Gun Review: Marlin 795

Hey guys, I will be reviewing the Marlin 795 today and show you the facts, give you my opinions, and then let you decide on whether this gun is worth buying/ respecting. This was the first gun I purchased and I have mounted a Barska 4x32 illuminated scope on it. Here it is:

This is a Marlin 795 semi automatic rifle chambered in .22 long rifle. It weighs around 4.5 pounds (that’s 2.25 Kilos) and features an 18” blued barrel, 1:18 twist rate, and is 37 inches long in total. This gun cost me out the door with the scope and a background check about $230.00. I have checked online and this gun with no scope can be had for around 160-220 dollars in virtual stores or stores.

 

The safety is a cross trigger button located right behind the trigger.

The magazine release uses a metal tension to hold in the magazine which I have had some problems with because it requires two hands to pull it out in the motion shown below. So instead to dropping the magazine with a switch it must be manually pulled out.

 

The bolt release is between the trigger and the magazine release.

The bolt features a “last shot” bolt hold system which holds the bolt open when there are no rounds left in the magazine.

 

 The iron sights on the gun are pretty straight forward small and accurate and adjustable for different aiming distances. This gun comes with a rail for mounting scopes on it, I’ve mounted a cheap $30 dollar scope on it and it has never lost zero after putting nearly 3000 rounds through it so far.

The trigger is nice and easy to pull which makes this gun very nice to rapid fire with.

 

This gun comes with a 10 round vertically fed magazine. I went to multiple gun stores in my area and no one seemed to carry any spares and fro a good couple months I couldn’t even find any online either! I just check recently and Cheaperthandirt.com is selling them now for around 12 bucks each.

The gun comes with two swivel mounts for mounting a sling.

Those are the facts now I will be saying my personal opinion of this gun. Some people will compare any gun to the Ruger 10/22 but in all fairness let me just base my opinion on how I feel personally about this firearm. I have had this gun for about a year now and I must say this gun is pretty dang reliable. I have never had one malfunction with this weapon other than striking the occasional dud cartridge. This gun performs to a standard that a semi-automatic .22 caliber rifle should adhere to. It is cheap, it is fun, and it is accurate. I’m not a great shot but I can easily shoot 6 inch groupings at 100 meters away. At 30 feet I can take the head off of a lizard, and can make a heart shot dead on at a quail. Quite Accurate in my opinion.

I do have a few complaints though:

When I do not clean the magazine/ bolt after maybe 200 rounds or so the area will clog up and the “last shot” bolt open fails to work every single time. This could be a cleaning error but may also have been a manufacturer’s error when they made the lever that’s supposed to open the bolt.

Also the magazine does not drop easily with the press of the magazine release lever. I requires two hands to pull it out, which isn’t too big of a problem with me as I do not wish to drop my magazines in the dirt, but it is hard to show friends how to take the mag out.

These are my only small things that I have a little frustration with this rifle other than that I love this gun. Cleaning is not difficult, it only requires 2 screws to be removed and everything can come apart and is easy to put back together without a bunch of weird maneuvers to fit everything back in. I feel this rifle is reliable enough to maybe hand it down to my child some day 10 years down the road.

Summary with numerical ratings:

Price: 9/10 -------- (probably the cheapest .22 you’ll find with great reliability)

Aesthetics: 6.5/10 -------- (it’s a nice little black rifle, nothing special, the magazine hanging out is a bit ugly though.)

Reliability: 9/10 --------- (other than the bolt catch failing catching the “no shots left” never malfunctioned)

Ease of Use: 8/10 -------( I think its easy but some people have a couple problems loading the magazines and working the bolt release)

Overall rating: 8.25

Overall a really great .22 rifle for the price. Reliable, Fun, Cheap, Accurate. What more could you need?