By lever-action standards ... this is a big game and/or a bear/self-defense rifle, and nothing else. But of all the lever guns offered by Marlin since the turn of the century, this is my favorite.

I am standing here with my twin 17-year-old great-grandsons. Tyler, on the right, is holding a Marlin 39A rifle I bought as a 16-year-old in 1948 and have, at his request, gifted it to him.

And with the heaviest .45/70 loads, you have enough gun for anything walking planet Earth. In 1881, Marlin was the first to chamber the .45/70 in a lever action rifle, and though it experienced a ...