Do you know the expression “everything old is new again?” In the firearms world there’s a very good example of this in the form of lever action rifles. With suppressor ownership on the rise it seems like people are slapping cans onto anything they can from twelve gauge shotguns to fifty caliber Desert Eagles to the super tiny Beretta Bobcat. Novelty aside, it’s the tried and true lever action which seems to have found a brand new life in this ultra-tactical world of the twenty-first century.
Some firearm makers have responded to this call with models coming right from the factory with various accessory mounting options, threaded barrels, extra adornments like paracord, updated finishes and more modern sights. One of these is a Marlin with a model dating back to the year 1894.
Doing something new with these older designs certainly dresses them up and catches the eye and the 1894CST hits this mark with a beautiful satin stainless finish and smaller parts done in what appears to be nickel. This bright metal is combined with deep black painted hardwood furniture in a fantastic contrast which will draw attention. The model I had to review took matters a step further with a matte black Midwest Industries aluminum M-Lok forend. Having a vertical foregrip on a pre-1900’s rifle may seem crazy but it works surprisingly well!
One of the big draws with suppressing a lever gun is that, like a bolt action, the action is manual so you won’t get gas in the face or extra noise from cycling. In addition, lever guns can be found in pistol calibers and they tend to hold a fair number of rounds. With this 1894 you can have a total of eight rounds of .357 magnum in the tube and the shorter throw of the lever makes for quick follow-up shots.
As I quickly discovered it is also incredibly fun to shoot!
Some time ago Marlin updated a bunch of their lever rifles to incorporate a cross block safety which the CST has, along with what strikes me as the most bizarre modern update I have yet seen on a lever gun: A QR code. The receiver is drilled and tapped with the back home to a more modern XS brand ghost ring sight, however the original dovetail cut remains near the back of the barrel which now has a blank installed to protect the grooves. The back of the stock has a thick but not too stiff rubber recoil pad which really mutes the thump of a magnum round, it’s very pleasant to shoot.
The overall balance of the CST seems excellent at six and a half pounds and even with a 16.5″ barrel it’s a handy and compact platform at 35″ overall. While the barrel is threaded I do not know what the thread pitch is.
At the range I found the CST to be crazy entertaining with .357 rounds giving a swift and satisfying push. Loading in a .38 Special makes it feel more like a .22 with a fraction of the sound and recoil, after the first round went down the tube I had to stop and laugh. You could shoot one of these in .38 all day long if you’re fortunate enough to find enough ammo. Because the .357 is a shorter straight walled cartridge compared to something like a .30-30 the throw of the lever is also shorter and smoother, thus less demanding of your hand.
The first issue I ran into was trying to load the rifle. Also not unique to the CSL, the loading gate is a steel tab which needs to be bent in order to slide another round in. It’s stiff enough that it can usually retain the last inserted round partway which makes it easier to load the next, though after the eighth round they are stiff enough that I had to use a spent casing to give the final round the last little nudge it needed to lock into place.
Another frustrating quirk is that the nose of the rounds are only controlled during insertion by your own hand which already has to overcome the tension of the loading gate and the spring of the magazine tube. Sometimes the nose of a bullet would veer off course and get caught up halfway inside of the receiver which can be a bit awkward to sort out. After half a box of rounds my hand was starting to complain.
Reloaders will be interested to know that the brass doesn’t take much of a beating through this action with the carrier neatly lifting each round up toward the chamber, but there’s a catch. If you’re turning the rifle to carefully eject the brass straight down then you’re likely to end up with a live round getting dumped out as well. Trying to retain brass in a controlled manner is rather clumsy, this is an action which is meant to be run swift and straight up. It’s also way more satisfying to run it like you own it, just know that you might lose some brass if you do.
The sight picture is another matter which confused me somewhat. I’ve used XS sights on a Remington 870 and absolutely love them but on the CSL they didn’t work out as well. In part this might be due to the front sight post which has a white line running the length of the face rather than up top where the eye’s focus should be. I found the CSL likes to shoot high, the further out the higher it seems to go and I do not believe they can be adjusted for elevation. The ghost rings would normally have been a selling point for me but the CSL does way, way better with a red dot sight. With a Vortex Crossfire I was able to drill bullseyes, the accuracy is there if you’re able to find it.
My last concern didn’t affect shooting any, it’s more of a personal issue. The triggers on these Marlin lever guns are quite good, zero take-up and zero over-travel with a very crisp and clean break. The issue is that there aren’t any springs on these triggers so they’re allowed to swing much further forward. This never became an issue while shooting but whenever I’d be looking over the rifle that floppy trigger was hard to ignore. Compared to the precision of every other component it felt a bit lacking. At least it’s holding true to the original 1894 design.
A quick word on the Midwest Industries handguard, as strange as it is to see on a lever gun I have to give credit where due. It’s lightweight, beautifully anodized, reaches about two inches shy of the muzzle and offers an absolute ton of M-Lok mounting options. As for that vertical foregrip? As strange as it looks I found that it really helped with the overall handling. It’s such a breeze to lock the rifle against your shoulder with the off hand and keep it in place.
The worst parts of the Marlin 1894CST have nothing to do with its performance at all. The rifles are a little on the spendy side and they are extremely hard to find. Both are unfortunate as these rifles are immensely satisfying at the range and they do an amazing job of combining old tradition with new construction and aesthetics.
