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Marlin 1894S (41 Mag)

10K views 57 replies 31 participants last post by  Sweetwater 
#1 ·
Just picked up a 41 mag made in 1988. I've been searching a long time. How rare are these?
 
#3 · (Edited)
Congrats on getting yours! I traded a NIB CZ75 for mine back in 88'. Added a Williams #5 FP Receiver sight long ago. Shown here with a few other .41s. Got one of Ranch Dogs TL411-255 RF molds made just for it. Bullets weight right at 269gr cast with straight clipped on wheel weights and a thumper at 1600 fps.




Still haven't shot a deer with mine yet as they never show up when I'm out with it. Have taken a several squirrels with it however.


CD
 
#5 ·
Congrats on getting yours! I traded a NIB CZ75 for mine back in 88'. Added a Williams #5 FP Receiver sight long ago. Shown here with a few other .41s. Got one of Ranch Dogs TL411-255 RF molds made just for it. Bullets weight right at 269gr cast with straight clipped on wheel weights and a thumper at 1600 fps.




Still haven't shot a deer with mine yet as they never show up when I'm out with it. Have taken a several squirrels with it however.


CD
Squirrels, eh? Head shots I’m sure! Might try that with the 1894C when I get it picked up!
 
#7 ·
#9 ·
I hear you! Every time I go to my LGS to pick up my latest acquisition I tell him, “This will be the last one for a while.” He smugly smiles and says something like “See you next week.” Now it’s not that frequent...but close!

Hey, we joined about the same time and have nearly the same amount of posts! Cool!
 
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#10 · (Edited)
Yowzah! Yowzah! That looks nice. Nice score.

Within days of buying a Ruger Accusport Bisley in 41 Magnum, I stumbled across a "brand spankin' new" Marlin 1894 FG 41 magnum. Gave my hand a friction burn getting my wallet out. Local dealer said it was in the rack for a long while, but no one wanted it.
 
#15 ·
Just picked up a 41 mag made in 1988. I've been searching a long time. How rare are these?
Here is a repeat post regarding the "rarity" of the 1894S .41 Mag., that I posted in another thread in Sept., 2016.


"A little story about the 1894S .41 Magnum. I bought one new in 1987, when I lived in los Angeles. A couple or three years later the NRA had its national convention in Anaheim, about 40 miles from L.A. I attended. There were many exhibitors there, Marlin Firearms being one of them. I stopped and talked with a couple of guys at the booth. One worked at the factory and the other was a regional rep for Marlin. I mentioned ny .41 Mag. and how much I liked it, being a perfect companion to my S&W 57.

They both asked me if I wanted to sell it? I said I didn't but then asked if they wanted one, why they just didn't go down on the factory floor, pick one up, do the paper work and take it home?

They said that Marlin only made 1,200 of the 1894S .41 Mags and they were mighty hard to find. Both gave me their business cards and said if I ever wanted to sell it, give them a call and they'd be glad to take it off my hands.

I still have it ... and my S&W 57. :proud:

L.W.
"

FWIW.

L.W.
 
#22 ·
They certainly are not common but I have seen far more 1894S models than the 1894FG. I wanted an FG and it took quite awhile for all the stars to line up before I got one. I could have had an 1894S numerous times. Curious if that 1200 total figure includes all .41 mags or just the straight stock version and if so, how many FG's were made??

Not my grail guns but they are at the top end of the list!
Wood Tree Shotgun Air gun Metal
 
#16 ·
How rare? Well here in the UK the only other one I'll ever see is when I walk past a mirror...only trouble is every lever-action shoot I lose 41 brass to the 44 shooters who can't tell the difference

If you can get a Merit Adjustable Iris for your Williams, you'll be set for all conditions.

With the Williams one can get lots of groups under 1-inch at 100 yards with the right pet load, I always use a very hard water quenched cast with Bens red lube. A couple days ago I got this group despite it being 6 degrees below freezing. Time was I'd be happy with that with a scoped rifle - the 41 is spooky accurate. You must not ever sell. Unless...


 
#20 ·
Great find. I see a Marlin .41 occasionally but they are way too high here. They are usually $1495. There is an unfired cowboy at most shows at $2700 and it never sells. I ended up buying the Henry to go with my Accusport Bisley, model 57, and Tracker. I was not into hand guns until I bought the Accusport. The previous owner had it tuned by a gunsmith and it made me think I could shoot a hand gun. However, I shoot the model 57 better.
 
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#32 · (Edited)
This is an older thread but it's a .41 Mag thread, so I feel no remorse in resurrecting it!

I've been working with this 1894S for the last cpl months...won it on GB for less than I thought it would go for..only 3 bids which may have been bogus bidders too. $1300 won it. The gun turned out to be better than described with zero wear to the metal, not even blueing wear at the lever joint, and none on the bolt races. The stocks are good as well, with just a pair of 3/4" marks at the grip. All of that means nada to me as I'm a shooter.

With the issue iron sights, and my handloads with Hornady's XTP, I can keep the first 3 or 4 inside two inches at 50 yds from an improvised rest. With the Williams FP mounted, the groups tighten to 1-1/2" at the same distance. I'm 73 now with dimming eyesight and noticed some NE-SW group stretching in most all of my
peep groups so, I've mounted a Leupold Alaskan (the 7/8" dia.one that's so right for any lever gun). This one is 4x and has really tightend things up. 50 yd efforts are now very close to an inch and 100 yds are less than 2". These are 5 shot groups too, shot in 85-90 degree heat so barrel heating effects are minimal for this gun...a wonderful coincidence for sure. The load is: 17.0 gr of Accurate #9 or current production Alliant 2400 with WLP caps in Starline Brass. See appropriate warning below....

In my .41 handguns, (a pair of Rugers and a Smith 57), I've had great success with both Lyman's 410459 @ 0.411" as well as RCBS' 41-215 LSWC at the same dia. I was hoping that the Marlin would throw one or the other into similar sized groups as the Hornady XTP....well, with some research, I found that as usual, Marlins in .41 Mag. have generous leades and one of our long lost members, Felix, recommended as large a cast bullet as the gun would chamber, (0.413" IIRC)

In my case, tho I haven't mic'd the leade, I found that my Lyman 410459 mold, would give me 0.411"-0.412" as cast from ACWW's + 2% tin. As this is my standard alloy for everything I cast, it was a happy day indeed. The Lyman 410459 is a plain based bullet, as you .41 aficionados are sure to know and I was hopeful that the new Marlin's Micro-Goove rifling would handle it without leading. As this is a long bullet and, according to info posted elsewhere and in this forum, too long to feed from the magazine in a Marlin, I chose to buy some Starline .41 Special brass for load workup with cast bullets.

To date leading's not been an issue with light plinking loads (6.0 gr of Unique for an est. 1200 fps from .41 Special brass). It's a great load for the gun, keeping the first three from a cast bullet prepped bbl. inside 2" at 50 yds, scoped. This load came from John Taffin, mentioned in his article on the .41 Special some years past. Feeding through the Marlin's action has been positive for the most part with only an occasional bobble as the bullet's exposed scaping band encounters the top of the bbl. extension. A little 'jiggle' of the lever easily chambers the round however and I'm happy with it at this point. (I've never needed a quick 2nd shot to finish off any of the steel plates or soda cans that are my usual targets.)

But going back to the Hornady 210 XTP, I found that Accurate #9 or 2400 with a 17.0 gr charge would keep 'em all around 2" at 100 yds. These loads, according to Quickload give me close to ~1700 fps. While Sierra's Infinity loading program (using the same Marlin model and bbl. length) gives this first combination 1550 fps, but either will be more than adequate for deer this season in KY's thickets here on our farm.

All in all the gun's a great addition to my addiction to leverguns, and I'm happy with it's performance...plenty of smack with the Hornady XTP for hunting and an economical practice/plinking load for every day use. The saddle ring, BTW, was added to replace the abominable "safety" inflicted on us by Marlin's lawyers.

As always, these loads were worked up for my gun after some serious consultation with published loading sources. If interested, you should check a GOOD, CURRENT manual, then work up your own.

Best Regards and BTW...both of the above combinations are first rate in my handguns as well. Rod

 
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