It’s been a while since I reported on the Marlin Model 1894C – a piece which can be seen here. This was about a Marlin 357 Magnum lever action carbine I’d requested in 2018 – and which I didn’t receive until the first of this year.

It wasn’t Marlin’s fault; the shipping box even has an orange RUSH label. It’d been overlooked at the licensee’s – after having been booked in – and they found it during inventory.

The gun is a traditional blue steel and walnut carbine with a straight-wrist stock and an 18 ½” barrel. The magazine is rated for nine rounds of 357 Magnum – though I’ve yet to load it to capacity -- and the sights are traditional semi-buckhorn rear and a top-dot post up front (brass bead) – there’s a hood around the front sight and it has now come off of the rifle. The receiver is tapped for scope mounting. The recoil pad isn’t ‘grippy’ but it serves just fine.

I’d checked the gun for function and I can now report on a short accuracy test. From fifty yards, I shot five-shot groups using the factory irons over a range bag. As I’d noted some variation on point of impact from point of aim in an earlier experience, I put a card board Transtar silhouette target up and aimed at the center. I marked the groups as I went, finally using repair centers so I could keep track of the groups.

The trigger is firm, not quite ‘clean,’ but certainly serviceable. The groups more indicated my age-related visual issues than any issues with the trigger. I went to using the ‘corrected’ SSP Eyewear Top Focal Shooting Glasses. These protective eyewear/shooting glasses put the magnification near the top of the lenses – instead of a traditional bifocal with magnification at the bottom. I have two pairs purchased from the Gunsite Pro Shop, one interchangeable lenses in amber, clear & smoked anti-fog.

While the top magnification glasses helped the image of the front sight, they put a definite blur on the aiming point. The good news is that doing ‘eye sprints’ – changing focus from front sight to target for ‘scoring’ purposes – was out of the question. It certainly helped the accuracy.

Using some old-issue Cor-Bon 125 grain 357 Magnum, I tended right some and averaged just over an inch-and-a-half, without counting the called flier that moved it to about 5 ½”. Hornady Critical Defense 125 gr. FTX 357 Magnum put the ‘best three of five’ into two inches regularly. Federal Premium 158 gr. Hydrashok 357s put five hits into four inches including a called flier, with the rest crowding into 1 7/8”.

I’d already fired 38 Specials from the 18 ½” carbine; it fed them all. The Magnums likewise cycled through the action and mostly hit within 4-5” of point of aim. Moving that rear sight up one step would likely clear up all of the vertical disparity.

But it’s not my gun. Weighing in at around 6 ½ pounds, it’s light and trim while being very comfortable to shoot with 357 Magnum loads. It’s not a chore at all to shoot 38 Special loads through it. The just over 13” length of pull makes it comfortable for me and would be okay for youths as well.

With an MSRP of around $836, it’s a great farm, ranch and field gun.

-- Rich Grassi