Hi All,

I took a quick trip to the gun range today as it was to windy to do the hiking/fishing trip I had planned with my family. My 10 year old daughter went with me (her first time) and was very excited about the experience.

My visit to the range took a little longer than expected as I helped a nice young couple sight in a scoped Lee-Enfield .303 British; the husband missed 2 bears at rock throwing distance last evening! He had the rifle scoped by a gunsmith last year and bore-sighted it but had never fired it until yesterday, DUH!

The new Marlin Papoose was very easy to assemble (put the barrel on, tighten with the wrench supplied), but the action release catch is new to me on a semi-auto rifle and will take some getting use to.

I was shooting at 40 metres with the factory iron sights, in a wild crosswind and my eyes are not what they use to be. Even with those excuses I was disappointed with the first few 5 shot groups from the rifle; about 4 inches. I also had one mis-fire (fired on second try) and one stove-pipe jam.

I tried a couple brands of ammunition but they were all about the same. Then after a short while the groups started to tighten up and by the end of the session I could cover a 5 shot group with a quarter! I think the rifle just needed to be "shot-in" a little bit because it is shooting "minute of grouse head" groups now and functioning without a hitch (as fast as you can pull the trigger).

The rifle seems to prefer sub-sonic rounds (both Remington and CCI hollow-points) which is good because this is what I hunt small game with. High velocity and Hyper velocity rounds all worked well (cycled harder) but were not quite as accurate.

CCI CB Longs shot OK (very quiet) but had to be cycled-up from the magazine by working the bolt like a straight pull bolt action.

.22 shorts did not feed or function at all and the firearm is rated for Long Rifle ammunition only.

With my vision I would really need to scope the rifle to test it's accuracy at longer range, but this reduces the compactness of the rifle so I think I will leave it as is; just add a black nylon sling.

I have been pondering filling the hollow buttstock with basic survival tools and construction a trap-door or easy removable buttplate but I think that is a winter project.

In summary, after a limited first try I am very happy with this Marlin take-down .22 rifle and can see the beginning of a long partnership.

Mike