Marlin 81DL Extractor (Old Style)

[LAGS]

Very nice restoration.
It is nice to see others that like to save some guns , and not just because of the collector value if there is one.

[Cree]

Christopher O - your guess is pretty good - the oddball shape of the bolt on your 81 does date it to the 1940s, likely the second version if the trigger guard was plastic. I’ve rebuilt a few of these early guns and the Ballard rifled ones, especially those from the period your gun is from, are extremely accurate. On a whim, I took a $50 “broken” one like yours, replaced a few bits, rust blued it and cut the barrel down to 18 inches and recrowned, along with a bunch of “Bubba” stuff to accurize it just to show the guys I shot with at the time that even “cheap” guns could be accurate, and while it’s never going to be a Winchester 52 (or even a 75), it could, on any given string, throw tight groups with the right ammo.

Hope you enjoy it, and great job.