You fellas that live, hunt, and guide in Alaska, please respond.

On one of my brown bear hunts my guide used a Marlin with proper brown bear loads. My question is not about the power of a big lever, but the long term reliability.

It rained quite a bit on that hunt...

What would worry me, about a tubular magazine fed lever is, can/will you get enough water in the tube magazine, to freeze, and cause a malfunction.

Over a period of time has the magazine spring rusted through???

Have you had any other problems???

Carried my SS XLR last spring looking for brown bears, we had snow, rain, sun, you name it and I had no issues cycling or loading it. I hunted probably 20 days or so with it. I like this rifle so much that I sold my 375H&H and will be using it exclusively for moose and brown/grizzly bears and maybe even goat.

It has the WW Guns ghost ring rear and Williams front Fire sight, bear proof ejector, trigger adjust, and it was bead blasted as well. My smith wanted to chop the barrel but I wouldn't let him. Am rethinking that I may chop it to 22" or maybe even 20" but i'll make that decision after this years hunts.

I've carried my 1980's vintage Marlin for years in Southeast as well as on the Peninsula. I lived for two summers in Southeast in a tent with a wood stove and never had a problem. Since I had it coated with Black-T and put a Wildwest Guns "bear proof" extractor in it, it is especially foolproof. Jim

..,,.,.,,,.. I got rid of my blued Marlin before I destroyed its value ........I only know for longevity You can find no end of old levers in shops up here that are loose and unreliable ....... I think Phil works the p--- out of his levers , ask him ........
. Havn,t found anything nearly as reliable as a stainless Ruger 77 mk II ........
. Nothing even on the same page .... Closest is the p14/1917 Enfield and a true 98 Mauser with battle trigger and roll over saftey .

quote:

Originally posted by gumboot458:
I only know for longevity You can find no end of old levers in shops up here that are loose and unreliable ....... I think Phil works the p--- out of his levers , ask him ........
. Havn,t found anything nearly as reliable as a stainless Ruger 77 mk II ........
. Nothing even on the same page .... Closest is the p14/1917 Enfield and a true 98 Mauser with battle trigger and roll over saftey .

+1
Any lever action is going to need more field care to keep it in reliable condition, a bolt action rules when it comes to minimal field care in adverse conditions.

I think gumboot is pretty much right on. And from personal experience I'll say that it is not all that hard to wear out a Marlin with a lot of shooting - Brownings and Winchesters are much, much tougher.
As for weather proofness - that depends on the care you give them. Lever actions have always been viable rifles for use in Alaska.

Seems to me if a fella just really liked levers the Winchester/Brownings 1895's, with their box magazines might be a good choice.

I have always thought that a M-95 in either a 35 whelen or the 9.3x62 would make about as nice an all around Alaskan rifle as one could wish.

Phil,

What about the 405, with a good bullet like the 300gr North Fork or Barnes X?

The 405 with the bullets you mention would be a good choice for large bears and moose and since the rifles are normally used with iron sights anyway the steeper trajectory of the 405 shouldn't be much of a hindrance.

I just picked up a M94 in 356 Win, that I am planning on carrying while fishing, hiking etc., when I don't feel like carrying the 375 H&H, 9.3x62 or 416 Rem. Anyone with firsthand experience with the 356 and 200 - 250 grainers for brownies? Lou

Jaegers ,i have been guiding from a long time now ,and althoug i have an excellent custom mauser 458,i always carry my marlin guide gun 4570 while hunting buffalo,why because its easier to carry while long horsebacks rides in the sawmps,in the tall grass and i have had good results with it,but one time in a buffalo charge while hunting with SGRAVES of this forum ,i suffered a malfuction with GARRETS -MY FAVOURITE AMMO-i suspect due the round nose of it ,fortunately the buffalo has had 2 375hyh solids and a garret at that moment then SGRAVES put 2 more 375 with his MERKEL and one more 4570.

Did the Garrett not fire or did it not do the job? What grain were you shooting? I'm shooting the 420 gr Garretts and love'm!

I wish I could contribute here but I really don't have much expiriance with lever action rifles. The only one I own is my Mothers old M94 30-30 that I got after she died.

I guess the only reason I've replied here is to give Phil a thumbs up on the idea of an 1895 chambered for .35 whelen. I have to say that sounds like a really cool Idea.

quote:

Originally posted by Dr. Lou:
I just picked up a M94 in 356 Win, that I am planning on carrying while fishing, hiking etc., when I don't feel like carrying the 375 H&H, 9.3x62 or 416 Rem. Anyone with firsthand experience with the 356 and 200 - 250 grainers for brownies? Lou

.. Shoot soon and often and carry plenty of rounds for reloads ...

It's been awhile since I've read what the performance specs of the 356 win are. I know it's essentially a rimmed 358, but I thought it was loaded to lower pressure. That said, if it could push 250 rn's @ 2200 fps, that wouldn't be too shabby. Which IMHO would put it at least on par with a 30-06, not bad at all.

The original thread, all guns need to be maintained in a tough environment. I've seen the big bore levers used in coastal environs and they perform fine. I've also seen bolt actions fail. The weakness of many bolt actions are overly complex trigger assemblies. It doesn't take much moisture to either rust or freeze them up. Stick with the military mauser trigger win m-70 or ruger M77.

quote:

Originally posted by juanpozzi:
Jaegers ,i have been guiding from a long time now ,and althoug i have an excellent custom mauser 458,i always carry my marlin guide gun 4570 while hunting buffalo,why because its easier to carry while long horsebacks rides in the sawmps,in the tall grass and i have had good results with it,but one time in a buffalo charge while hunting with SGRAVES of this forum ,i suffered a malfuction with GARRETS -MY FAVOURITE AMMO-i suspect due the round nose of it ,fortunately the buffalo has had 2 375hyh solids and a garret at that moment then SGRAVES put 2 more 375 with his MERKEL and one more 4570.

Juan, Randy Garrett is a good friend of mine and I've shot a ton of his ammunition without failure. EXACTLY what happened? And more importantly, did you report this failure to Randy?

Gumboot and Paul, thanks for the great responses. Lou

I did a three year tour of duty in Kodiak. I used a Guide Gun pretty regularly in some pretty nasty conditions. I never had any functionality issues at all. I simply love the way the gun carries, points and shoots. It was a real pleasure.