The student Marlin

[Brent]

So I have a question. A question may be a little different than what we are used to on this forum. But before I get to it a couple of notes. I am a professor, maybe of Wildlife ecology would be a better descriptor. Anyway, I have a number of graduate students who are interested in hunting. Mostly for squirrels.

I guess my poorly thought out question is what sorts of older, used marlins have particularly good application to folks with small paychecks and limited experience? 39as are great. they love mine, but at $400-500 a copy, that's out of their price range for the most part.

[Regnier (gunrunner)]

Brent;

The Model 60 is a very inexpensive Marlin, made in one form or another since 1960. They are a semi-automatic or self-loader as I like to call them to get away from the anti-gunners. Most can be bought from $100.00 to $125.00 depending upon condition. Marlin has made over a million of them, so there are lots of the out there.
I do not think you will find any of the lever action guns for under the $350.00 price range, even the older Levermatics command pretty good prices.

[Brent]

Thanks, the Model 60 is about what I was thinking. I used to have one but gave it away. It seemed like a decent rifle for what it was. My Dad bought it and shot some raccoons out of the bird feeders with it, but I never shot it to see if it was reasonably accurate.

Brent

[marlinman93]

I bought two model 60's in 1968 for my dad and myself to plink with. I still have both since he passed away in '89. They shoot very accurate, and surprised me when I bought them for under $100 for both NIB back then.

[Brent]

what about Marlin bolt rifles? Reasonably accurate and dependable?

[Regnier (gunrunner)]

Brent;

Yes, as Marlin has used the Micro-Groove rifling in all the .22 caliber rifles since 1954. The thing about the .22 Marlin rifles is that you can have your choice of either a clip fed or a tubular fed gun. All the receivers are grooved or drilled and tapped to accept scope mounts. There is also some chambered for the .22 Magnum cartridge too, adding another feature that some people like.
So, there are lots of inexpensive Marlin choices to choose from.

[Brent]

Knowing they are drilled and tapped for scopes is really helpful. These folks may or may not want scopes, but they are learning to shoot mostly with tang sights in my Marlin 39a and my Winchester 1890, or the barrel sights on my Remington 241. So, they are learning what they can do with iron sights for now and they do seem to like aperture rear sights and they shoot well with them. However, in the rifles that are likely to be most affordable to them, the scope option might be best. it is interesting to watch them get into this.

Brent

[Regnier (gunrunner)]

Brent;

I for one want to thank you for taking the time to teach and show these students "the ropes". Getting young people involved with hunting and firearms these days is very important, especially with the upcoming election.
Keep up the good work!

[Brent]

I am just having fun. There are many more students that would like to do this, but I have only so many rifles and so much time. It is interesting to see their motivations. Most of them seem to be women, and lots of them want to kill their own food as much as anything else. For others, it's just one more thing to do out of doors and they have never had the chance before. Lots of them have never handled a rifle but now they are considering owning one. But we have some that have also taught themselves and a very few that have picked it up from their parents in the "normal" way (which is no longer normal).

The gal that got me motivated to do this wants to go back to Guam, where she is from, and hunt pigs for food and to reduce their damage on the native vegetation (which is the subject of her doctoral dissertation). The obvious thing to get started was learn to shoot and learn to butcher. That will happen. she shot my 94 Marlin in .38-40 as an example of what might be considered minimal pig rifle (it was downloaded target loads). But she will need to find a rifle or shotgun that is easy to fuel over there. She has about 4-5 yrs to do it before her PhD is done anyway. I don't think a .38-40 will be the final answer for her. Meanwhile, the squirrels are on notice and we have a barbecue planned

Thanks for the help. I'll let you know how it goes. The gun buying is a ways off I suspect but I'll have to bone up on the cheaper and more modern rifles a bit.

Brent