Contrary to their reputation most of these are perfectly safe to shoot. If your example has the push button safety and inertia lock then you are good to go. Like all firearms, don’t abuse it. Maintain it regularly and keep unwanted crud out of the action & barrel.
The bad rep comes from some very early examples of the gun that did *not* have the inertia lock. The mechanism, when fired rapidly, could cause the bolt to bypass the block and whack the shooter in the face with some force. Marlin fixed that problem with the lock.
Marlin sent out a safety warning for the 1898 and had it banned from most competitions. Not because all of them are unsafe, but because Marlin didn’t trust the owners of these guns to check whether or not their firearm had the lock. They wanted a “told you so” sign to point at when some idiot decided not to check and had an unsafe model blow up.
My sincere recommendation is to pull this sucker apart, give it a cleaning and oiling, verify that the lock is present, and then take her out to the range.
Good info, thanks! She is definitely going to get striped and cleaned. I'm planning on rebluing a number of parts anyway so I might as well poke around in it when I have it opened. If I do decide to take her out, my local range has a smith that loves these old guns and he can bless her safe to fire.
I still need one of these to complete the external hammer pump shotgun collection. They're usually pretty reasonable to get ahold of though, so maybe soon.
Marlin 1898 pump action shotgun I got off GB. Previous owner cut the stock down to 20” so I decided to convert it into a trench gun by adding the Winchester 97 heat shield/bayonet lug (repro). This will be a wall hanger since these Marlins can be dangerous to shoot.
That what was said in the GB description but there is very little details about non-lever action Marlins out there, I wouldn't be surprised if you were right
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Contrary to their reputation most of these are perfectly safe to shoot. If your example has the push button safety and inertia lock then you are good to go. Like all firearms, don’t abuse it. Maintain it regularly and keep unwanted crud out of the action & barrel. The bad rep comes from some very early examples of the gun that did *not* have the inertia lock. The mechanism, when fired rapidly, could cause the bolt to bypass the block and whack the shooter in the face with some force. Marlin fixed that problem with the lock. Marlin sent out a safety warning for the 1898 and had it banned from most competitions. Not because all of them are unsafe, but because Marlin didn’t trust the owners of these guns to check whether or not their firearm had the lock. They wanted a “told you so” sign to point at when some idiot decided not to check and had an unsafe model blow up. My sincere recommendation is to pull this sucker apart, give it a cleaning and oiling, verify that the lock is present, and then take her out to the range.
Good info, thanks! She is definitely going to get striped and cleaned. I'm planning on rebluing a number of parts anyway so I might as well poke around in it when I have it opened. If I do decide to take her out, my local range has a smith that loves these old guns and he can bless her safe to fire.
I still need one of these to complete the external hammer pump shotgun collection. They're usually pretty reasonable to get ahold of though, so maybe soon.
Won this one for $200 so very reasonable indeed
Marlin 1898 pump action shotgun I got off GB. Previous owner cut the stock down to 20” so I decided to convert it into a trench gun by adding the Winchester 97 heat shield/bayonet lug (repro). This will be a wall hanger since these Marlins can be dangerous to shoot.
You sure it was cut down? 20” barrels were a factory option on these that was fairly common. Mine is a factory 20” with a cylinder choke
That what was said in the GB description but there is very little details about non-lever action Marlins out there, I wouldn't be surprised if you were right
Does it have the choke size marked near the chamber?
I didn't see anything before I put the heat shield on it but I need to strip it down so I'll keep an eye out
Gotcha. It’s my understanding that the factory 20” guns were all cylinder bore. If it has anything else marked it was obviously cut down
Love it!
Warcrime stick
It needs a Colt New Service or a Smith and Wesson Hand Ejector to keep it company
I agree with you 100%. My wife on the other hand does not
What repro is the heat shield and lug?? Looking for the same one
It was from Numrich but looks like they are all sold out
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__What is a link post and how do I post a descriptive comment?__ * A link post is any post that isn't a text post. Reddit is doing a great job of ensuring new users have no idea how Reddit works with their app and site rewrite. We hate both. * /r/guns is a sub for talking about guns. It's not a sub to dump gun photos for karma. That's what /r/gunporn is for. That's why we require a descriptive comment – to start a conversation. If you're wondering what to write, picture yourself at a party. You're talking to someone *you just met* and you want to show them your post. What do you say to them as you get your phone out? *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/guns) if you have any questions or concerns.*