Picking a second gun

[trickg]

I have a model 56 that I love. it never jams...

Model 56 or 59? I don't think I had a lot of problems with it - I know it was my go-to .22 rifle for at least 2 years after the Browning broke - maybe more. (By the time Dad got the Browning fixed, I was out of high school and in the Army) I can't imagine I'd have continued to use it if I was having regular problems with it - not with so many others there on the rack to choose from. I do remember having some failures-to-feed here and there if it go particularly dirty, but normally it functioned fine.

I'm not sure why I gravitated to the Marlin 39A. I didn't know enough about .22 rifles at that point in my life to realize that the 39A was such a nice rifle, and especially not a 1940s model. I think it was just the aesthetics of a lever action rifle. I always felt that the 39A would look better with a straight stock rather than the pistol grip stock, and if they'd have shaved down that fat fore-end a bit, but it still carried much of the same aesthetic of the Winchester 94 I liked so well. (I have that rifle too - manufactured in 1950)

That 39A got away from the family because my sister and her husband are dorks. We had to bid on the guns we wanted at the sale my Mom had for Dad's stuff, and there were two Marlin 39A's - one that had been plumb worn out and would spit powder back in your face, and the second one bought to replace it, which was the one I used. My brother-in-law had this hard-on for for the Marlins, and although I wanted it because I'd used it, I was already taking so many guns out of the collection I decided to concede on that Marlin 39A and let them have. They got confused on which one was which, and by the time I tried to bail them out by bidding on it, the auctioneer said, "SOLD!" I'm STILL bunt up about that, and that was 12 years ago. Finding a vintage Marlin 39A in the same condition that one was is next to impossible - NO ONE who has one wants to sell it.

Anyway, I'm wool gathering and straying off of the topic at hand, and that's Drickster's next purchase, which he already made.

It looks like that CZ Scorpion is going to be a lot of fun, although it will be more expensive to feed than a 22.

 

[Bountied]

Model 56 or 59? I don't think I had a lot of problems with it - I know it was my go-to .22 rifle for at least 2 years after the Browning broke - maybe more. (By the time Dad got the Browning fixed, I was out of high school and in the Army) I can't imagine I'd have continued to use it if I was having regular problems with it - not with so many others there on the rack to choose from. I do remember having some failures-to-feed here and there if it go particularly dirty, but normally it functioned fine.

I'm not sure why I gravitated to the Marlin 39A. I didn't know enough about .22 rifles at that point in my life to realize that the 39A was such a nice rifle, and especially not a 1940s model. I think it was just the aesthetics of a lever action rifle. I always felt that the 39A would look better with a straight stock rather than the pistol grip stock, and if they'd have shaved down that fat fore-end a bit, but it still carried much of the same aesthetic of the Winchester 94 I liked so well. (I have that rifle too - manufactured in 1950)

That 39A got away from the family because my sister and her husband are dorks. We had to bid on the guns we wanted at the sale my Mom had for Dad's stuff, and there were two Marlin 39A's - one that had been plumb worn out and would spit powder back in your face, and the second one bought to replace it, which was the one I used. My brother-in-law had this hard-on for for the Marlins, and although I wanted it because I'd used it, I was already taking so many guns out of the collection I decided to concede on that Marlin 39A and let them have. They got confused on which one was which, and by the time I tried to bail them out by bidding on it, the auctioneer said, "SOLD!" I'm STILL bunt up about that, and that was 12 years ago. Finding a vintage Marlin 39A in the same condition that one was is next to impossible - NO ONE who has one wants to sell it.

Anyway, I'm wool gathering and straying off of the topic at hand, and that's Drickster's next purchase, which he already made.

It looks like that CZ Scorpion is going to be a lot of fun, although it will be more expensive to feed than a 22.

It's a 56. Mag fed lever action with a short throw. Lots of fun to shoot, and there is something satisfying about kicking out brass with a lever action. Sorry you lost your 39.

 

[drickster]

man I've really enjoyed these stories and I can really see a 22 rifle coming at some point.

 

[trickg]

It's a 56. Mag fed lever action with a short throw. Lots of fun to shoot, and there is something satisfying about kicking out brass with a lever action. Sorry you lost your 39.

It is what it is - I saw a vintage 39A for sale at the Nation's Gun show a few years back and I hesitated - I think they wanted something like $700 for it. In hindsight I wish I'd have gone ahead and gotten it. Or, I suppose I could just get a new one, but the new ones just aren't the same.

 

[trickg]

It's a 56. Mag fed lever action with a short throw. Lots of fun to shoot, and there is something satisfying about kicking out brass with a lever action. Sorry you lost your 39.

It is what it is - I saw a vintage 39A for sale at the Nation's Gun show a few years back and I hesitated - I think they wanted something like $700 for it. In hindsight I wish I'd have gone ahead and gotten it. Or, I suppose I could just get a new one, but the new ones just aren't the same. Vintage 39A Marlins in good shape seem to typically sell in the $800+ range - at this point they are collectible. To me, it was just a really nice 22 rifle that I enjoyed shooting.

man I've really enjoyed these stories and I can really see a 22 rifle coming at some point.

A 22 rifle is IMO essential for anyone involved in shooting. Out where I grew up in Nebraska they were tools - until 1972 my family owned a farm, so you always had a 22, 30-30, or even a shotgun propped next to the door. 22s were used to keep rabbits out of the garden, rats out of the barn, pigeons out of the barn, etc. (using 22 with birdshot)

By the time I was old enough to shoot, we'd sold the farm and moved into town, but we had relatives with some property just outside of town to the north, and there was the local landfill to the south - both were accessible with a 10-15 minute bike ride, so a teenage kid getting out to shoot was pretty easy. At the landfill there was plenty of stuff to shoot, and up north, there were jackrabbits, prairie dogs, and a plethora of other things to shoot at.

This photo illustrates the kind of town I grew up in, and I lived smack dab in the middle of town - two blocks west of the main drag through the middle (north/south) and 7th street (numbered from the south) out of 16 - each city block was roughly 100 yards long and wide. The town itself is roughly a mile from north to south, and not quite a mile east to west. I marked the two locations with red arrows.

After my Dad retired, he built his own personal range at that property just to the north. It was mostly a pistol range shooting into a big dirt berm, but there was also a benchrest bench he built that was measured to 100 yards from the bench to the target frame. SO much different than paying to shoot at indoor ranges here in central Maryland.

 

[fidelity]

It is what it is - I saw a vintage 39A for sale at the Nation's Gun show a few years back and I hesitated - I think they wanted something like $700 for it. In hindsight I wish I'd have gone ahead and gotten it. Or, I suppose I could just get a new one, but the new ones just aren't the same.

I lucked into a 1971 Martin 39M that was NIB with the straight stock priced just under $800 this past November. The "new" 50-yr old rifle will be a bday gift this year for the younger son (though no official transfer/stays in my safe for now), so he'll get the first shot out of it.

 

[Michigander08]

What are those ground green circles? UFO farms?

 

[trickg]

What are those ground green circles? UFO farms?

HAHAHA! NO! Those circles are fields. Have you never heard of a center pivot irrigation system?

Here's the basic gist - there is a well drilled in the center of the field and on that well is a water pump. As water is pumped through the center pipe of the span, the whole system walks around the center pivot in a circle to irrigate the crops - typically corn, because corn takes A LOT of water.

 

[trickg]

I lucked into a 1971 Martin 39M that was NIB with the straight stock priced just under $800 this past November. The "new" 50-yr old rifle will be a bday gift this year for the younger son (though no official transfer/stays in my safe for now), so he'll get the first shot out of it.

Lord have mercy - that is beautiful!

 

[fidelity]

Yeah, couldn't resist. His older brother's first rifle was a Browning BL-22 lever action, so there is symmetry.

 

[Michigander08]

Interesting. I didn't see that in Iowa.

 

[trickg]

Yeah, couldn't resist. His older brother's first rifle was a Browning BL-22 lever action, so there is symmetry.

I like that a lot more than the pistol grip of the 39A. I'll have to include the 39M in my search.

 

[trickg]

Interesting. I didn't see that in Iowa.

Trust me when I say, there are center pivot system in Iowa - Iowa produces more corn than Nebraska. You don't see many of them along I80 though, so if that's your exposure to Iowa, it's understandable - it has to be relatively flat for center pivot irrigation systems.

With all of that said, you don't have to go to the Midwest to see center pivot irrigation - you can see them on the drive to Ocean City on the Eastern Shore.

 

[Michigander08]

Trust me when I say, there are center pivot system in Iowa - Iowa produces more corn than Nebraska. You don't see many of them along I80 though, so if that's your exposure to Iowa, it's understandable - it has to be relatively flat for center pivot irrigation systems.

With all of that said, you don't have to go to the Midwest to see center pivot irrigation - you can see them on the drive to Ocean City on the Eastern Shore.

I spent some time on a farm at north of Decorah, IA near MN border. Yes, it is hilly there. I guess they just pray for rain?

 

[Michigander08]

"Because of the state's usually ample rainfall, Iowa farmers traditionally have not turned to irrigation to water crops."

 

[trickg]

I spent some time on a farm at north of Decorah, IA near MN border. Yes, it is hilly there. I guess they just pray for rain?

That, they grow crops that require less rain, such as winter wheat, or they irrigate through other means, - center pivot is only one way of doing it, but it's an easy way of doing it when the field is flat enough for it.

"Because of the state's usually ample rainfall, Iowa farmers traditionally have not turned to irrigation to water crops."

I suppose that would do it too. Nebraska is known as being "semi-arid" - or at least it used to be. That means something like 10-20" inches of annual rainfall. in order to grow corn, it is essential to irrigate in the SW part of Nebraska. It's a shame too because they've seriously depleted the Ogallala Aquifer, which is one of the largest aquifers in the world. Since irrigation came into common practice in the 1960s, SO many rivers that were spring fed have just dried up. The Frenchman river used to be fairly decent flowing river and I remember it pretty well as a kid. Now? It's mostly a dry riverbed.

We had a hydro-electric power plant south of town with a dam and a lake on that river - we used to just call it the Light Dam. There was a spillway off of the dam that was just a natural spillway - it kept the river flowing. Off of the lake there was a canal that ran to the power station. A couple of years back when I was out for my 30th HS class reunion I went out there to see the old original land of the family homestead (my great grandfather had a homestead, just to the north and west of the spillway at the end of the dam), and all of that was completely dry - there wasn't a drop of water in that lake. All of that is due to the farmers pulling water from the aquifer for irrigation, and even with that the farmers are regulated on how much water they can pull. It's kind of sad. There's a theory that if irrigation was stopped, or greatly cut back, that some of those springs might once again flow, but for now, it's dry as a bone.

Sorry Drickster - I realize none of this has much to do with picking a second gun.

 

[fidelity]

Trust me when I say, there are center pivot system in Iowa - Iowa produces more corn than Nebraska. You don't see many of them along I80 though, so if that's your exposure to Iowa, it's understandable - it has to be relatively flat for center pivot irrigation systems.



With all of that said, you don't have to go to the Midwest to see center pivot irrigation - you can see them on the drive to Ocean City on the Eastern Shore.

Omg, I-80 through Iowa. Always needed to caffeinate when driving that stretch. It's like being caught in a movie loop. The scenery never seems to change. (I do like Iowa, lol! Some good friends there)

 

[Virgil Co.C]

Trouble figuring out the 2nd . Get the 22 a Ruger 10/22 . Then get ya an AR , do it soon while you can . Then get ya another pistol , find a deal get a 22 pistol , Ruger again , and another 9mm . At that point family is covered then you can get a revolver because there cool . Single action , feel like a cowboy ,Ruger again . Then , well that how it starts . Good luck at this point with me it’s always a tough decision anymore . But like I said I would go with 22.

 

[drickster]

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Sorry Drickster - I realize none of this has much to do with picking a second gun.

Lol do t worry about it! I’ve been enjoying following along.

 

[trickg]

Lol do t worry about it! I’ve been enjoying following along.

At some point, IMO, you should look into a Ruger 10/22. There may come a day when you don't have to shoot at indoor ranges all the time, and going out plinking cans and stuff with a 22 can be a lot of fun. Almost everyone I know who is into guns even a little bit has a 10/22. Even I have one - I decided to jump on that bandwagon to see what it was all about, and I haven't been disappointed.