Freddyfour,
Thank-you for the compliment.
I like them both for different purposes.
The Winchester: Outstanding fit and finish. The bluing is beautiful. You have to clean it from the muzzle unless you're good at disassembling it (I'm not). When handling the gun at home, it feels like the hammer on the Winchester is stiffer when you go to #### it. This is likely due to the heavy rebounding hammer design. Some people don't like the manual safety, and their grip can accidentally actual it. I personally have never had a problem with it so I just ignore it. It throws brass pretty far so it'd be hard to gather all of your brass with it.
If you load pretty insane loads, the Winchester is apparently the stronger action.
The Marlin: Sweet gun, a bit front-heavy with the octagonal barrel. It can fit one less round than the Winchester despite them being 20" barrels. So 9 rounds of 357...or 10 of .38. Winchester holds an honest 10 of .44 mag in the tube.
I enjoy the fact that I can field strip it and take clean it from the action. It's easy to take the Marlin apart, which is a big plus. I purchased a lever screw so that you can take the lever off with just a coin instead of a specialized screwdriver. So I can literally field strip it with just a coin. Brass ejects way more reliably and nowhere near as far, which is good for handloaders and those who like to keep their brass.
It's
much easier with the solid top design to mount a peep sight on top of the receiver.
The Marlin also has a shotgun-style butt pad that's flat as opposed to the curved steel on the Winchester, so it's easier to put a recoil pad on the Marlin...though the Winchester's is very comfortable and my 5'2" girlfriend can shoot it.
The Marlin has a cross-bolt safety, which some people do not care for. Doesn't bother me since I'm right handed.
One thing with the Marlin...apparently if you use it a lot, the sharp edge of the lever can wear a mark into the carrier and eventually cause it to jam. This can be fixed with some welding or taking it to a competent gunsmith, which is what I did.
I think the Marlin has the smoother action with less resistance. Though the Winchester's is quite smooth when you're levering it.