Old Marlin Model 1894, need info

M

Murrdock

New member
My girlfriend's mother inherited an old Marlin 94 from her father when he passed away this year. It's a .38-40 with a serial number of 622. It was refurbished by the Marlin company in the 1970's and they wanted to buy it back from him because it was one of the original model 1894's supposedly. I'm not sure exactly what year it was made because the serial numbers are a little screwy when I was trying to look it up. Supposedly they restarted the serial numbers in the 1920's or something?

Also, where would be the best place to find ammo for the .38-40's, because her mother loves shooting and will go through the 50 or so rounds that came with it fairly quickly. I've only ever seen a few ancient boxes at gunshops once in a while for outrageous prices.

Any helps apprieciated.
 
I don't have the reloading equipment (yet) to do that or I would in a heartbeat. The other problem is there are only 50 shells that came with the gun and that's not alot of brass to work with.

Also, thanks for the link Hawg, but damn, $.75+ per round is scary, but I guess it's a caliber that is getting rarer and rarer...
 
Thanks to the Cowboy Action Shooting folks, loading data and components are again available for those old time calibers.

The .38-40 is easy to load, with no surprises if you stick to the book loads. You can load black powder, which some would recommend, or light smokeless loads. Just remember that, in spite of the name, the bullets are actually .40 caliber.

I would avoid some of the "hot" loads some people seem to like to use, even in weak guns. The old guns just weren't made for them.

Jim
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top