DPHunter4570
AH veteran
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2023
- Messages
- 193
- Reaction score
- 500
- Location
- Southern Illinois
- Media
- 14
- Member of
- SCI, Wild Sheep Foundation, American Bear Foundation
- Hunted
- USA-IL,MO,MN,ME; Canada-Manitoba; South Africa
As firearm deer season approaches here in Illinois, and this year being the first full season with the new straight wall cartridge rifle rule, I was getting my rifle ready and thought I'd snap a few pictures and make a little post on my current favorite rifle. It's no double rifle or high end bolt action, but it's never let me down and proved totally reliable on some bear hunts in the US and Canada. I love this gun.
Started life off as a regular old Marlin 1895 GBL with factory 18.5" barrel, from the dreaded Remington years, and was totally worked over by Lew Bonitz at Grizzly Custom Guns in Montana. No stones unturned really in terms of a custom lever gun. New stocks bedded to the action, cerakote, hammer bob, action and trigger smoothed and slicked and tuned. Grizzly logo magazine tube cap, and GCG on the side of the action. This thing functions incredibly smooth and has a great trigger pull.
The XS rail and peep sight setup is great, can mount a scope scout style or normally. The peep sight and big front sight are great when shooting it with no scope. The Leupold VX-R Scout is awesome at 1.5-5 power with the fire dot. Fast target acquisition. I'm no die hard scout scope man, I have other marlins with regular scope setups, but I enjoy it on this rifle. The QD scope mounts are nice as well, I've had no return-to-zero issues. Leupold really booted it when they discontinued the VX-R line of scopes.
As far as accuracy goes, this rifle reigns supreme over my other Marlins in 45-70. One ragged hole is the norm with the only ammo I've ever fired through it. It shoots Hornady Leverevolution 325 grain FTX and 250 grain Monoflex, as well as the Federal 300 grain Hammer Down, exceptionally well.
All in all, a great rifle that performs flawlessly in it's role as a bear gun, brush gun, thick woods stomper. I hunt mostly thick, hilly, honeysuckle overgrown woods here in my corner of Southern Illinois, so my shots are seldom more than 50 yards. The same can be said for the areas in Maine, Minnesota, and Canada I bear hunt.
I love this rifle, and plan on taking it on many more deer and bear adventures. I'd even like to see it on the Alaskan tundra one day.
Started life off as a regular old Marlin 1895 GBL with factory 18.5" barrel, from the dreaded Remington years, and was totally worked over by Lew Bonitz at Grizzly Custom Guns in Montana. No stones unturned really in terms of a custom lever gun. New stocks bedded to the action, cerakote, hammer bob, action and trigger smoothed and slicked and tuned. Grizzly logo magazine tube cap, and GCG on the side of the action. This thing functions incredibly smooth and has a great trigger pull.
The XS rail and peep sight setup is great, can mount a scope scout style or normally. The peep sight and big front sight are great when shooting it with no scope. The Leupold VX-R Scout is awesome at 1.5-5 power with the fire dot. Fast target acquisition. I'm no die hard scout scope man, I have other marlins with regular scope setups, but I enjoy it on this rifle. The QD scope mounts are nice as well, I've had no return-to-zero issues. Leupold really booted it when they discontinued the VX-R line of scopes.
As far as accuracy goes, this rifle reigns supreme over my other Marlins in 45-70. One ragged hole is the norm with the only ammo I've ever fired through it. It shoots Hornady Leverevolution 325 grain FTX and 250 grain Monoflex, as well as the Federal 300 grain Hammer Down, exceptionally well.
All in all, a great rifle that performs flawlessly in it's role as a bear gun, brush gun, thick woods stomper. I hunt mostly thick, hilly, honeysuckle overgrown woods here in my corner of Southern Illinois, so my shots are seldom more than 50 yards. The same can be said for the areas in Maine, Minnesota, and Canada I bear hunt.
I love this rifle, and plan on taking it on many more deer and bear adventures. I'd even like to see it on the Alaskan tundra one day.