On opening day of deer season 2026, I ran into an issue with my beloved .357 Magnum Marlin 1894. The shot that I took should have been good but I couldn't find anything to indicate that I had hit my deer. I later setup a target at 100 yards and found the point of impact to be very high and to the left despite having confirmed zero a little before season open. This should not have been an issue. I made several adjustments ending with a good zero but after running a group to validate, I found that the zero had shifted again to the left several inches. I packed up and went home not wanting to waste more ammo.
I spent some time trying to find what was wrong. I made sure everything from the end cap on the Dead Air Primal to the Midwest Industries T1 mount was tight and they were. So far I have not found anything wrong. That said, I got a little froggy and decided that now is a good time to try an experiment.
I had considered that an LPVO type optic could be a good match with the cartridge and rifle but I had never liked the excessive overhang from short eye relief scopes and the short Marlin receiver. The red dot in the Midwest Industries mount, so far, had been my favorite iteration of the setup overall but I did sort of miss the Leupold Ultralight FX-II 2.5x fixed scope for hunting. I had been considering that the issue I may have run into with the red dot was a parallax issue and maybe going back to a scope would mitigate that but I didn't want to go back to the 2.5x.
For me, the red dot truly made the rifle fun for plinking but that's more of a magnification related thing. The 2.5x scope didn't have that same magic that I found with the red dot. For the distances I hunt with the Marlin, there isn't a need for any real magnification and the 2.5x detracted from the fun which is why I went back to the red dot. At that point, I just concluded that it was better to have no magnification for my build since I could do everything I wanted. I still stand by that. I had looked several times for a true 1x type optic. I looked at muzzleloader optics and prism scopes but I hadn't found anything that did was I wanted that was still being made or looked good on a lever action rifle. Maybe if the micro prism scopes had a longer eye relief to keep the body over the receiver, I would have felt different.
I had known that Leupold makes a variable power scope similar to the 2.5x scope. They are not the same but similar. Thinking they were more similar than different, I ordered a Leupold VX-Freedom 1.5-4x20 for experimentation. The Ashley Performance mount was reused for this configuration. It turns out that I was wrong. The Leupold Ultralight 2.5x and V-Freedom 1.5-4x are not very similar.
Once in possession, I found the VX-Freedom 1.5-4x20 is a little heavier by 3 ozs and a little longer by about 1.75 inch compared to the FX-II. The windage and elevation adjustment part of the body is slightly larger as well. This has the effect of being just a little bulkier which meant the super low DD rings used for the FX-II were too low. I would need a pair of rings to match the new scope. While trying to order new rings, I found that Leupold has discontinued both the Low and Medium DD rings and I had to do some hunting on the Internet for remaining stock. I managed to source both Low and Medium height. While the Low rings cleared the mount, the hammer impacted the bottom of the scope so I switched to the medium rings. The body of the scope can't be moved forward enough to compensate as the adjustment ring would impact the rear most scope ring.
The immediate downside to the new scope is that the rig weighs 9.5 pounds which is up from 8.99 pounds. That's a lot of weight for a setup that's only meant for under 150 yards worth of deer hunting and something that was supposed to be easy to carry around the Little Farm. I already know that it won't be fun to truck around with as the Winchester weighed around that in the Timber Scout configuration. Thankfully, I don't do much lengthy spot and stalk hunting these days but still. Admittedly, most of the excess weight comes from the Dear Air Primal which is 21 oz and that .6 pounds or so could be shaved off by dedicating a Griffin Armament Sportsman 46 to the Marlin. That's a lot of money spent to shave off a little weight, especially given that I could go back to iron sights for free and save even more weight. I may just do that some day to free up the Primal for other stuff.
To bring us back out of the weeds, I took a short moment to test the scope setup and it didn't go well. While the test was very impromptu, I was still having the same issue where the point of impact would shift and I would chase zero. This brief test was only at 50 yards. After burning through around 15 rounds, I concluded that I needed to stand down.
For now, my beloved Marlin 1894 CST is unusable. I do want to spend more time on it but spare time to experiment is very scarce these days. For the 2026-2027 deer season, I am considering my options.
My first reaction is to strip the rifle of all the goodies and put it back to stock then put it away but I think before I go to far, I should try a different cartridge to make sure it's not something with the ammo. I'll keep the Leupold in place for now.
I had truly hoped the red dot was an issue but I'm struggling with what could be causing this issue. It will take time and good testing. It's very disheartening as this is one of my most favorite rifles.
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