I just bought an 1895 cb and after my first trip to the range I was cleaning the barrel and with light shining from the breach end i was looking down the muzzle with a magnafying glass. Most rifles have smooth grooves between the lands but this rifle has many small parallel striations between the lands. It looks really rough. Are all marlin ballard rifled barrels like this or did I get one cut with a DULL cutter?

Welcome to the forum.

Shouldn't spend TOO much time looking down rifle bores. Some of them will horrify you.... yet shoot better than you can hold.

If the marks are parallel to the lands, they're from the rifling cutter. If they're 90 degrees to the lands, they're reamer marks from when the bore was cut, before it was rifled.

I'd shoot it before passing judgement. If it's rough, and fouls badly, that's what fire-lapping is for.

Good luck.

That's exactly where the expression "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth", came from. If you don't understand, I'll explain it fully if you ask.

All barrels rifled by a cutting, or ironing method, whether hook, scrape, or button, will look rough if you look tooo close! Only the S&W EDM barrels will be smooth.