Gear Review: XS Rifle Sights

RF:

Sorry to hear about your Marlin 1894C breaking in half at the range last week.  I’ve been looking forward to comparing my retro classic lever hunting rifle to your Urban Cowboy Assault Rifle, something John Wayne might have carried in the classic movie “Tom Clancy’s: The Searchers.” Looks like my project is coming along a little better than yours, so far . . .

The XS lever rail and ghost ring sights for my Marlin were delivered yesterday, and I installed them today.  You’ve GOT to have Grizzly Custom Guns slap some of these on your Marlin! After hell freezes over and Marlin fixes the stock, that is.

It mounts tighter than a virg locks up tighter than Fort Knox, using the four receiver mounting holes and the rear sight dovetail and a bucket of Blue Lok-tite. The included dovetail wedge is a bit oversized, and it took me about an hour of very cautious stoning to shave it down to size.

But it was worth it: the Marlin’s original dinky short-radius iron sights are gone baby gone, and now I’m looking through a honkin’ huge ghost ring rear at a mucho-macho front sight post that’s got to be the Eighth Phallic Wonder Of The World.

The XS sights are so bitchin’, in fact, that I had to trade in my new Millett scope rings for some uber-pricey Warne quick-release rings so I can take off the scope and shoot the irons when the mood strikes. I was really hoping that the XS ghost ring sights would co-witness through the Leupold even though I’ve never seen that happen with a magnifying optic. I guess it’s impossible; the scope seems to focus ‘past’ the front post so you can’t see it. Bogus, dude.

But the Leupold scout variable scope still looks like it was made for this gun, so I figured I’d keep it.

The gun handles just as quickly with the scope as without it, which is really saying something. The scope is so low and forward that you can keep your cheek welded to the stock comb and put your eye in the big ‘sweet spot’, and the rifle still balances perfectly at the front of the receiver. The little Marlin’s receiver is so slim that I can twist the Leupold’s power ring by reaching my thumb and middle finger all the way around the receiver without moving my support hand from underneath the rifle. I can’t even do this with my .22!

My can of Chem-Pak Hunter Satin spray finish put a nice seal and shine on the fore-end wood, so it looks like my modern interpretation of the ‘Lever Action Hunter Classic’ carbine is nearly finished. Except for the shooting.

Anyway, keep me posted on how your Urban Cowboy Assault Rifle thing is working out.  I read somewhere that Marlin is making your ‘folding’ stock into a Custom Shop option since they don’t make takedowns any more, but they don’t want to pay you any inventor’s royalties on the idea so they’re going to sit on it for a while. Good luck with that.

In the meantime I’ll be sure to shoot a pile of your ammo through my Marlin, and I’ll even send you some pictures of all the fun I’m having. Oh yeah, thanks for the rifle!