Marlin 1895 Cowboy Revisited

This is a followup to an earlier blog  about installing a new Williams front sight on my 1895 Marlin Cowboy lever gun.  I dialed in the new front sight on the Marlin 1895 Cowboy and it was right on the money.

I shot on the 50-yard range at a smallbore rifle target.  The top center S target caught my first three shots (with my 405-grain cast bullet load) and they were a touch high, so I dropped the rear sight one click and drifted it slightly to the right with my brass punch and a small hammer.  Targets 1 and 2 caught the next six rounds (all with the same 35.0 grains of IMR 4198 and the 405-grain Missouri cast bullet).  By Target 2, I was dialed in…dead center and hitting right at the point of aim.  Then I switched to another favored but lighter accuracy load, and that’s 16.2 grains of Trail Boss with a 300-grain Hornady jacketed hollow point.  I shot that load at the bottom two targets.

The Marlin Cowboy rifle kicks hard with the 405-grain bullet when shooting from the bench, but it sure is accurate. Both loads can shoot one-hole groups at 50 yards if I do my part.  I didn’t do as well at 100 yards (the above are 50-yard groups), but I think that was because I was feeling the effects of too much recoil already.  That front sight change worked for me, and the 1895 is a good shooting lever gun.

More Tales of the Gun are here.