Saturday, March 12, 2016

Updating Oldschool

Before he passed away, my dad gave me his old Marlin 81 .22 rifle.  Having sat on a rack for decades, it needed some maintenance and repair.  The rifle was easy, some adjustments to the feeding mechanism, replacing of the rotted 1907 style sling, etc.  The scope was a bit more of a challenge.  An ancient Weaver B5 style.  I found a service who replaced basically the entire insides and made it work like a charm.  I got it zeroed better and more stable than any other rifle I own.  Almost qualified Appleseed Marksman w/ it my first time through.  

Over the last few years, however, my eyesight has gotten considerably worse.  The tiny reticule makes it incredibly difficult to use and I love using this rifle.  So w/ some reluctance, I decided to upgrade.  Searching around for inexpensive .22 scopes, I chose a Barska .22 Plinker 3-9x32.  The reviews were generally favorable, the price was what I was looking at, and the larger reticule would be easier on my eyes.  It arrived a few days ago and today I did the swap.

This:





Has now become this:


 

Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to get out to zero it.

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6 comments:

Bob said...

My first firearm was a 781. Nice .22.

Joel said...

Sweet. And I totally get the need to update the scope to accommodate aging eyes. I had surgery on both of mine a couple of years ago to remove cataracts, but my once-strong eye is so damaged by glaucoma I can't use iron sights with it at all and seem too old to learn to shoot left-handed well. With a decent scope, though, I can still shoot.

On a .22, though, I question the utility of spending money on a 9-power variable. The better the optics, the easier the picture is to acquire.

Cookie said...

Love the leather wrapped butstock!

Roberta X said...

Who did your 'scope work? The scope on my Dad's old .22 needs the same treatment.

.45ACP+P said...

Time for another Appleseed to check it out!

Thirdpower said...

I 'think' it was these guys. It's been 10 yrs. since I had it done. http://ironsightinc.com/index.php?route=common/weaver