Just wanted to share pics of a couple of my "special" Marlin

[Dan 444]

Marlin 375 and 336ER

[Ranch Dog]

Very nice! Any plans to ever shoot them?

I had two ERs, one new in the box, and three 375s, one new in the box. Owned them all at the same time. I decided the NIB rifles where too nice for one reason or another and that I would not ever shoot them so I sold them. I've taken a lot of deer with the both cartridges. I sold the remaining ER last year as I had not shot it in about five years. No particular reason, just favored others over it. It actually was a very hard sale on GunBroker. Didn't get a lot for the very nice rifle but I guess the cartridge has just hit the end of the road and is now taking a hit on account of it.

[Model 52]

I have a Big Bore 94 in .375 and it's my favorite lever gun, particularly for hunting deer and black bear sized game.

But I agree the caliber is all but dead. I bought exactly one box of factory ammo at $46 for 20, mostly to give me a bench mark for reloads and at that price and with extremely limited availability, the .375 is a "reloader only" proposition. Unfortunately components are also very hard to come buy and I have only 80 .375 Winchester cases for full bore hunting loads as new brass is almost unobtainable. Consequently, it's also not an entry level reloading proposition as the .375 Win shooter ends up having to fire form brass or trim .38-55 brass and develop reduced loads accordingly.

The vast majority of my shooting is done with 500 .30-30 cases blown out to .375 (with 8.0 grains of Unique under a full case of cream of wheat) and cast bullets. The fast twist in the Winchester Big Bore 94 really rewards long heavy .38-55 cast bullets and it's great fun to shoot. I've always wondered bow well the micro groove rifling would work with heavy cast bullets in a Marlin chambered for .375 Win.

[Ranch Dog]

About 6 or 7 years ago I was in San Antonio and a Sportsman Warehouse was closing. I don't go up there very often and I guess this is a chain but it was closing up shop. Everything was reduced. They had a complete aisle row of bins that had contained brass, now most long gone. I walked down the row but not much to see until I was at the bin marked "375 Win". I pulled it out and there was 20 bags of Winchester brass marked $10/each. I bought them all and thanked the good Lord that not many folks have use for the 375 Win! I don't have a lot of pictures of my rifles without critters and not a lot of these models as they can from a period that Marlin was using wood that just did have a lot going for it. All five of my rifles where plain as a broomstick. They are quite the critter getter and I took them out desert mule deer hunting with me a couple of times as I liked messing with my bolt hunting friends that considered these "deep woods" rifles.

Here is a desert critter I shot in some wide open country at 35 yards with the 375 Win. It had come off a mountain into a mess of erosion ravines while following a doe. I dropped down into the ravines and durn if I was able to ease up on this brute!



This deer was killed the same day with the same rifle. One of the hunters on the place was up on a mountain and watched this buck bed down in a whitebrush thicket with zero visibility. I was coming up the jeep road and he flagged me down to discuss what he could do to get him out of there. I told him he was not going to come out of thousands of acres of brush unless we set it on fire. I asked him why he wasn't going to go in after him but he was not equipped for it with his Belchfire Mag and 6X20 something scope made for shooting across desert canyons. I showed him the 375 Win and cranked the scope down to 1.5. I showed him how to use the rifle, he had never handled a levergun, and told him when we saw the deer to just point the rifle at the deer with both eyes open while cocking the hammer and pull the trigger. It would be hard to describe how thick whitebrush is. So we waded in and I could see a yucca cactus up ahead sticking up through the brush. These desert deer love to lay up under them so we very slowly moved up to it. The deer was right under it and I liked to ruined by drawers when it came up as we where 15 feet from it. It was just the moment that I had convinced myself that it was not there. The fellow did good and dropped the deer with a chest shot on its first leap. The deer died in midair.



I'm willing to bet that these are the only two desert mule deer ever killed with a 375 Win in Brewster County, TX. I would also bet a bunch have been killed with the 38-55 Win but few in the last 50 years.

Here is another desert mule deer that I shot with the ER...

[Dan 444]

Very nice! Any plans to ever shoot them?

I had two ERs, one new in the box, and three 375s, one new in the box. Owned them all at the same time. I decided the NIB rifles where too nice for one reason or another and that I would not ever shoot them so I sold them. I've taken a lot of deer with the both cartridges. I sold the remaining ER last year as I had not shot it in about five years. No particular reason, just favored others over it. It actually was a very hard sale on GunBroker. Didn't get a lot for the very nice rifle but I guess the cartridge has just hit the end of the road and is now taking a hit on account of it.

Michael,
The pictures are actually from quite a fews years ago, when I bought them used, but in very good shape. Yes, they have now been shot and hunted a lot in the Adirondack mountains....they now sport a lot of heavy, but not abused, use. The bullets that I use in them are your TLC 379-235-RF and TLC 359-190-RF, both pushed by VERY stout loads of H4895. I spent a lot of time doing load development with these two Marlins and ended up with two very accurate, effective hard-hitting loads. Not as hard hitting and effective as the THE BEST LEVERGUN CARTRIDGE THERE IS.....444 Marlin! I couldn't resist.....OK, guys, I'm sure that you will share your input on my prior sentence.....

Dan

[Dan 444]

I have a Big Bore 94 in .375 and it's my favorite lever gun, particularly for hunting deer and black bear sized game.

But I agree the caliber is all but dead. I bought exactly one box of factory ammo at $46 for 20, mostly to give me a bench mark for reloads and at that price and with extremely limited availability, the .375 is a "reloader only" proposition. Unfortunately components are also very hard to come buy and I have only 80 .375 Winchester cases for full bore hunting loads as new brass is almost unobtainable. Consequently, it's also not an entry level reloading proposition as the .375 Win shooter ends up having to fire form brass or trim .38-55 brass and develop reduced loads accordingly.

The vast majority of my shooting is done with 500 .30-30 cases blown out to .375 (with 8.0 grains of Unique under a full case of cream of wheat) and cast bullets. The fast twist in the Winchester Big Bore 94 really rewards long heavy .38-55 cast bullets and it's great fun to shoot. I've always wondered bow well the micro groove rifling would work with heavy cast bullets in a Marlin chambered for .375 Win.

Oh my, that's a very nice Big Bore 375!

Dan

[Ranch Dog]

Not as hard hitting and effective as the THE BEST LEVERGUN CARTRIDGE THERE IS.....444 Marlin!

You've got that right! Glad to hear you have put those rifles to use with the Ranch Dogs!