was in my youth. This Marlin 39A 22 gets shot only occasionally now but is fondled often. Even with all its “fleas” obliterated by the refinishing process, it still brings to mind many memories. I have had a few other Marlin 39A rifles come through the gun room door over the years but only a few stand out. More on those later. BACK TO BOLT ACTIONS Sometime in the early ’70s, before
At bottom: The author's first Marlin 39A, circa 1955. Middle: The author's son's first 39A, a Mountie, circa 1954. At top is Charlie Gillis' 1943/44 39A with its case colored receiver and lever.
lutely deadly, even in the hands of a boy. This particular Model 39A led a pretty hard life at my hands. It suffered through a lot of harsh weather, rough handling, little maintenance, a couple of bicycle crashes, and lots of vehicle time once I could drive. It never travelled in a gun case until quite recently. Quite a few years ago I had a friend who was going to gunsmithing school at the Colorado School of Trades. He called me one day to see if I had an
old gun he could use for a refinishing project. I had the perfect candidate in the old Marlin 39. Completely restored with great care, this old rifle was like new again. The rear sight dovetail in the bar- rel has a blank in place and the 39A now wears a Williams receiver sight instead of a scope. I don’t remember what hap- pened to the B4 Weaver. Hanging above the door to the gun room, the old 39A still looks pretty good today, although I often think I should have left it as it
we had kids, I found a rimfire rifle I just had to have … a Savage/Anschutz Model 164 in 22 LR. I had little that I wanted to sell or trade at the time so some serious agonizing ensued. The S/A 164 was in a gun shop in Elkins, West Virginia, five mountains to the west. At the time, I thought this rifle was one of the most beautiful guns I’d ever seen. With its Schnabel fore-end and cheek piece, it had a distinctly Eu- ropean look. And the trigger? Oh man, was it ever something! Finally, I decided to make the trip
to Elkins with some trading material and my meager supply of excess cash. My trading material consisted of a pret- ty nice Smith & Wesson K22 revolver which, at the time, I thought I could do without. The cash was minimal, but I thought it might be enough to help close the deal if the trade went as planned. Sometimes things turn out better than the plan, and the acquisition of the Savage /Anschutz rifle was one of those deals. I brought home the rifle along with a set of scope rings and a sling and, I still had my cash. Turns out the shop’s owner knew a guy who was looking for a K22.
The S/A Model 164 eventually
This is the breech of the Savage Model 1911. The cylindrical part of the breech is the butt magazine extension tube, with the spring-loaded follower visible. The 22 Short rounds are fed into the chamber from the magazine.
Page 20 Winter 2013
was scoped with a 3x Leupold and zeroed at 50 yards with Winchester 37-grain hollow point ammunition (my favorite 22 round to this day). This rifle killed a truckload of squirrels and some woodchucks over the years here in the West Virginia hills. At some point along the way, the rifle suffered through my scraping the varnish off the stock and giving it an oil finish. Accurate in the extreme, this was my “go to” 22 rimfire for a lot of years. After being superseded by some other rifles, it ended up going home with my son one day. The 3 power Weaver has been replaced by a variable Leupold and the Savage/Anschutz still serves both my son and his wife in the West Virginia squirrel woods each fall.
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