Marlin Levers still suffering from QC issues?

[Woogies]

I was all set to purchase a Marlin 336, until I started reading some disturbing articles about quality issues after being bought out. Does anyone know if these have been fixed?

Comparably how does a Henry stack up against the Marlin, performance wise?

 

[rmaisonp]

marlins vs. rossi

I'm looking at a Marlin 1895 in 45-70 but am hesitating with all the bad press they're getting. Anybody out there have any comments on the newer Rossi lever action rifles? They look very well designed and put together. Thanks.

 

[The_Next_Generation]

I am curious about this too, those darn 45-70s look too good to pass up!

 

[Texan Scott]

YES! Oh my, yes. I refused a Marlin 336 just this past month... the monkeys that run QC there failed to notice that the monkeys in production had dovetailed the rear sight into the barrel at a fair 10° clockwise cant. Idiots RUINED an otherwise gorgeous rifle. Still producing highly polished turds.

 

[jim243]

I can't say enough bad about Remington or enough good about Marlin, but a Marlington only God knows.

Jim

I did buy mine before production was move. In 35 Remington with polygonal rifling.

 

[mlw270win]

There are a lot of good older Marlin still out there for sell. You can still fine some good deal on them also. To me that would be the way to go. Good Luck

 

[Muzzlelover]

I was looking at a henry and the ONLY bad thing I've heard about it is a review from a Bass Pro Shop customer who said,"the linkage was to long so the lever would not come down all the way"I would pick a henry over a marlin any day.just my .02

 

[Coltdriver]

A pre buyout Marlin would be better, in my not so humble opinion, than a Rossi of any year.

I have an older one and its a very nicely done rifle, butter smooth action and trouble free.

The nice thing about a 45 70 is you either love em or you don't. If you reload they are really versatile. If you don't you are stuck with what you can get for ammo. Sometimes lower power loads are available, sometimes not.

I love to create a set of rounds with either 325 grain or 405 grain bullets that go out the muzzle around 1000 to 1200 fps. Very pleasant. I have some dead soft 405 grain rounds that come out at about 1500 fps and they are all the recoil I want. You can go higher but it gets darned uncomfortable fast.

So go find someone who only shot fairly hot loads, decided 45 70 was not their thing and get a reasonable deal.

 

[pps]

Every chance I get, I look at the Marlingtons to see how they look. They actually seem worse than they were a year ago.

 

[Fullboar1]

DON'T buy a new Marlin sight unseen I just bought my second new 1895SBL a couple of weeks ago. First one was a 2009/10 model (I think) and this new one is a Marlin made in the old factory but Remington owned just before they moved. I know the shop owner really well so he let me look through the half a dozen he had there. If you know what you are looking at you will see their is a big difference between the my older SBL and my newer one.

Henry's are a great gun but the problem with them are that they DON'T have a Load Gate so they are loaded through the front of the magazine tube which IMO is a PITA.

For the money I would look at a Rossi Rio Grand, I probably would have ended up with one of those only I need a Back up gun for my SBL and couldn't wait the 3 plus months for the Rossi to get to Australia. I Know a few guys with the Rio Grands (30-30 and 45-70) and they are a good gun for the money (probably better then the new Remlins). The Rio Grande in 45-70 weights at least a couple of pounds lighter then the 1895SBL and I liked that the Rossi also has a Big Loop and it has a 20" barrel instead of the 18-1/4 of the Marlin but the Rossi only holds 5 rounds (not 6 like the 1895SBL).

 

[GuysModel94]

Yes there are problems at Remington, just read a post about the Q.A. problems on the new 770's and some of the new 700's. To bad they have made such a mess of the Marlin's, i love my 1968 Texan in 30-30.

 

[tahunua001]

all the garbage you hear about marlins being junk since remington bought them out is just that...garbage.

the fit and finish went down hill a bit so they aren't quite as pretty under a microscope but they still function fine. my brother in law has a marlin in 45-70 that has taken every shoulder pounder home load he puts in it all the way down to pop gun balls and even improvised buckshot loads. it has never skipped a beat, malfunctioned or broke and accuracy has never slipped. I recently acquired a pre remington marlin in 44 mag and you cant even tell they were made in a different factory. one funny little tidbit, they both have the same aperture sight from factory. his has been purfect, mine had to have the screws for the front sight filed down to tighten it down enough that it doesn't wiggle. apparently remington builds them better than marlin did.

if I ever do buy on in 30-30 you can bet your high bikini bottom that I am going with a marlin 336.

 

[CaliCoastie]

Tahunua- they are garbage but they are improving. A week all I looked at a Marlin 1895 in 45-70, that was missing its tang screw. There was nothing holding the stock on and the shop said that was their newest Marlin. That being said they had a good looking Marlin 1894 in 44mag that was produced aster the buyout, that from what I can tell is fine (I wouldn't say fine until I cycled some rounds) that being said if I was looking at a new lever action I would look close at Rossi.
That's beside the point ok buy used Marlins until the price is out of sight.

 

[NYH1]

We bought my son a 336Y 30-30 Win. last year. It is a Remington made rifle. It was the only one in town at the time. It looked really good when I picked it up. However, the more we look at and shoot it, the more the front sight seems canted a bit. When I put ghost ring sights on my 336 35 Rem. that was made around 1992, they wouldn't work because the front sight was canted. I sent it back in 2008 to have it fixed and they sent me a new rifle. So I'm sure we'll have to send his rifle back too. The thing is, he wants it fixed and does not want a new rifle. I don't know if they'll fix his or just replace it. We'll see.

NYH1.

 

[DPris]

Tahun,
You could not be more wrong.
Two years running at the SHOT Show in Vegas I've seen new Marlins I wouldn't pay a dime for.
Seen wobbly stocks, wood to metal gaps filled by what looked like bubblegum, returned a .357 that was machined so poorly it was hard to look at, seen front sight blades tilted front to rear with daylight between blade & base, and so on.

Last week I saw two reject stock replacements at my gunsmith that were sent to replace reject stocks on customer guns.
Remington builds them better than Marlin used to?
Not from what I've seen, and I own older Marlins.

Others have reported leverguns that would not chamber, would not feed, had extremely gritty actions & triggers, canted front sights, etc.

There have been enough of these guns seen & handled by enough people since the Remington buyout to provide credence to the QC failures.
And those failures have been very real, acknowledged by Remington when they took several models out of production temporarily to revamp.

NOT saying the new Marlins are junk, just not what they used to be.
Remington should have had the problem resolved by now, they put quite a bit of effort into training & new equipment.
Hopefully the Marlins will get back to older quality levels.
Denis

 

[Bushpilot]

New Marlins are still full of problems. I've seen so many new Marlin lever guns with QC issues that I wouldn't even want to type enough to run through them all. The new Rossi/Braztech 45-70's look pretty nice, although I haven't shot one yet. I've been kicking around the idea of getting a new Rossi 45-70 myself. I personally don't care for the look of the Henry but QC wise I think they are a much better rifle than a new Marlin. I hope Marlin gets their QC issues sorted out soon.....

 

[mdauben]

all the garbage you hear about marlins being junk since remington bought them out is just that...garbage.

It seems you are basing this on a sample of one, while there have been litterally hundreds of first hand reports of significant defects in Remington manufactured Marlin guns. The Marlin Owners Forum, a site dedicated to fans of Marlin, had to set up a special section of the forum just for complaints by owners of new Marlins. Bad stocks, bad sights, bad actions. Certainly not every single gun is junk, but there are just too many reports of guns that should never have left the factory to just brush it off as internet hearsay.

I'm not sure what the current status of the QC from Remington is but at this point, if Remington fixed all the problems tomorrow it would probably be years, if ever, before the damage they have done to the Marlin name was repaired.

 

[Woogies]

I guess my best bet then, would be to look for either a used older Marlin or Winchester. I found that the Winchester felt much more natural and comfortable for me, it's a shame Winchester doesn't seem to make them anymore.

The Rossi and Mossberg I looked at, felt really cheap compared to the Winchester and Marlin. I do really dislike Henry's loading system...

When was the first year Remington starting making the 336?

 

[Al Thompson]

I recently purchased an older 1895. The new Marlins are definitely not up to the older Marlins in function.

 

[Grunt]

With all the reports of Remlins having problems, I would buy used long before I'd buy a new one. Even before the buyout, the Marlin levers I have (39A, 39M and 336) are all the pre-idiot button style. Never could stand the idea of a cross-bolt safety on an American classic, their legal department be damned! There was also a time I was thinking about getting one of the 1895 rifles but instead I got a pretty good deal on a Browning 1886 that was in mint condition so that took care of my needing a lever gun in .45-70.

 

[tahunua001]

interesting, today I went to walmart and a number of my LGS just because I was bored...handled every single marlin I saw...did not find a single blemish on any of them, apparently my LGS all must care a lot about what they put out on their racks.

 

[Texan Scott]

^ One would hope. Glad yours do.

 

[Nickel Plated]

The problem with Henrys is that no matter how well fitted they are they still look terrible. Tackiest guns I've ever seen.

The Marlins have been improving slowly but surely. make sure you look it over before you buy. The sticky action can generally be deal with using some sand paper and polishing compound. Think of em as kit guns. Require a bit of TLC to get working.

Check the date on all the stuff you read about crappy Marlins. Most of it was written 2-3 years ago.

 

[Texan Scott]

Except for stories like mine, which happened this past month... they are apparently still pushing a real stinker here and there... you can't TLC away a non-level dovetail cut.

 

[helotaxi]

I have a late production "true" Marlin and an early production Rem-lin. The Marlin is an 1894C in .45 Colt. Sweet little rifle that works, looks and shoots great. The Rem-lin is a 308MX that looks very good, is incredibly precise (factory Leverevolution ammo prints under MOA for 3-shot groups) and cycles perfectly...however, when they set up the new CNC machinery at the new plant, they got the action boring machine set up off by about a degree. With the factory irons, it's a total non-issue because both front an rear sights are on the barrel, but when you mount a scope, the rifle shoots 60" (yes, you read that correctly) low at 100yds. I ran out of scope adjustment before I could get it zeroed at 100yds with a DNZ mount. I switched to a XS Lever rail so I could use Burris Signature Zee rings and it took a .020" offset bushing front and rear with the rings about 5" apart to get a 100yds zero with the scope somewhere near that center of its adjustments. If the rifle wasn't otherwise great, this one would have been gone or returned in a heartbeat. From what I've read around the 'net, this is, or was, standard for the 308MX at least. I'd imagine that since the 336 uses the same action, it had the same problems.

ETA: All that aside, the 308MX put down a giant south New Mexico mule deer yesterday around 1