Ol' Sixgun was selling a pretty nice 1954 Marlin 30-30 on here a while back, that he had robbed the buttstock off of. His price was fair, but I shot him an offer if he kept the scope, rings, and mount. We had a deal. Then he discovered a minor mechanical issue, and knocked off some more dollars if I was ok with making the repair myself, we had a new deal, and I saved even more money.
I got the rifle, replaced the broken firing pin and began the search for a replacement buttstock. I found a new, factory unfinished stock from Marlin on ebay. The box it was shipped in was postmarked in 1964! It had been laying around somebodys place for a long time before making it's way to ebay, and eventually my mailbox. It was more than just unfinished, it was grossly oversized in every dimension. After some time with the belt sander, files and dremel, I had a pretty decent fit for an amateur.
When I wet the buttstock and forend for final sanding, it was apparent they were not going to match well at all after being finished. I carefully applied some Acorn Brown dye, more so to the fore end, to get a good match. I followed that up with several coats of Tung oil with a good rubdown in between coats. I was pretty happy with the results. Then I added a 2-7x32 scope for load development, and she was back in business.
I bought this rifle with the intention of making it a strictly cast bullet shooter. I had just taken delivery of Ranch Dog's new, redesigned 30 cal. mold. I cast up a mess of bullets to load in this 30-30, and my 30-30 Ackley Improved.
I got out to the range and set up at the 50 yard benches. Pulled the bolt and eyeballed down the bore and adjusted the scope as close as my eye could get it. I took the first shot, and couldn't see any holes in the paper. Looked through the spotting scope and saw the first shot in the black bull.
Good sign of things to come. I had 3 loads with RL15, and 3 with IMR4895. All 6 of the loads surprised me, but three were very good.
It's apparent this old gun has a lot of good shooting left in it. I almost feel guilty for having such a dandy levergun with such a small investment......almost. Thanks Jack.
