This particular rifle's serial number puts it to an 1896 year of manufacture. It has a 26 inch half round/half octagonal barrel, with a half length magazine tube and a rifle forend with steel nose cap. It has a rifle butt, with a crescent butt plate and Marble iron sights.
A little bit on the .32 Winchester Special. The round could be thought of as a necked up .30-30. Like the "Thutty-Thutty", it was designed as a smokeless cartridge in 1895 for the Winchester 94. And because of the manufacture date, this rifle may very well be one of the first Marlins produced in this caliber (I can dream, can't I?!!) That said, the .32 Win Spl was an answer to an unasked question.
It offers no great advantage over the .30-30, but Winchester's thinking was as the mid 1890's was the begining of the smokeless revolution, there may be a lot of folks buying a .30-30 who still had a big supply of blackpowder. (At the time, parts of the US was still real cowboy country with supply stores far and few between) The 30 cal bore and 1 in 12" rifling of the .30-30 didn't lend itself to being loaded with B/P as accuracy suffered because of fouling after only a couple of rounds and Winchester discovered that a .32 cal with a 1 in 16" twist would work with B/P comfortably. No one asked for it, they did it just in case.....
The dealer I got it from reckoned he'd had it for 10 years. I have no reason not to believe that. Overall, the rifle had had a hard life. But seemed honest. It was solid and from what I could tell was in good working order. But, it was absolutely filthy! Apart from inside the action and bore, the external metal work was marked with crud, powder residue, finger marks and what ever else couldn't be identified. There is finish on it, proably around 60% bluing on the barrel and receiver, but the other metal work was a mixture of patina, blue, rust, pitting and crud.....
It was begging for a very light touch of TLC.
Firstly, strip down. Everything was either caked in or seized in dirt and fouling. But we got there....
Anyone who finds themselves with a similar proposition, best advice, soak everything for several days before trying to take down any further or clean up. This will save hours of frustration thrying to knock out stubborn roll pins. All the small parts and the bolt, which could be stripped, were dumped into a container full of WD40. A couple of times a day, or when I remembered, I aggitated to contained to swill the oil around. This is how much cr@p seeped out after only a day....
Before starting the clean up on the outside, I really wanted to get the barrel done for a "look-see". If it was knackered, there would be little point in carrying on really as as much a part of the collection it is, it has to be a shooter.
In the sunshine of the back garden (I'm only overlooked by one house from their top floor, and he's a retire copper who rough shoots!) I get to work. I give my usual cleaning routine but there's still a lot of "stuff" up the tube. Break out the JB compound!
An hour later and copious patches and compound, I start wth the JB bore shine. (I still haven't looked down the bore, thought I'd wait till the end and build up the antcipation! Another half hour and a wagon load more patches, I lift the barreled action to the sky......
NOT A MARK! Not one! Strong clear rifling and a bore that's not shiney, but reflective, all the way down! From the chamber end, from what I can tell with my untrained eye, the leade to the rifling has no or negligable wear! It's honestly like it had only just come from the factory. Initially, I had the horrible though that it had been sleeved, but it hasn't, it's genuine!
Here's the best shot I could take of the bore, from the muzzle end;
And the best shot of further down the bore;
And the best shot of the chamber end.....
Not too shabby at all!
Better post this so far before I lose it....
) These had been "repaired" with two big screws, one in either side of the wrist. And not to mention the dealers 10 year old stock sticker!
