My old Marlin Model 80 DL

I swapped scopes between the Ruger 10/22 and my old Marlin Model 80 DL so my wife and I could see better on the Ruger. Went to the range last Tuesday, May 17, to sight old Weaver 4x in on the Marlin. Didn't take long, and since I had replaced the trigger springs I noticed I seemed to shoot better. I got the rifle tweaked and shot this group of 13 or 14 shells, not sure the number because I had a magazine hiccup. As best I could measure it is .462 diameter, shooting Winchester LR hollow points at 25 yards. For a shaky old guy, (74), I thought I did pretty good. I have always known the Marlin will shoot just as straight as I can hold.

Have a blessed day,

Leon

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My daughter has the JC Higgins equivalent of yours but cut down for her when she was 12. She still loves it and she's shot mice to turkey with it. And it shoots little bitty groups too. The dang safety's backwards though lol.

I never noticed my safety being "backwards" I just push it off or on. I've had mine about 50 years or so, I can't remember when I bought it xxxx.

Have a blessed day,

Leon

P.S. I removed the word "new" from the end of the sentence where I marked the x's. I didn't buy it new, seems like I gave $25 bucks for it. My memory is old too. :-)

I was raised on forward to fire safeties so the Marlin forward on safe rearward to fire setup bugged me. My best friend had a tube mag Marlin bolt and he said to act like the safety is a hammer and draw it back to fire. Worked for him; he was Deadeye Dick with that gun.

That is a fine old gun. :)

The Marlin Model 80 has Ballard rifling - not the Micro Groove. With good eyes, a $200 rifle will produce excellent groups - Mine does

John Boy, I think the earlier ones had Ballard rifling, mine has Micro Groove. It will shoot much better than I can hold.

Have a blessed day,

Leon

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Texas by God

I was raised on forward to fire safeties so the Marlin forward on safe rearward to fire setup bugged me. My best friend had a tube mag Marlin bolt and he said to act like the safety is a hammer and draw it back to fire. Worked for him; he was Deadeye Dick with that gun.

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My younger son's first rifle is a Model 15Y which has a safety the same way. I actually thought it a good idea, particularly for a little kid's rifle since it seems like it's a much more deliberate act to take it off safe by pulling it back and also less likely to get pushed off by accident. It's a good little rifle, might just get that one out of the safe and shoot it in the next day or so.

One of my friends dropped by the other day with a similar one that was tube fed. He was trying to find a set of sights as both were missing. The front sight is a little odd because a little flat was milled on the barred where the dovetail was cut and the rear sight has the sight was screwed to what looks like a blank in the dovetail.

I have a few sights in a box so I dug through them. Talk about luck, I had both and have no idea where they came from. I talked to him yesterday, he said the old rifle really shot well. By the way it is the old style rifling.

I had removed the iron sights way back, years ago. I recently put them back on the rifle so they would remain on the rifle when I don't need it.

Have a blessed day,

Leon