In preparation for an upcoming Appleseed shoot, my son-in-law bought a Marlin 795. With the Marlin rebate they can be had for about $100.

The rifle is a short barreled semi-auto with a detachable magazine, and a black synthetic stock. Studs are factory installed for detachable sling swivels. The receiver is aluminum and is dovetailed for scope rings. The issued sights are blade front and notch rear.

Understandably, the factory sights kinda suck. However, I live about 1/2 mile from a Bushnell outlet store, and a couple of years ago they had a sidewalk sale. One of the things on sale were factory refurbished 3-9x32 Bushnell rifle scopes...price $9.99. I had no use for a scope, so I only bought 2. I gave one to a friend of mine to put on his grandson's rifle. The other went on my son-in-law's rifle, last night.

I have a 50 ft range with a bullet trap in my basement, where I sighted it in. It took a bit of dialing to get it lined up with the laser bore sighter. Once lined up with the laser dot, I started shooting Federal Champion ammo to complete the process. When it was nearly on target, I switched to Aguilla Golden Eagle target ammo, which seemed to shoot to exactly the same point, within the 50 ft range.

Final analysis:
- Use medium height scope mounts for a 32 mm scope, unless you plan on removing the rear sight.
- Had one stove pipe which I attribute to it being a brand new rifle which has not been broken in yet.
- The empty-magazine action lock worked every time.
- It was shooting ragged hole 5 shot groups. which was as good as I could hold it.
-Overall, It is a nice little rifle for the Price.

Hector

Doesn't appleseed want you to use iron sights? I'm all for that myself, but I think they do a disservice to folks with vision issues in pushing iron sights to the degree that I (having read the prep docs) perceive them as a little overzealous.

My FIL just picked up a Model 60 in 17HMR, the trigger SUCKS but the rifle overall is pretty decent. He put the new SF BSA Sweet 17 on it, pretty interesting combo for $400. The trigger is a bummer, though.

Regards,
Brian in CA

When I went to the one in June, they did not care what type of sights you used. They do take a lot of pride in teaching you how to shoot "Expert" with iron sights, but they don't insist. Basically they say, "Bring what you have." If it's a scoped rifle they are quite happy to teach you how to get the most out of it. I think they realize it would be unreasonable to insist that only rifles that meet a certain criteria were allowed.

We will be going again in a couple of weeks. I will be shooting a couple of peep-sighted rifles, my son will shoot the scoped Ruger 10/22, my grandson the peep-sighted Savage Cub, and my son-in-law will shoot the Marlin 795. So, there will be a variety in just my family.

Hector

Well, my son-in-law took the 795 to the Appleseed shoot, 11/14 & 15. On Sunday, during a continuous downpour, he shot a 210. Over that weekend, I would estimate that he fired more ammo than he had his entire life up to that point. Cudos to the Marlin 795 and the Appleseed instructors for turning a relative nube into a marksman.

Hector