Went Shooting Today

I had three goals: verify that the 6 round Mustang magazines work; verify that the Firestar feeds and ejects properly; try out the Marlin Camp Carbine that I have not fired in many years. 

Everything worked as expected.  I really should have looked over the Promag OE Colt magazines.  They are identical right down to the Colt stamp in the base.  No wonder they worked. 

The Firestar had been a concern after the last trip had one failure to extract out of 14 rounds.  This time, even using the Russian made Brown Bear FMJs which I have found unreliable on feed and eject in the past worked fine for three magazines.  Accuracy was only so-so.  See picture of bent support on the self-healing spinner.  But the spinner and ball did indeed do pretty good job of self-healing.   I was able to move the ball from 25 to 50 yards with the Marlin.

4" diameter for the spinner and the ball is a little small for a 2.75" barrel gun. They are cheap enough to buy the 6" versions. 

The Marlin was as I remember it.  No recoil and adequately accurate for 25 to 50 yard self defense. 

When I returned home to clean the guns, I found the Marlin filled with coarse grained powder.  I must not have cleaned it the last time shot it.  Unlike many pistols which will become ill behaved if not kept clean, the Marlin functioned perfectly.   Why did I not clean it last time?

Once clean, the reassembly reminded me why.  The AR-15 and even the slightly clumsier M1A are dead simple compared to the Marlin. 

Also, the LCM for the Marlin turned out to be 21 rounds.