I got lucky a couple months ago and was in my local store when they got a delivery of the two guns I couldn’t decide between; a Henry X and a Marlin Dark in .357. It took about two minutes with both in hand to decide on the Marlin. The polymer stock on the Henry felt like crap in comparison to the hardwood painted stock on the Marlin. Action and trigger wise they are both really smooth, crisp triggers. Balance of the Marlin is as close to perfect as you can get without a custom build; Henry is muzzle heavy. The stock on the Henry felt like it would flex fairly easy. Likely just an impression, but an obvious difference. Marlin is faster to point and acquire a sight picture, but both are good. Parkerized finish on the Marlin is perfect, looks fantastic, visibly better than Cerekote. Fit & finish is every bit as good as any JM I’ve ever seen, and I’ll put it up against any JM you like in overall quality. Marlin is on their game, and it’s a superb little carbine. I had about 3300 rounds loaded when I bought it, burned through those, and on the second trip around now. It’s been a flawless rifle; I ran 50 rounds of factory ammo through it, and reloads ever since with a wide variety of bullet weights & loads from warm to stout to “Holy crap those are Hot!”. The gun has eaten everything