Pistol caliber carbines (PCCs) are all the rage today. Why not? Yes, you lose ballistics performance but you gain streamlined logistics. Anyway, let’s recall that the original idea behind PCC’s was not to have a carbine that took the same mags as your Glock. No, the original idea was to have a carbine that took the same ammo as your Colt revolver. The genesis of the PCC goes back to the Colt Single Action and the iconic Win. ’73. A fella with a saddlebag full of .44-40 ammo could keep his rifle, pistol, and himself fed. Leverguns: the OG PCC.
I have a lovely Marlin 1894 in .357 and it’s a perfect companion to my GP-100’s. But…I wanted a little more horsepower. Time for a .44 Mag. And then I came across a nice Marlin in .44 Mag but it had one glaring little problem:
This … abberation… has no place on a rifle as otherwise magnificent as this old-style Marlin
A crossbolt safety on a hammered lever-action rifle is an affront to Crom, nature, and pre-litigious society. If you run around in the woods with a cocked hammer on your levergun you are, sir, a fool. It is no less and no more work to cock the hammer when ready to fire than it is to push an ugly, obtrusive crossbolt safety. This is why Marlins (and Winchesters) without the crossbolt safety bring more money than those that have them. So, you have an otherwise excellent, high-quality, Marlin rifle but it has the absurd crossbolt safety. Do you live with it? Slap an itty bitty o-ring on the ‘FIRE’ side of it to prevent accidentally setting it to SAFE? Or….do you….remove it.
Duh and/or hello…..you remove the worthless thing.
Several outfits offer replacement ‘plugs’ to get that stupid safety outta there. I went with this one which was suggested to me by fellow blogger Ryan. (How ya doin’, buddy!) It arrived today. Time for gun surgery.
First, know your enemy:
Know your exploded diagram as you know yourself and in a thousand disassemblies you will never be left with ‘extra’ parts. In this case, that v-groove is what keeps you from pushing the crossbolt completely through and out the other side of the receiver. There is a set screw, spring, and ball bearing that keeps it in place. Let’s get the stock off and find that set screw.
I think I can guess where to start looking. Under whatever crap that yellow stuff is, there lies our starting point. Let’s clean that crap out with a dental pick and get rolling.
Alright…back that thing out and be careful not to lose it. It’s tiny. There’s also a ball and spring in there. Get those too and don’t lose ’em. Once it’s out, push the crossbolt out the ‘SAFE’ side of the receiver (right side). You’ll be left a with a glaringly large hole in the side of your beautiful Marlin.
Take your replacement crossbolt and slide it in. You need to line up the little dent for the detent on the crossbolt with the hole for the set screw. Easiest way? Get crossbolt in place, look down set screwhole with bright flashlight, rotate crossbolt until detent lines up with hole. Firmly hold crossbolt in place and replace set screw tightly. Put stock back on gun and bask in the beauty:
And there you go. Not as pretty as if it had never had the stupid crossbolt safety, but miles better than still having it.
Hey, if you find this imformative or useful howabout kicking back a little something to yours truly?
Agreed on the uselessness of that lawyer button. Luckily my three Marlins are all 1980 and earlier. Bad as the Marlins buttons are, the ones Winchester desecrate the Model 94 with were far worse.
Yup, have a Winchester Trapper .357 Magnum with that infernal cross bolt. I try and ignore it as much as I can.
Beartooth Mercantile (online) has a saddle ring version, blued steel, that’s kinda neat. I like my AR, they’re fun and serve a purpose, but I still prefer lever guns.
I have a Marlin in .357, and I’ll have to dig it out of its secured storage to see if it has that “lawyer button”. I don’t recall offhand. I have often wanted to get some chronograph data on it to see what a PCC does with handgun ammo through a longer carbine barrel. Do you have any data on either .357 or .44 out of your carbines?
You need to visit this website: http://www.ballisticsbytheinch.com/357mag.html
If you look back far enough in American rifleman’s, there is a really good article about a fellow who converted Winchester 1892’s to .45ACP.
Something like 18 rounds in the mag.
A newly made Marlin chambered in .45ACP or 9mm would be rocking. A fixed tubular mag that holds 15-20 rounds would be a nice FU to places with detachable mag bans.
That safety is a comfort when you’re emptying the magazine to unload. In normal use, it’s just as effective to cock the hammer before taking a shot, but once you get back to the truck…
I just tightened the set screw to lock the ball in place to keep the safety in the off position. If you ever sell it you can turn it back into a lawyer lever in a couple of min. No cost for parts and looks like a stupid button enabled item.
Best regards,
Roadie
Yeah, I can see that….but , for me, it’s such an affront to common sense that I want that sucker outta there. Kinda like the stupid little lock on S&W revolvers. Yes I can choose not to use it, but I’ll buy a gun without it.
Original Precision is a veteran owned small business that offers an excellent lock delete plug kit for the Smith and Wessons. I took out the lock and installed the titanium plug in my 329PD and it looks great and functions flawlessly.
That modification is a big improvement. Safeties are generally an abomination. I make an exception for the 1911, but there aren’t many other exceptions. It’s a weapon, it’s not supposed to be safe.
For some off topic reason I’m thinking of a Ruger rifle my friend had 40 years ago. I’m remembering something like a 10-22, but chambering 44mag. Not the thing for fur hunting. He blew a fox in half with it, ruined the pelt.
Thats the old .44 Deerstalker.
Trivia: originally the US .45 ACP didnt have a thumb safety. The grip safety was thought sufficient. As the iterations went on (Model 1909, 1910, 1911) they added the thumb safety as an afterthought.
https://youtu.be/vgOicEVA4u8
Thanks for this CZ.
I finally got around to ordering up a stainless version for one of my marlins.
The .45-70 that’s going to Africa with me.
I was supposed to be there in late May this year. Oh well. Give that Kudu, Bushbuck and Gemsbok time to grow a wee bit more…