I was at the gunstore today pawing and drooling all over the 1894's and found two beauties. One was a new 1894c and the other was a used 1894cs. The difference was $50 but I found no other difference. Both looked new and had ballard rifling and were chambered for .357/.38spl...any hints on difference betwen 1894c and 1894cs?


thanks

Well first off,......... How big a boy are ya?


:D
Sorry I couldn't resist, gotta love the Roy "bygod" Mercer cd's.

Welcome to the forum, I don't know about your question, but have no fear there are a lot of Marlin profesors here that will have your questions answered in just a little while.

Well I'm not a Marlin professor, more like a backward student, but I think that the CS suffix denotes a micro-groove barrel. I have that very rifle and I LUUURVE it.

The "S" stands for safety and was added when Marlin started using the cross bolt safety to differentiate them from the old non safety rifles. Recently manufactured rifles do not necessarily follow that convention since there are no more pre safety rifles in the Marlin supply chain. My 2002 manufactured 1894 is marked 1894C on the barrel and CS in the literature, on the box and on the receipt.

Oh yeah... Get yourself back to the store and buy that new 1894C. A better bumming around rifle has yet to be made. Plinking ammo is dirt cheap to either make or buy. Light weight magnum hollow points will blow up vermin nicely. Switch to a heavy mag load with a good bullet and you can easily take medium game within reasonable ranges.

Thanks for replying and the warm welcome.

Well I'm not a Marlin professor, more like a backward student, but I think that the CS suffix denotes a micro-groove barrel. I have that very rifle and I LUUURVE it.

I thought that also...I checked and they both had ballard rifling.

There was also one there that was a pre-safety model. It was marked simply "1894 microgroove .357"

It was nice, parkerized metal, williams ghostring sights. I was leary of the aftermarket park, and it's action was a little rough. otherwise a nice LOOKING gun.


roy d

Get that 1894C!! You won't be sorry. I has quickly become my favorite and the first one I grab when I hit the woods for anything from Squirrel to Deer (up to 100yds). I thought the CS model was "micro grooved" as well...hmmm.

For $50 difference, get the 1894C. I've got the 1984CP and it's quickly becoming one of my favorites. This rifle is just too much fun to leave behind when I go to the range!

I just bought a CS, and it has the Ballard rifling. I personally would stay away from the Micro Groove if you're going to shoot lead bullets. I have yet to make my 1894 in .44 Mag w/Micro Groove shoot well with any of the lead bullets I've tried, but I'm still experimenting with alloys etc. Unless you want to test alot, go with the Ballard type rifling. I shot my CS with the factory open sights the other day, and used 125 gr, 158 gr and 180 gr bullets, both lead and jacketed, and they all shot well, given the sights. I'm going to replace the open sights with a Williams FP as soon as possible due to "old eye" syndrome, and I'm sure that the accuracy will improve.