Another 45-70...

I was at a local shop taking a look at the used trade-ins. I've found that the best deals to be had on large caliber firearms is in the used section. People buy it after watching cool youtube videos and 1. don't realize how expensive the ammo is if you don't load your own, or 2. don't realize how much recoil some of those guns actually have. I've found some hardly used guns at prices significantly lower than new. Same story yesterday--talked the gunshop guys into giving me a hardly used marlin 1895 with a sling, down to $460. I figure that I will hack this one up and cut the barrel down to 16.5" and thread it for a suppressor/brake and throw a red dot on it.

Wow.  That's a deal and three quarters!

I just picked up a Winchester 9422M. I paid too much money, but I had to have it.

Got it to the gun cave and gave it a good cleaning. The bluing had been clouded with age-darkened oil and the stock drank up a lot of tung oil. Breaking down the lever, I found it still had the original packing grease without a trace of carbon. The bluing and stock now positively glow. The bore is a perfect as any I've ever seen. I'll bet it's unfired - but I'll change that RealSoonNow.

The Gun Shoppe got in an absolutely beautiful Weatherby rifle in .300 Weatherby Mag. Beautifully set up with a tooled leather sling and the Weatherby branded 3-9 scope. Probably from the early 60s. Never fired. Can't help but think it was someones dream rifle, meant for a dream hunt -- that never was... A beautiful rifle - but almost intolerably sad.

Guys, don't let your dreams slowly wither alone in a safe.

Out-freaking-standing! Was it a new Mariln (a "Rem-lin")? I've heard that Marlin's prior drop in quality has been fixed. I sure hope that's the case.

I'm not sure of the manufacture date, but I doubt it was made back in the "good ol' days" of Marlin.  I did, however, give it a good once/twice over and checked out the bore, the action, etc...  On some of the bad Marlingtons/Remlins, you can see bad tooling marks on the inside of the receiver sometimes the barrel.  Some of them have a really gritty action too.  This one looked good and felt smooth(er) than most--I only hope it shoots as well as it looks.  

I made the mistake of dropping by the cabelas the other day--I saw a sweet Pedersoli 45-70 which called out to me.  I didn't buy it, but it sure looked nice.  Price tag was around $1300.  Anybody know anything about the Pedersoli 45-70 levers?  Built for modern 45-70 loads? or more like BP and Trapdoor loads?