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Thread: Marlin 39A upgrade.

  1. #21
    Boolit Master rollmyown's Avatar
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    Is the new made Lyman sight equivalent quality, ie steel?

    Do you need to D&T the receiver of a modern 39 A (09 manufactured)?

    Nice job BTW

  2. #22
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    W.R.Buchanan's Avatar
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    Rollo: no the new Lyman sights are not made of steel, that's why they are only $80. I don't know if the new receivers are DT'd but I "think" they are.

    Randy
    "It's not how well you do what you know how to do,,,It's how well you do what you DON'T know how to do!"
    www.buchananprecisionmachine.com

  3. #23
    Boolit Master rollmyown's Avatar
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    Thanks, I'll keep a lookout online for a steel sight. Any idea of a fair price? Do the new ones have the same mounting pattern? Do you know what year they went from steel to cheese?

    Cheers

    Rob

  4. #24
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    W.R.Buchanan's Avatar
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    Rob: The good Lyman 66LA's go for anywhere from $75 to 150 on ebay depending on condition. **** from $75 (unless nobody is watching) to $150 for a NIB piece.

    Mine was $125 and was in fairly good condition and cleaned up to near new.

    All have the same mounting pattern. Make sure you are looking for a 66LA, which is the Marlin sight. There are other 66 model sights like for Winchesters and others. They aren't the same!

    I don't know when they switched to aluminum, but if you're not sure what they are offering just ask them. Usually the new ones have a buy it now price attached to them of around $75-80. You won't see many decent steel ones that cheap.

    Patience is the key here as you will get out bid many times before you actually win one. The best way is to snipe the bid and put your sniped price well above where you'd like to be. That way unless you get into a bidding war you'll get the part. This is especially true of a NIB piece. You can always sell it for what you've got in it.

    When you sell the gun, take the sight off it and replace the open sight on the barrel. You won't get any more for the gun with the Lyman sight on it and you can resell the sight for an extra $100-150.

    Randy
    "It's not how well you do what you know how to do,,,It's how well you do what you DON'T know how to do!"
    www.buchananprecisionmachine.com

  5. #25
    Boolit Master rollmyown's Avatar
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    Thanks for the good advice Randy.

    Hopefully this one will be a keeper. I know not everyone is willing to pay double for a quality made product but lots of us are. It sure is a shame they don't make 'em new in steel anymore.

    I miss those good old days.

  6. #26
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    Rollo: I talked to the head guys and Woman from Lyman at the SHOT Show about producing limited runs of the most popular verisons of their aperature sights out of steel.

    fell on deaf ears!

    They told me that nobody uses peep sights and that everybody wants scopes.

    I told them about Ebay prices, they said I should go to ebay.

    I was completely insulted and I let them know about it! Fell on deaf ears.

    They just don't care.

    This is what happens when companies get too big!

    Randy
    "It's not how well you do what you know how to do,,,It's how well you do what you DON'T know how to do!"
    www.buchananprecisionmachine.com

  7. #27
    Boolit Master rollmyown's Avatar
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    I Totally agree that to a degree they would sell like hotcakes.

    I'd gladly part with $200.00 for a quality new made set in steel.

    You're dead right, ease of manufacture and profit are all that is important the the big boys. Shame about that.

    I may have to settle for alloy for now with a view to picking up some steel ones down the track.

  8. #28
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    W.R.Buchanan's Avatar
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    The funny thing is it wouldn't be that much more expensive to Mfg the whole sight out of Steel. The material is cheaper and the difference in machine time is negligable.

    There is only 3 parts made from aluminum on the new sights. The base, the slide and the little part that holds the aperature.

    The cost savings on making these parts from aluminum is not even a factor. Someone just made the change to look good..

    What they didn't realize is by doing this they put themselves into direct competition with Williams which has always made their sights from aluminum.

    Formerly they had NO competition. Sounds like good management decision making to me.

    Randy
    "It's not how well you do what you know how to do,,,It's how well you do what you DON'T know how to do!"
    www.buchananprecisionmachine.com

  9. #29
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    I did manage to go shoot mine last Saturday at our clubs Monthly Short Range Silhouette shoot. I got there late so I had to shoot the "scoped rifle targets" which are about 20% smaller than the opensight targets.

    I was not really interested in the game that day and only managed to hit 8-10 out of 40. My main objective was to refine the zero on the gun with the Lyman sight, and to finally get rid of all the bogus and mismatched ammo I had.

    We have a hanging target for each range that guys can shoot at to zero their guns so I just loaded a tube full of shorts LR's HP's Minimags etc and blazed away. I was shooting 15-20 rounds in the alotted 2 minute relay time normally reserved for firing 5 record shots.

    This gun feeds anything with a flick of the wrist!

    My big record for the day was hitting the 25 yd chicken swinger 12 times in a row in about 30 seconds, and there were people watching!

    I could hit small pieces of clay pidgeon at 50 and 75 yds really well however when we got to 100 yds the bullet drop was completely unpredictable due to the mixed ammo. I have to get up there one day during the week and shoot a target at all the different ranges to fine tune the elevation with one type of ammo and then shoot that type of ammo from there on out. I hope it likes CCI ammo.

    Anyway that's what I did last Saturday morning with my Marlin 39AS.

    Randy
    "It's not how well you do what you know how to do,,,It's how well you do what you DON'T know how to do!"
    www.buchananprecisionmachine.com

  10. #30
    Boolit Grand Master uscra112's Avatar
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    CCI MiniMags. Just using the MiniMags will make a big difference, they are more uniform than any other bulk ammo I've evaluated, (for weight variance, mainly). Our club runs two .22 rimfire silhouette matches a year, and I'm never here for either of them, but testing on paper to optimize my garden-defense (chuck) rifles tells me that MiniMags are the ticket.
    Cognitive Dissident

  11. #31
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    uscra: since you are not there, maybe you can show up here. Our shoot runs the third Saturday of every month, and typically we have about 20 shooters.

    It is not only rimfire, it is also Centerfire with lead boolits on the 200 yd course.

    Hope to see you soon, and I know it's long drive, but you'll have a really good time!

    Randy
    "It's not how well you do what you know how to do,,,It's how well you do what you DON'T know how to do!"
    www.buchananprecisionmachine.com

  12. #32
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    well guys, Today I achieved a milestone in my shoot career. Today I became "King of the Pigs!"

    I attained this status by knocking down all 10 Pigs in our monthly silhouette shoot.

    I was vicious! Shot 27/40 best I've done in many years.

    With my Lyman sight zeroed at 75 yds I am 1" high at 50yds Had the hardest time on chickens at 25 yds as the gun shot about 3" high and I had to aim low to hit the little boogers.

    At 100 yds I raised the sight 3MOA or one thread up with the QD slide release, or one complete revolution of the elevation knob from the mechanical stop.

    Hit 8 rams at 100 yds. 7 Turkeys at 75 yds, but only 3 chickens at 25 yds. Don't know what happened there?

    The gun worked very nicely and I am about ready to refinish the stocks since this one is definately a keeper.

    I am also going to mod the trigger and hammer so the half cock knotch works correctly and then I can dump the rebounding hammer strut. The gun FTF several times but fired after recocking the hammer. This is directly attributable to the lighter mainspring and the rebounding hammer feature. it doesn't hit the firing pin very hard due to having to overcome the rebound portion of the hammer travel, but will be fine with the rebound feature deleted.

    It was good day shooting.

    Randy
    "It's not how well you do what you know how to do,,,It's how well you do what you DON'T know how to do!"
    www.buchananprecisionmachine.com

  13. #33
    Boolit Master rollmyown's Avatar
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    I've had two of my Marlins away to the smith for some TLC. Had my 45 cowboy and 39A slicked and some woeful feed and extraction issues looked at on the 39A.

    I'm hopeful that the .22 will function like they used to in days gone by. They should be back next week. I hope to be reporting good news.

    If it functions as good as it looks, I'll be a happy camper.

    Congrats Randy!

  14. #34
    Boolit Buddy
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    I did my stock when I bought in 1982 BUT I like big scopes the for-stock is factory



    Rick

  15. #35
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    Yes Rick my Fore-end is the large bulky one. It will get cut down more like yours. Never figured out why they made them so big. They did it on alot of the 336's also.

    Your Fore-end looks more like the ones on my 1894's and 1895 Cowboy.

    Funny thing about your scope choice, the gun is actually accurate to be able to make use of such a scope. So many aren't.

    These guns are $679 MSRP right now. I think they may be worth it. Good thing there are used ones! I paid $325 for mine and I couldn't get my wallet out fast enough!

    Randy
    "It's not how well you do what you know how to do,,,It's how well you do what you DON'T know how to do!"
    www.buchananprecisionmachine.com

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check