During the fall of 2010, the Marlin Firearms Company was moved from New Haven, Connecticut, to Ilion, New York, where it now shares a portion of the huge building that houses sister companies Remington and H&R 1871. For several reasons, this move has been painful for the company and for shooters. Several popular models have been discontinued, production is way down and overall quality is poor, while repairs and service have been impossible. At a seminar held last October, the company finally admitted the move “was a mistake.” Now, after a costly and extensive CNC retooling, developing new blueprints and adding a new engineering and production staff, Marlin claims it is on the road to recovery…
While quality and accuracy have always kept Marlin lever-action rifles in high demand, in the past couple of decades sales have been especially high, with production always sold out in advance. But all that came to a sudden stop in 2010.
Moving Marlin to Ilion, New York, proved a huge undertaking and cost the company the majority of its valuable employees, perhaps its greatest asset. New guns failed to function, wood to metal fit was poor, and overall quality was down. I obtained two new guns for the purpose of reviewing them in Rifle magazine, but after determining they were unreliable, I chose not to. Other personal guns were sent in for parts replacement but were returned with their timing/function being off, which had to be corrected at home. New Haven-manufactured guns have virtually disappeared from dealers shelves and are currently commanding a premium. On the other hand, New York guns, including those assembled from parts made in Connecticut, are not selling, and only a few select models have been available with the Models 1894, 1895 and others being out of production.
At the 2013 writers seminar, the company admitted that sample guns displayed at trade shows and on industry shoots were carefully chosen and were of New Haven manufacture to make certain they looked good and worked reliably!
With that said, the company has spent considerable resources retooling with CNC equipment, and engineers have been busy blue printing. The first production guns are the Model 336 .30-30 WCF. At the seminar I had the opportunity to examine and shoot one of the New York rifles manufactured on new tooling. It was a huge improve-ment over guns produced since the move, as fit and finish were hugely improved and it functioned reliably. Further comment is withheld, however, until a production sample can be obtained, fully disassembled and examined, func-tion checked and the rifle fired for accuracy at my own range.
As these words are written, the Model 1894 (in .357, .44 Magnum and .45 Colt) and Model 1895 .45- 70 are just beginning to be produced. Samples are on the way, which I will soon review, whether good or bad, in these pages.
Stuart
