Quality of Remingto-Marlin 1894's & 336's

[Charlie Martinez]

I own a Marlin 1894 in 44 Magnum & a Marlin 336 in 35 Remington. I shoot both frequently. Aside from a jam or two with my 1894 both rifles have been reliable & accurate. However Ive read that after Remington purchased Marlin they made a run of inferior quality 1894's & 336's.

I'm not concerned about my 336 because I bought it in the late 70's but I bought my 1894 fairly recently. If this is true does anyone know when this period took place? Is it possible to determine from serial numbers when my rifles were manufactured?

 

[Tommygunn]

I think within the last couple years Marlin has been getting it's act together. The use of old worn equipment by people inexperienced in using it was apparently the problem, but I think new equipment is helping.

Marlin may be able to date yours on the website via its serial number. You might try calling their customer service ## and see if they could help date it.
If you're shooting it and it does what you want, I'd say the rifle is good-to-go.

Last Tuesday I bought a Marlin 1894 "cowboy" in .357 magnum. While the rear sight appears questionable, it is driftable, and overall wood is nice and wood to metal fit is good, but not as nice as Miroku does (but Miroku is EXPENSIVE and the creme of the creme). My 1894 seems to feed anything well. Initially the action was tight and a bit sticky, but cycling it has smoothed it up well.
I'm happy with mine. I was able to handle and examine it before I laid down the $$$$ and I would recommend that to people buying a Marlin (or a Rossi) but I do think Marlin is coming back.
That I like; Marlin is a historic company with a good name. John Marlin was competing with Oliver Winchester back in the 1800s and I would like to see BOTH these names continue on.
Remington is another; with its problems, it seems it's future might be in doubt.

I wish you luck with your gun. Use it, shoot it, see how it works: "the proof is in the pudding."

 

[someguy2800]

I had an 1895G made a couple years ago that had a canted front sight, but was otherwise really good. I sold it to buy an 1895 CBA which I havn't done yet. I have been looking at some 1894's, 1895's, and 336's in shops recently and all looked to be nicely fitted and made. I would not hesitate to buy one.

 

[BigBore44]

For date on manufacture:
https://oldguns.net/sn_php/marlinlookup.php

The run of bad guns was something like 2009-2015. But if you don’t notice anything wrong, and the gun shoots well, the only real
concern is future resale value if yours falls into that production run timeframe.