I sent a Marlin 1895 S to David Clements a few years ago to get a 348 DC rifle built. For those that don't know, an 1895 S is the pre-safety pistol grip version, and they are pretty hard to come by these days, so it took a while for me to find the base rifle. But I knew I wanted a pre-safety PG for the project. Right about that time the 338 Marlin Express came along and made the 348 DC project sort of silly, so I pulled the plug on the project, but David still had the rifle. I don't really remember how the deal came about, but we agreed that he would use the rifle for a custom 45-70 build, and when he sold it he would reimburse me what I had into to base rifle. So he did the project. And he put it on his website. And it sat there for almost a year unsold.
Finally it was too much for me to resist, knowing how hard the 1895 S is to find and how nice that rifle looked, so I struck a deal with him to pay the difference for the custom work, and the rifle was mine....again.
The rifle has the following mods:
• New factory Marlin ballard rifled barrel (the original was microgroove), cut to 22" and re-crowned
• Throated for cast
• New, full length mag tube, with modified hanger
• Action and trigger job
• Receiver bedded to stock
• 1" Limbsaver pad
• XS Sights
I took the rifle out when I first got it, which was last January/February timeframe, and it had a few kinks to work out, but overall I liked it very much. It had to go back to David for a new magazine, then everything was great.
Fast-forward to present.....
So finally…to the range report. For the first time since I got it back, I took the rifle out last week, to a job in the desert where I have an opportunity to shoot after work. I set up a target at 50 yards. First shot was a fouler. Next three shots were touching, with two almost in the same hole. The three-shot group measured about ¼” !! I was stunned, and a bit excited. I went back to my field bench (truck hood and a backpack) and fired two more shots. The were touching the three-shot group, but opened the group up to about ½” for 5 shots. Just think if I had a scope and a real bench rest.
I was shooting factory Remington green box 405 gr. jacketed slo-pokes.
The action is smooth as silk and the trigger is as good as any of my tuned bolt guns. And with the Remmy 405s, recoil was negligible. I'm in love (but not moreso than with my Win 71
). So, the conclusion is that this is one heck of a shooter. I am very excited and impressed. I look forward to trying different loads, and I’m 50/50 about putting a scope on it to see just how well it can really do. Here's a look at it:
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