500 Yards with a Marlin 94 (.357 Mag) and Malcolm 6X Short BPCR Scope

The Marlin 94 is a lovely lever action.
Billed at its release as “The Repeater with a Solid Top”, this rifle was immediate competition for the Winchester 94 (or Browning 94). The main difference between the two, aside from the intricacies of their particular actions, was whether the rifle was top-eject or side-eject. The Winchester was top-eject, and the Marlin was a side-eject.

The side-eject provided a few distinct benefits.
A solid top largely prevented rain, debris, and snow from falling into the action. This rifle was quite favored by hunters in the Pacific Northwest, where conditions could get quite cold. Any water falling into the action could cause the action to literally freeze. Hunters were in favor of an action that was less likely to freeze or gum up.
Added protection in the event of a hangfire or unintended explosion. A piece of steel between you and any unruly ammo was better than the absence of protection provided by a top-eject.

While the rifle was quite fantastic, it was intended for relatively short distances. The Marlin was often chambered in handgun cartridges, especially if those same cartridges were used by the six shooters of the era. [The model we’re using is chambered in .357 Magnum.] Handgun cartridges are not known for their ballistic capabilities at long range.

Even with the limitations of both a lever action and a handgun cartridge, we managed to push this rifle out to 500 yards. I wouldn’t call it reliable at that distance, but steel was rung multiple times.

We used New Republic 158gr Flat Tip

Zero: 50 yards
200 yards : +14.25MOA
300 yards: +28.25MOA
400 yards: +47.5MOA
500 yards: +68.5MOA

That’s a lot of drop! The scope wasn’t maxed out, but it was getting close.

Today’s scope is the Malcolm Short 6X BPCR (black powder cartridge rifle). It’s mounted up using the Marlin 94/95 mounting kit, so we didn’t have to machine anything. Roughly 18” long, with adjustable parallax. It’s built to slide under recoil, and needs to be pulled back before each shot.

Admittedly, I did forget to pull the scope back a few times. No harm to the scope, but it did play with my eye relief a bit.

Today was as much about having fun with the Marlin as it was about seeing whether we could push the rifle to 300 yards. We ended up going a ways past that, so I’ll consider it a success.

00:00 Intro
02:22 Zeroing
10:06 200 yards
12:04 300 yards
15:47 400 yards
19:44 500 yards
26:48 Chris at 500


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