Marlin 1895 Deluxe 26 inch 45-90 Year 1900

[bigbuck]

Dear all

I am Tom from Bavaria and since the 1970 an average target shooter with a bunch of different tools for punching holes in paper at 25/50 and 100 meters

This weekend a Bavarian shooting buddy offered the a.m. rifle.

Because i am new to Marlins may i ask for some help.
What are the critical points i should check before considering to buy?
I do not need killer loads, i prefer loads for 100 meter target range
What loads/bullets do you recomend therefore? I have the following powders on hand: VVn320, VVn330, VVn340, Trail Boss Swiss RS20 and BP Swiss3
Express loads sound good as well

Finally what is a reasonable price if the Marlin is technical 100% ok and the bore as fine as it can be after so many years??

P.S. As soon as i have some pictures i will add...
Many thanks for your kind advice

greetings from sunny Bavaria

Tom

[Brent]

Over here, that rifle would be at a huge premium. A deluxe, square bolt marlin of any kind is in the multiple thousands of dollars. A 95 si at the top of the heap and a .45-90 the very pinnacle of desirability in my opinion. With an excellent bore and all original and the exterior in reasonable condition, I cannot imaging less than $3000 and I suspect that would be laughed at by any knowledgeable seller over here.

If you go on Guns International you may see a few similar rifles and, from that, judge accordingly. But I think you are looking at a very desirable and valuable rifle. If you get it, pictures are a must!

For loads, I would recommend a case full of the courser Swiss powders. Your Swiss is numbered a bit different than ours. What we call 2f is your Swiss 3 I think. For your gun I would look towards Swiss 4 or Swiss 5. I have used both extensively in .45-70s, .45-90s and .45-100s with bullets between 475 gr and 550 gr. These were single shot rifles so there was a bit more flexibility, but well within the power envelope of a .45-90 Marlin 95.

Congratulations, I look forward to seeing it.

Brent
PS. I"m rebuilding a .45-70 Marlin made in 1899, but I started from a junk receiver (~$550) and nothing else that was usable. It will never have the value of what you describe.

[bigbuck]

Brent, Thanks for your kind hints.

These are the pictures - sorry not perfect but better than nothing..

The Tang and folding front sight are original. The ladder sight looks for me pretty cheap.. Is this original? the ladder alone i am sure is repro.

And as i expected the bore is just great. BTW How can i make a good bore picture?


HELP pls allow me to upload pictures

Greetings


bigbuck

[Brent]

To post pictures, you have to upload them to a server that provides that sort of service. I have a campus system that I can use for this so my skills are not so good with the more widely available commericial outfits. If you email me the pictures, I would gladly post them for you.

As for what's original and what's not - I certainly am not the man to ask. I'm a shooter, and not so much a collector. Others will hopefully chime in about that.

To take a good bore picture is a bit challenging, but I find it useful to prop up the rifle, and the camera too, if you have a tripod, and then put a piece of white paper back at the receiver end that you can bend and twist to deflect just the right amount of light into the bore. Takes a lot of trial an error, but that works better than simply putting a flashlight at the chamber end of the bore. At least it does for me.

Brent
PS. If you email pictures to brentd@iastate.edu, I'll put them up for you.

[Brent]

Thomas,
Here are your pictures. The rifle looks like it has been very well cared for - I think the metal has been reblued and the wood refinished. Those things affect values a lot over here, but it is still a very rare rifle in my opinion and quite valuable, although I am not very sure I know exactly how much it might be worth.

Because these are more than 640 pixels wide, they will not display directly in this message but they will come up easily if click on the URL's.

http://www.public.iastate.edu/~jessie/P ... 20(1).jpeg
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~jessie/P ... 20(2).jpeg
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~jessie/P ... 20(3).jpeg
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~jessie/P ... 20(4).jpeg
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~jessie/P ... image.jpeg

[bigbuck]

Dear Brent,

First of all thank you so much for the uploading. I agree with you the rifle looks somehow like reblued but i am not so sure. I have to make bettwer pictures to see it better. I am pretty sure that the wood is original because it shows everwere little stings,cratches etc and does not look like perfect. It looks and feels like an old chair or kitchen table - My 10 cents.

?? I tried to circle a dummy round and the owner said that for getting this long round into the loading gate i have to slightly open the lever otherwise the round won t slide into the loading gate completely. Which was true . With the lever slightly opened it worked well and the round was then without problems ejected as well.

Is it true that for max OAL round the lever hat to be open a bit?? I am confused...


Thanks for your help

Bigbuck

[Brent]

I can't help you with the loading gate issue. I would seriously doubt it was designed that way, but it may not be a big deal to fix if something is out of alignment there.

I'm guessing a little here, but I believe all the 95s were case colored in that era. I'm pretty sure that is true but someone like Regnier would be a much better source of information than me.

Brent

[Road King]

The serial number for the gun will help establish if it was a blued frame gun. Some 1895s were blued finished, but I agree with Brent that the gun appears to have been refinished.

[bigbuck]

Thanks for your support,

I am going to get the serial no and then lets see...



greetings

bigbuck