When did Marlin get cheap on us?

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josh...just josh

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I've been hankering for a .17 hmr lately and have been leaning towards a Marlin. My dad has 925m that has a really nice wood stock with checkering; that rifle is great and really set a high standard for Marlin for me. So I went to the gun shop to look at a 917v and guess what, cheap, crappy looking, no grain, stock with no checkering:what:!! They had a 925m too, same story.. I went to a different shop, same story.. I thought that maybe they had different models (standard and deluxe) but on the Marlin website they only show one wood stock model. The picture at the top of the website shows a 925 with the nice stock, but all of the model pictures shows the crappy, non checkered stock. The stock is one of the things that Marlin had over Savage...
 
Marlin has switched to what is called 'walnut dip' yech. this happened proly 10 to 15 years ago. but you can still get diff stocks for them; 7 series, 8 series stocks, laminated stocks, etc. their synth stocks are ...mmeh... but they are better than savage. Don't let it bother you; the marlin 917 is the best hmr for the money going. You have to get a high end rig, to get consistently better accuracy. The marlin likes a really good free float, and then may or may not like a pressure tip up front, you just have to find out yourself, but they will flat out shoot!!! Like any marlin though, don't expect much from the trigger...
 
my dad's rifle is no where near that old, maybe three years. I'm sure that it's not real walnut, but it still is a lot nicer than what is sitting on the self right now. I think that it looks terrible without the checkering...
 
There are different models, with different stocks. One (983 in .22WMR) has a cut-checkered walnut stock. My 39A has a cut-checkered walnut stock with some nice figure on it.

Nothing looks worse to me than pressed checkering. Is your dad's gun cut?

That said, checkering isn't primarily done for looks, and that's about the least-expensive bolt .22 available in the US. What do you want, anyway?
 
I actually prefer NOT to have checkering. I hate checkering. I refinish all my stocks because other than $1k+ rifles and shotguns, I can easily put on a better finish than comes from the factory, so checkering just gets in the way and makes my refinish that much more complicated.

Upon refinish I've found beautiful figure/grain in wood that didn't look like it had any before. Give it a try.
 
I'm not sure what you mean. I just bought a walnut/blued 336C 30-30 last month with some of the most beautiful wood I have seen in a while. I also bought a 39A .22 with nice wood as well. My only complaint so far is I had to send my 30-30 back because the front sight base was canted to the left side of the barrel. :(

I already miss it!
 
well the 336c is an upscale model of the 336 so that makes sense. Cz's are a cut above what I want to spend too, but they are really nice..
That said, checkering isn't primarily done for looks, and that's about the least-expensive bolt .22 available in the US. What do you want, anyway?
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I don't think that it is too much to ask for a company to at least maintain the same level of quality. Companies keep letting their products slide and eventually they are all crap. Honestly I would have preferred to spend $30 more or whatever to buy a rifle that has the stock that my dad's has then to pay the same for the crappy stock that they are putting on them now...I know that it's cost Marlin at least one sale...
 
I agree, I'll never buy one of their rifles with the pressed checkering...won't even consider it. I will buy a Savage with the thumbhole stock in .17 before buying the Marlin, and I currently only have one Savage...many Marlins. True, it is costing them sales.
 
the corporate entity that own Remington did. Guns are doomed, the first sign of the apocalypse is the fact that Savage makes probably the best rifle manufactured and owned in the USA.
 
have you seen the stocks on the Savage 93r17's? they are even worse than the Marlin... it's kind of a gray brown and it's lines look like an air rifle
 
Maybe Remington can set them straight.
Click to expand...

LMAO. Yep, with Cerebus' bean counters now running the show I'd imagine Marlin is going to take a big nose dive in the next few years in Product Quality and in Customer Service. Remington has become a mere shadow of what it once was.
 
I have a old Marlin 25MN, that has the smooth, non-checkered stock. Yeah, it's plain-Jane, but BOY does it shoot. I own three Marlins, and they're all fine guns.
 
I'm not sure Savage rifles being good shooters would tip off the coming of the Apocalypse to me. I have a savage BTCSS in .223 and easily hold .90" groups at 200 yards with it out of the box. With some improvement to the bedding I've gotten .68"
I have an old (1968 or 1969 or so) Marlin 336 .30-30 left to me by my dad and I had always heard horror stories about .30-30 accuracy. The thing will hold 1" groups at 100 yards all day. It easily outshoots my grandfather's 1973 Winchester. So I'm not actually sure what constitutes bad accuracy in a .30-30.
I have noticed that in terms of materials, technology, build quality and appearance, most manufacturers are getting skimpy in general but I think more on their economy range of their product line. It's a get what you pay for kinda thing and most manufactures have a flagship product.
 
so I bit the bullet and bought a 917vs, the stainless one with a laminated stock. I just couldn't get over how the Savage's stock looked or felt. Now I have no one to blame for this but my self for buying it without looking closely enough, but this friggin $350 rifle has A PLASTIC TRIGGER!!! and the bolt extracter is made out of stamped metal...if this is what Made in America has come to then it's a said day for us all... shame on you Marlin for disapointing me again
 
i got the savage ...

high end one ,grey lam stock bull barrel ...stuipd mold line down the center of the trigger guard etc ...but A GREAT TRIGGER. RITE OUT THE BOX..TACK DRIVER.........
 
What do you want, cheap or fancy? People complain when prices go up, so they by cheaper parts to build their guns, then people complain because quality has gone down. What would yo do? Would you maintain quality and charge more, risking losing market share? Would you by cheaper raw materials, attempt to maintain functionality and kepp prices realtively the same? Its a darned tough call.

Commodity prices the last couple years have forced manufacturers of various good to make some hard decisions in order to stay in business, this is one of them.
 
Don't know about the quality---but the price sure has jumped.

Not all that long ago a 336C was $299-$350----------the ones I looked at yesterday were marked at a hair under $600----sheesh what happened there??
That kind of scratch gets me into a decent bolt action and a REALLY nice one for a hundred or 2 more.
 
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