GUNS AND AMMUNITION. 



Anybody can keep on shooting all day, but it takes a gentleman to quit when he gets enough. 



MORE MARLIN HISTORY. 



Manchester, N. H. 

 Editor Recreation: 



In the fall of 1899 I ordered through 

 J. B. Varick Company, of '.this city, a 40- 

 82 Marlin rifle to be built with special 

 drop and several other special features, 

 each of which carried with it an extra 

 price. You can imagine my surprise when 

 the rifle came to hand only a few days be- 

 fore I was to start for Nova Scotia on a 

 hunting trip, and I found that on firing 

 a few sighting shots the cartridges would 

 not feed from the magazine into the 

 chamber without clogging. I watched the 

 action and found it would let a second 

 cartridge into the receiver before the first 

 was loaded. The next trouble I found 

 was that the lever could not be operated 

 to its full extent, and on dismounting the 

 rifle I found an exploded primer in the 

 pocket under the carrier. I then looked 

 over my empty shells to see if it had come 

 from any of them, and found several 

 primers out of their pockets in the shells 

 and others that were nearly out. As my 

 recollection serves me now, there were 2 

 shells with the primers tight and flattened 

 tightly into the pocket. I put the rifle to- 

 gether again and finished adjusting my 

 sights for hunting distances, watching 

 each extracted shell to see if I must hunt 

 the primer also. 



On returning to my office, I measured 

 the depths of the chamber and throw of 

 breech bolt. I concluded the latter did 

 not back up the cartridge and hold it in 

 the chamber during time of discharge. 

 In a letter to the Marlin Fire Arms Com- 

 pany, I mentioned the several troubles I 

 found on trying the rifle, and they said 

 that if such troubles were anything they 

 were to blame foif they would put the 

 rifle in perfect order on its return to their 

 factory. As I wished to take the rifle to 

 Nova Scotia with me at some future time, 

 I sent it to the factory after I returned 

 from my trip, with full explanation of my 

 experience with it. 



After some weeks the rifle was returned 

 to me, express charges collect, but with- 

 out any remark as to the troubles I had 

 complained of. 



When getting ready for my hunting 

 trip last fall, I went out to sec if my sights. 

 were all ri^ht and on shooting found the 

 primers would drop out of the shells just 

 the same. I. again wrote the Marlin Com- 

 pany, stating this fact. They wrote me a 

 long letter, saying I was probably using 

 smokeless powder which gave high pres- 



sure and that if I would get some cart- 

 ridges of an entirely different make, loaded 

 with black powder, I would have no more 

 trouble. 



Surely, this was good advice from a 

 firm advertising that they use smokeless 

 steel barrels! 



They also said, "In the very best makes 

 shells vary in thickness of the head quite 

 a good deal. We have also found in our 

 experience that many times the best 

 makers will put out a batch of cartridges 

 in which the heads are considerably thicker 

 than the maximum thickness, and then 

 you will be stuck, as you will be unable to 

 close your rifle at all. 



"Our experience teaches us that in 

 closing the breech bolt it is desirable to 

 leave that point as wide as possible, but 

 if you will state just how tightly you want 

 the rifle to breech up we will do it for 

 you." 



I measured the space between the 

 breech bolt and the head of the shell and 

 found I could put a piece of copper which 

 measured over .032 of an inch on the head 

 of the shell and close the bolt all right, 

 but I did not know at that time just 

 how much the cartridge heads varied. I 

 wrote the Marlin Company to breech the 

 rifle in at least 1-50 of an inch, which 

 would be .020 of an inch, and sent the 

 rifle to them again. When it came back 

 I could not discover that the breech bolt 

 would close up any tighter than before, 

 although a letter from them stated that 

 it had been breeched up as close as pos- 

 sible and that it handled the shells prop- 

 erly. 



I hunted in Maine last October and 

 November with this rifle, and was obliged 

 to watch the extracted shells to be sure 

 the primers were not in the receiver be- 

 fore loading again, in order to be satis- 

 fied that it would not get jammed at the 

 next loading. At one time, after hunting 

 moose nearly all day, in walking to the 

 home camp we flushed some grouse, and 

 I shot one. I picked it up without re- 

 loading. Returning to the trail I saw 

 another bird, drew up my rifle and snapped 

 the hammer. Then I remembered I had 

 not reloaded, and was surprised at the re- 

 sults. I could not extract the shell with 

 the lever, but was obliged to get out a 

 metal wiping rod and drive the shell back 

 lo the breech holt while forcing the lever 

 down. This cartridge had evidently sel 

 hack to the breech boll when it discharged 

 and expanded to the enlarged position in 

 the chamber. When the firing pin struck 



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