Takes the Cake!

Now I have heard of some dumb ideas before, hell I’ve even had my share, but this one takes the cake. It appears as though John Bianchi and EMF have gotten together to create what they are calling the Dry Fire Model.

The Dry Fire Model is a pistol designed in all respects like a Colt SAA clone, but made non-firing to facilitate dry fire practice. Great John feels that the pressure of dry-firing on a SAA is to much and therefore this model is needed to give shooters something to practice with. Oh, by the way, it sells for $369.90.

Now, I can find a Ruger Vaquero new online for $450 and everyone knows that the Ruger is a tank and you could not only dry-fire to your hearts content, but send some valuable lead down range. But here is where it gets good. For $299.99 you can buy a Colt SAA Clone made by Cabela’s called the Millinium. For less then 15 dollars you can buy 6 snap caps that will protect your firearm from damage during dry-firing. So, for $315 or less you can have yourself a gun you can actually shoot. That just makes the Dry Fire Model plain stupid.

Uber Lever Gun

So yesterday I was reloading and while stuffing 200g SWC's into the 45ACP cases, my mind wandered to the Cowboy .45 Special and how it is about the same size as the ACP and how it can be shot from a Marlin. Then it hit me. One of the Marlin Short-Stroke specialists could possibly shorten a Marlin's stroke even more than is possible with the .45 S&W (Schofield).

So it might be possible to get a Marlin with an equally short stroke to a '66/'73 and maintain the shootability, strength and ease of maintenance of the Marlin and get the speed of the short-stroked Winchester clones. This would then be an "Uber Lever Gun". I could hear the cries of foul even before I finished the thought. The SASS community is gonna love this one. Will I do it? Probably not, since the change is irreversable without buying new internals and I don't want to send my rifle off, but I KNOW someone will try this.

UPDATE: Well, someone did do this. Adirondack Jack has one apparently, it is fast.

Shootability

PVR Main Match was yesterday and I continued my pursuit of Jedi Gunfighters everywhere.  Call me the Sith Gunfighter.  It was "one of those days" for me, in a bad way.  I started horribly and stayed there for the better part of the match until I finally cleaned up on the last two stages.  It had to be the syrup...

Since Judge was shooting B-Western, I loaned him my Marlin Cowboy and shot his '66 for the day, a gun that I admittedly should have bought myself, but that's old news.  I hadn't shot it since I put in the whisper springs and short-stroke kit.  They certainly make a huge difference in the rifle, I nearly knocked the butt off my sholder when I first levered, then I shot it like crap, oh well.  The thing I suppose I figured out yesterday about the '66/'73 vs Marlin '94 is that the former require a bit of practice and confidence to shoot.  They're kind of like driving a sports car, you can go fast, but you have to know what you're doing.  The Marlin on the other hand, is very easy to pick up and shoot relatively fast.

All in all, I think I prefer the Marlin for a couple of reasons.  The sight picture is better and the Marlin is easier to maintain.  When shooting the '66 or '73, you lose the sight picture when the hammer falls and you have empty shell casings flying in front of your field of vision.  As for maintenence, the Marlin is ultra-easy to disassemble and clean throroughly, on the '66 this is a chore, although less so on the '73 with it's inspection plates.  The carrier is the part that gets the dirtiest on the Winchesters and is hardest to clean, bad combo.

Judge brought up the buttstock on the Marlin being more comfortable and forgiving, as well as a better comb.  I don't disagree, especially with the former, but the comb is a personal thing to each shooter.  There's also the weight of the Marlin being less than a '66 with the huge brass receiver, can't argue that point either, but it isn't such a horrible thing.

All in all, I'm happy with the Marlin, I just know that it'll be forever marginally slower than a '66, but its a lot of fun to shoot and dead reliable.  Its just too bad Marlin doesn't make them anymore.