Springfield rifles and ancient and heavily corroded black powder ammunition. So in 1998, when I had the opportunity to put the fast handling of the little carbine together with the “Kaboom” of the 45-70 Government cartridge, I had to own one.

I never had the desire to own the longer barrel lever action versions. Might be because I live and hunt in the middle of the woods at the top of a mountain, could because I like the balance and fast handling characteristics of the Guide Gun, could be because I wanted to own a rifle I could call “Stubby” and that won’t work with a barrel above 18.5″. Must have been more than a passing fancy with me as I’ve owned a number of them since.

It’s not that they break or wear out, it’s just that I screw around with them until they are no longer recognizable, then I sell each and replace it with a plain version of the same. They all get a work out, factory standard ammo, so called +P ammo, my own hyper handloads, jacketed and cast bullet loads with bullet weights from 265 grains to 500 grains. I shoot over buckhorn sights, through peep sights and red dot sights and the occasional scope sights over both short and long distances.

An example of too much of a good thing

The particular example below is fitted with a rail, big loop lever, light trigger, extended magazine tube, fiber optic sight set when the scope isn’t mounted. Then there is the offset hammer extension, refined ejector, aluminum magazine guide, and ported barrel. All of the innards have been slicked up and closely fit. It shot just about any factory ammo with less than one MOA precision.

Great little rifle that was turned into something it was not destined to be and it lost all of its fast handling, light weight, good shooting personality. So I sold it and now own the Guide Gun pictured at the top of this article.

What is the value of three and one half extra inches of barrel?

I’ve always taken a very scientific approach to selecting the Guide Gun with its 18.5″ barrel over the 22″ rifle length barrel; I dismiss the difference as of no consequence because I like the look, feel and bark of the stubby version and because I live in a state where there is an average of 12.47 feet between trees and those gaps are filled in with brush. So I found myself with 18.5″ and 22″ barrels on hand and thought, why live in denial when I also have a chronograph on hand. I elected to work with two different firearms with two different length barrels rather than starting with a long barrel and hack sawing down to short.

I kind of have to laugh when I see “scientific” studies of barrel length versus velocity where retaining the same chamber and bore are expressed as necessary controls when factory ammo can meet SAAMI spec with a 90 fps shot to shot variance and the results don’t reflect what a consumer would experience. We go to a store, put down our money and we are handed a rifle, one barrel length or the other. If we buy both lengths, they do not share a common chamber or bore.  So relative change measurement and shooting from the same box of ammo is good enough.