I absolutely
love 30-30s. I've never owned a Marlin, but my first deer was taken with my uncle's Model 94. My dad's only deer were shot with a 94. After that first deer with my uncle's gun, I got a 94 and used that exclusively for quite awhile. Never lost a single deer with it. At one point, though, I thought I needed something for longer shots, so I traded it in on a Ruger 7 mag. I still have that Ruger and I love it, but I've regretted getting rid of that 94 ever since.
A year ago in February, the day after my son was born, I bought a brand-new 94 30-30 for him. I wanted that to be his first gun. Last fall, I went rifle hunting for deer for the first time in almost 10 years. (I had stopped gun-hunting for everything but pheasants and had been strictly bowhunting for deer, turkey, etc.) I thought about using my son's 30-30, thinking maybe he would like it even better someday if he knew his dad had used it to take down some deer, but I decided to leave it at home, still unfired. I had a great time hunting, but the whole time I kept thinking I would have had more fun if I was using a 30-30 again. I decided I was going to try to buyanother 94with a peep sight for next year. Preferably new, but I love the old ones, too.
Of course, I never got off my rear and made it happen, thinking I had all kinds of time. Plus, I wanted the 94 Legacy 26" barrel and I couldn't find any. Then, the news comes out that Winchester's Connecticut plant is closing and they're going to stop making the 94. It didnt' take too long after that to make ALL of the 94's scarce (and overpriced) - at least around here, anyway. Scheel's still has some, but they got them by buying them up from other shops and then jacked the price up sky high, so I wasn't about to buy anything from them.
Went home for Easter last weekend and ended up going to the gun shop around my hometown where my dad and uncles used to buy all their guns. As luck would have it, they had one used 94 Ranger left and it took me about 5 seconds to make up my mind to buy it. Can't WAIT to get into the woods with it this fall. I'm especially looking forward to using that new Hornady ammo. ( I already bought a couple boxes of it )
Anyway - sorry to babble on and on. I just had to chime in. There's just something about 30-30s. Ya gotta love 'em. To me, 30-30s - especially Winchester 94s (no offense to the Marlin gang) are like muscle cars and harleys;
if I have to explain, you just wouldn't understand. 