Marlin 917

Marlin 917 .17HMR is OK with some effort – OK, I bought this from a friend for $500 in 2012 which included a really nice Nikon scope worth about $400, so I effectively have a $100 rifle! At the beginning it shot like a dog, all over the place and if it wasn't for our .22 CZ 452 being so accurate at the same 50M would have thought I was rubbish. Eventually, in shear frustration I stripped the mount and scope and found some dope had installed them incorrectly and tightened the bolts/screws down like a gorilla with uneven pressure on the scope rings. Bascially the scope was moving all the time. So, after it was installed properly and zeroed in, it shot decent groups but the odd one still flew...? I noticed it was moving on the shoulder a tad as it did not have a pad just the hard butt, so bought a recoil pad-hey presto @ 50M it is now shooting a consistent 20mm group. And it stays in adjustment. I really like this rifle now and it is as accurate as our yummy CZ. Looking forward to zeroing it in at 100M and getting out there to see what it can do. stock checkering, nice weight and balance, light, accurate-now stupid magazines-really hard to load quickly, bolt action not slick/smooth/intuitive

Accurate yet unreliable – The marlin 917 is a poorly made rifle constructed under the ownership of Remington. The synthetic stock is unattractive but the bluing of metal parts is acceptable. When new, the rifle is a very accurate outfit but deteriorates exponentially over time. The trigger is unnecessarily heavy for the practical use of this firearm but this can be remedied. The action is rather stiff and in particular the ejector is problematic. Accuracy is good initially Unreliable and overpriced with a cheap and nasty feel to it.