I met several guys online who lived in the PNW, and we eventually got together to do some shooting. Fred knew someone with a private gated range, and we fellow-shipped there several times. It's where I finalized the 45/70 load anti-water-jug load. When I got there Fred and Blaine were already there occupying a couple of benches at the 100 yard gong spot, and three people I hadn't met. One man was working with his hunting rifle at another bench, and two guys were at right angles to that line with pistols and paper targets. One man was instructing a visitor from Britain who had never fired a gun before. (!)
I had a Marlin 39 and a Marlin stainless guide gun, and as is my custom I fired offhand at the gong standing between Blaine and Fred. Starting with the 22 for warm ups i dinged the generous size gong for a while. The Visitor was noting the lever gun and I offered to let him shoot his pistol targets, his host was OK with this, so I showed Visitor the manual of arms and he started trying to apply his pistol training to the receiver sight, so I explained that if he ignored the rear sight, and concentrated on the front sight and target the bullets would go where the bead is.
Meanwhile I loaded up the 45, announced the coming booms, and rang the gong with 525 Gr BTB running around 1450-ish, I forget. Got good tone
Naturally this peaked the interest of Visitor, who had arrived at the boring stage with the 39, so I offered the 45/70 to him. It has the exact same sight setup, and other than a mention about recoil management there was nothing more to say. His two friends watched him center the gong with two shots, an Englishman who had never shot a gun before. His pistol mentor also took a shot and centered the gong, first time with a lever action 45/70. Two strangers to lever action carbines were now proficient with new hunting skills. I credit the genius of the Marlin 45/70 as a universal diplomat, making friends one boom at a time. †
grizz
