We don't normally do reviews of full custom rifles. This is partly because these rifles are often out of the price range of most of us, but also because custom rifle makers come and go with the predictability of the weather. In this case, the rifle we’re looking at costs less than some of the factory rifles we’ve evaluated this year, and the builder has been making custom guns for almost four decades. Full disclosure: He's also worked as my personal gunsmith for about half that long, so there’s some trusted history here. That said, our most important reasons for reviewing this rifle is because of the surge of interest in lever-action rifles, and because the Dove Custom Appalachian Scout Rifle is one of the coolest lever guns you’ll find.
There's one other thing that's very different about this rifle compared to ones we typically review: It's a conversion that starts with a gun you already own. You send your own Marlin 336 to Dove Custom Guns, and they turn it into an Appalachian Scout.
Dove Custom Appalachian Scout Specs
Length: 33.75 inches
Weight: 7.06 pounds
Barrel: 16.25 inches (factory Marlin)
Action: Marlin 336
Trigger: 2.0 pounds (as tested)
Capacity: 4+1
Finish: Cerakote
Stock: Cerakoted factory wood stock
Available Chamberings: Any Marlin 336 chambering.
Price: $2450.00 (on your rifle)
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Dove Custom Appalachian Scout Overview
In addition to being an avid cowboy-action shooter, Jerry Dove at Dove Custom Guns has been building custom handguns since back before I was a rookie cop. He’s also a hunter who lives in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains where you need a long-range rifle about as much as you need an elk call. He devised his Appalachian Scout Rifle, which is really a carbine, to be ideally suited for those who hunt the rugged and hardwood-covered mountains that make up much of the eastern United States. Almost every hunter in these hills has a Marlin 336 in 30-30 Winchester or 35 Remington lying around, and that’s all you need to get Dove started.
Dove completely disassembles the rifle, goes over and smooths all the internal parts, and adjusts the trigger to about 3 pounds. Then Dove neatly softens all the sharp external edges of the action. He removes the barrel and shortens it to 16.5 inches, and then he modifies the action, barrel, and magazine tube, so you can easily and quickly take the little carbine down into two parts. Dove individually fashions and installs a steel block on the rear of the forend and barrel and modifies the magazine tube so you can slide it forward. Dove then crafts a special screw that attaches the magazine tube to the barrel near the muzzle. When you loosen this screw, the magazine tube slides forward out of the action, and this frees the forward part of the rifle that you unscrew.
Once Dove completes all the complicated machine work, he sands the carbine’s wood stock, seals it, and installs a Pachmayr recoil pad. Then the stock receives a Cerakote finish of your color choice. Similarly, all the metal work is bead blasted and receives a Cerakote finish. A fully adjustable XS Sights aperture rear sight and a white-striped front sight are added, along with Dove’s custom scout scope rail. Dove positions the rail perfectly so that you can mount a Burris 2.5X or 2.5-7X scout scope, or a red dot sight, and you can disassemble the little carbine—with the optics attached—in about 30 seconds.
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Dove Custom Appalachian Scout Shooting Results
Though on occasion you’ll find a Marlin lever-action rifle that shoots with near bolt-action precision, generally you can expect five-shot groups to range between 1.5 and 2.5 inches. Last year, when we tested the new 20-inch-barreled Marlin 336 Classic that’s being built under the Ruger brand and used a 14X riflescope, the rifle averaged 2.24 inches. This rifle did not shoot that well, but it’s barrel is 3.5 inches shorter, and we shot the rifle with a 7X scout scope. Of course, this is not a rifle made for shooting from sandbags anyway. This is a walking-around rifle configured for jump-shooting whitetails, busting bears your dogs have treed or that you see from your tree stand. And remember, this is a takedown.
The action was silky smooth and though the trigger had just a bit of creep, it broke very crisply at only 2 pounds. It’s one of the best triggers I’ve pulled on any lever-action rifle. At less than 34 inches long, it is a joy to carry around with one hand, and with a scout scope attached, it’s also balanced well for offhand shooting. This little carbine seems to find your shoulder all on its own.
In cowboy-action shooting, lever guns are meant to be ran as fast as possible. Dove realizes—like most factory lever-gun manufactures do not—that a 13-inch or longer length of pull on a lever gun is a bit long to allow the average-size man to work the lever comfortably and quickly from his shoulder. (A new Marlin 336 Classic has a 13.38-inch length of pull, for comparison.) If you’re between 5’8” and 6.2” feet tall, Dove suggests a 12.5 inch length to pull. You may think this is a bit short, but you won’t after you shoot this rifle. I’m 6 foot and I could run this rifle very comfortably and quickly from my shoulder.
We shot this rifle a lot because it was so much fun to shoot, whether on the moving-deer target or on various steel plates from 50 out to 150 yards. We did some of the shooting at close range with the open sights, and the handling qualities and snappy application of this rifle really shined. Everything worked like you would expect them to on a custom rifle, but given the carbine’s average precision of around 2.5 inches, realistically this rifle is best suited for shots inside 200 yards.
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Final Thoughts on the Dove Custom Appalachian Scout
Pros
Fantastic trigger
Smooth action
Extremely compact
Take down
Cons
Pricey
Not a tack driver
As conceptualized by Jeff Cooper, a Scout Rifle should be a general-purpose rifle, suitable for just about any task anywhere you might ask a rifle to perform. For several reasons, the Dove Custom Apalachin Scout is not truly a Scout Rifle, but you could consider it a general-purpose rifle for the region it’s named after. In the timbered hills and hollows of the Appalachians, you don’t need to reach out to 300 yards, and you don’t need a magnum for hunting or personal protection where this little carbine would also excel. And while a suppressor would destroy the agile handling qualities of this little carbine, a threaded muzzle would have added to its practical appeal.
If you had to purchase a new 336 with a retail price of $1279 for use as a base gun, then this full custom lever-gun conversion is not very practical. (Dove will convert a Marlin 336, 1895, or 1894 to a takedown—without full-custom finishing—for $1350.) But that does not change the fact that it’s one of the most portable rifles I've ever put my hands on. It would be ideal as a truck gun or as a rifle to carry around in your side-by-side. And, if you’re thinking about packing deep into the mountains, since it comes apart, it will easily fit in a backpack. Yeah, for a lever-gun it’s a bit expensive, but if you have an old beat up Marlin laying around—and most hillbillies do—Dove can turn it into one compact and very cool little carbine.
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