Rich Lucibella
Staff
Some time ago, when I was looking into 45-70 break downs, Administrator Mykl suggested that I talk to David Clay in Texas. So did Ashley Emerson who agreed to have the gun put together.
It started out as a limited production Marlin with octagonal barrel. After David did all his magic, Ashley found that the barrel simply would not print less than a 7" group at 100 yards. After trying to salvage the barrel with fire lapping, Ashley turned it into a tomato stake and David agreed to redo his work on a custom barrel. The custom octagonal barrel had to be machined considerably to reduce it to a functional and aesthetic size.
Then the action was meticulously dehorned and slicked up by Ashley; a custom Ashley ghost ring and front post system was installed...I say "custom" because Ashley machined the ghost ring to drop so low that the "A" stamped on the side is almost gone....but alignment from stock to sight is right where it should be.
I had no idea the piece was finished and Ashley presented it to me at the beginning of a hog hunt in TX this past weekend. I was floored! Some may think that any breakdown Marlin is a simple rip off of Jim West's CoPilot. However, David's design goes far beyond the CoPilot. Feature include:
- An improved system to lock the mag tube to the barrel. (Others with CoPilot's have complained that the mag tube tends to force into the receiver from recoil)
- A mag stop which allows the broken down weapon to hold 4 rounds ready in the mag tube.
- An elegantly designed system to adjust the tolerance between receiver and barrel/mag tube to offset any possible alignment problems from wear.
The rifle was placed into my hands with a satin nickel finish and what appeared to be a synthetic stock. In fact, David has some process of coating the factory wood stock with a textured black synthetic resin that just impressed the hell out of me.
I immediately took it to the range and prepared for the recoil punishment from Randy Garrett's 415gr and 530gr bear stoppers. While not the biggest surprise, I was certainly taken by the relatively mild recoil...so much so that Ashley had to pull me off the gun after about 30 off hand rounds. Perhaps most impressive was the fact that I could actually hit things with it...ghost rings and I are almost complete strangers. The rifle was immediately named "Woody"....I believe this name was agreed to due to the composition of the stock, though I could be wrong.
The rifle is still with Ashley for some fine tuning but I'll provide pictures in the near future.
Rich
It started out as a limited production Marlin with octagonal barrel. After David did all his magic, Ashley found that the barrel simply would not print less than a 7" group at 100 yards. After trying to salvage the barrel with fire lapping, Ashley turned it into a tomato stake and David agreed to redo his work on a custom barrel. The custom octagonal barrel had to be machined considerably to reduce it to a functional and aesthetic size.
Then the action was meticulously dehorned and slicked up by Ashley; a custom Ashley ghost ring and front post system was installed...I say "custom" because Ashley machined the ghost ring to drop so low that the "A" stamped on the side is almost gone....but alignment from stock to sight is right where it should be.
I had no idea the piece was finished and Ashley presented it to me at the beginning of a hog hunt in TX this past weekend. I was floored! Some may think that any breakdown Marlin is a simple rip off of Jim West's CoPilot. However, David's design goes far beyond the CoPilot. Feature include:
- An improved system to lock the mag tube to the barrel. (Others with CoPilot's have complained that the mag tube tends to force into the receiver from recoil)
- A mag stop which allows the broken down weapon to hold 4 rounds ready in the mag tube.
- An elegantly designed system to adjust the tolerance between receiver and barrel/mag tube to offset any possible alignment problems from wear.
The rifle was placed into my hands with a satin nickel finish and what appeared to be a synthetic stock. In fact, David has some process of coating the factory wood stock with a textured black synthetic resin that just impressed the hell out of me.
I immediately took it to the range and prepared for the recoil punishment from Randy Garrett's 415gr and 530gr bear stoppers. While not the biggest surprise, I was certainly taken by the relatively mild recoil...so much so that Ashley had to pull me off the gun after about 30 off hand rounds. Perhaps most impressive was the fact that I could actually hit things with it...ghost rings and I are almost complete strangers. The rifle was immediately named "Woody"....I believe this name was agreed to due to the composition of the stock, though I could be wrong.
The rifle is still with Ashley for some fine tuning but I'll provide pictures in the near future.
Rich