I recently bought a 1895 cb in 45-70 and after my first trip to the range i was looking down the barrel at the rifling and most rifles the groves between the lands are smooth but this rifle has lots of smaller grooves/striations inbetween the lands. Is this normal with the ballard rifling or did i get one that was rifled with a dull cutter?

Aren't alot of the new Marlins "Micro-Grooved"? I've never looked at the barrels of Marlins, but what you describe would fit "Micro-Grooved".

The new marlin lever guns don't have the micro-groove anymore. It's advertised as ballard rifling that only has six lands. This is supposed to be good for lead bullets which is what i want to shoot but a rough bore is supposed to cause increased leading and this looks like it was cut with a serrated cutter there's so many smaller grooves in between the lands.