Home Forums Lever Action Central Lever Actions - General Remlin - getting their act together?

The way it was explained to me:
At the Marlin factory there were old hands that new how to assemble their rifles. When Remington and Marlin merged the old hands were lost. Marlin had poor drawings and I insufficient or in complete drawings. The first Remington Marlins were not so nice since Remington manufactures strictly on detailed drawings.
The new Remington Marlins are manufactured to corrected drawings.

There are few if any errors in the new rifles.

My first rifle was a Marlin 57 after a stint with a single shot 22. The Marlin was a 22 that looked a lot like Savage 99's. It was a very accurate rifle. The trigger pull was immeasurable. My dad, a mechanical engineer and a good gunsmith, was sure the safety was on. He wanted to send it back with comments. But my brother and I walked bean fields all summer and we wanted a lever action. So dad stoned surfaces and eliminated reverse angles and got the trigger to about 5 lb.
eventually the rifle shot hot powder back to the shooters eyes. I can't say I was impressed with old Marlin quality or design.

That's funny, I was always impressed with Marlins dollar value and I've probably owned 30 of them over the years. I currently have 5 and all have been exceptionally good performers. My 1992 336 in .30-30 will shoot honest MOA 3 shot groups with ammo it likes and has never malfunctioned in 24 years of regular use. My 1990 882 .22 mag. is the most accurate .22 mag. I've ever owned and I've had a dozen from several different manufacturers over the past 40 years, some of which cost more than twice as much as the Marlin. It has never malfunctioned or required repair with thousands of rounds down the pipe. My 1976 989m2 semi auto .22 shoots 5 shot groups under an inch at 50 yards and never jams with good qualty ammo so long as it's kept reasonably clean. I'd hate to try to estimate how many tens of thousands of rounds have gone down it's barrel in 40 years and yet the only part I've ever replaced is the synthetic recoil buffer. But hey, if there's one thing I've learned on the campfire it's that even though I started gunsmithing professionally in 1990 and am still earning a living building guns today there are many here whose opinions are FAR more informed than my own.

Not maybe informed, but definitely different experience. My first Marlin lever center fire was a 444. It was quite plain. I couldn't shoot cast bullets in it unless they were nearly inside the case. I shoot cast bullets a lot and cast bullets in a 444 would make sense, but not in that Marlin. Next Marlin was a 30-30 the cross pin that held the tube in place would bend until the tube would slide out. Later I found parts from a later Marlin that had a larger cross pin. That rifle is plain also.

To me Marlin JM's are a cheap cheap rifle. Granted they improved over the years, but I have not wanted to spend my jingle on them. I have an Model 64 30-30 and a Model 94 32 Special, both Winchesters. I like both. I still have a Marlin 30-30 but it's ugly in my eyes.

With this I just gotta ask, what was holding your mag tube spring plug in ? You know, that little screw that goes through the mag tube, through the mag tube spring plug and into a hole in the uderside of the barrel ? In my experience it'd be pretty tough to get the mag tube out with that screw in place and pretty unlikely to retain the mag tube spring if it's not.

It was the parts 28 and 29 -- from schematic from Numerich Arms. See above -- Part 43 would slide out and stop the functioning of loading. Also parts would fall to ground

But screw 46 that goes through part 45 and into a hole in the bottom of part 1 would still prevent part 43 from going anywhere if screw 29 were to skip it's slot.

The screw went into 45. It kept 45 from coming out of 43. However, 43 fell out of the receiver. Part 46 is on the opposite end of the receiver from 28. Thus the whole assembly slid out.
Before I could find the larger pin I tried several ways to keep that tube in.
Granted the new pin works and it is keeping the tube in the receiver.
I have the rifle on my lap and if you'd like I could take pictures of this assembly to prove what I'm saying.

I'm just saying that many of the early Marlins were not as good as later ones. The rifles have improved, but there was a lot of room for improvement. My model 57 was bought in the 60's or late 50's. That rifle had many problems.

The Remington Marlins look better (IMHO), they are made more consistently. The old Marlins were fitted by talented people but Marlin needed engineers to keep things consistant. They also improved the rifles by trial and error.
Again they had too few engineers for too long in my opinion. But that is my opinion based on my experience.
I have no issues with others that think the old Marlins were great. I don't.

Screw #29 does not touch part 45 at all. It goes horizontally through the barrel band {part 28} and through a slot in the underside of the barrel {part 1} and the upper side of the mag tube {part 43}. Screw #46 goes vertically through the mag tube
[part 43} and mag tube spring plug {part 45} and into a hole in the underside of the barrel {part 1}.

Sorry you are wrong. The screw does not go into the barrel. I will take a picture of this and post it. There is no hole in the barrel. No threads. No way to do what you say. Perhaps after you see the picture you will understand that Marlin was improving by trial and error.

By geezus I am not wrong. That screw goes through the mag tube, the mag tube spring plug and into a hole on the underside of the barrel, just like I said. You might as well remove yourself from this as you are clearly an idiot.

No hole in barrel, no way the screw can go into the barrel. Just another example of trial and error by Marlin if they had this screw into the barrel later.

You've either got the wrong screw in there or it's backed out several turns. I've had a bunch of these things from every decade from the 1950's to 2000's and have never run across one that didn't have a flush fitting, recessed mag tube spring plug screw that went through into a hole in the underside of the barrel.

That screw could very well be the wrong screw the original had failed and this one came from Numerich a long time ago. But, there isn't a hole all the way through to the barrel. I would have to drill a hole to get that done.

It's my experience that quality varied a lot. Also the engineering was poor on early Marlins.

I'm not happy with ones I've owned.

Like I said, I've never seen one that didn't have a hole all the way through the mag tube, the mag tube plug and in the bottom of the barrel for that screw. If that were my rifle I'd get the proper mag tube plug and screw and make it right rather than leave it goobered as is.

Still there's no hole in the bottom of the barrel for a screw to enter. Do you suppose someone replaced the barrel and put another barrel on that said Marlin on it?

I was thinking maybe some Goober shortened the barrel at some point and for whatever reason didn't drill a new hole after. What model does it say it is on the barrel ? Marlin made various models with 24" barrels in the past. Another possibility is that it may have been a half magazine model inexpertly converted to a full length. Whatever the case I'd make it right.

My point is that Marlin's rifles were not always that "good". I do have a 35 Remington model that I picked up that may be ok. I have not tried it out. The first one I had was sent to a gunsmith and he had a lot of work on his hands to make it right. The model 57 I had was filled with issues. trigger pull that was off the charts, powder being blown back into the shooters face etc.. This 30-30 lever action with the tube sliding out due to a weak cross pin (not the screw you want to keep bringing up)The screw has nothing to do with the tube sliding back. There is no screw into the barrel on my 35 Remington and there wasn't on the previous one. The barrel was not changed out. I through that out sarcasm. It is amazing to me that you will continue to try to make an issue out of this screw, when the problem was the tube sliding out. I replaced the weak cross pin with a larger one that Marlin evidently figured out the rifle needed.

It's not that I hate pre-Remington Marlins. It's that their quality (pre Remington Marlins) were all over the map. I blame this on individuals working on these rifles with little engineering support and drawings. A good builder built nice rifles. New or slack or maybe Friday builds were not so great.

Remington has straightened out these variations by providing drawings and standards. If there's issues with workmanship, it will have nothing to do with the workings of the rifle, but it will have to do with two things:

1. individuals building the rifle not paying attention to quality finish
2. lack of management review of quality work.

I believe that these too have been addressed, but on this I may be wrong. I don't think so though.

I hope you get over your 'screw' theory

Older Marlins were put together rather well. There is a period prior to Remington acquiring Marlin where quality was bad, especially towards the end. I bought a 444 Marlin in 2004 brand new. The screw hole for the front sight was drilled all the way through the barrel wall into the bore. Probably wasn't an end of the world issue, but regardless, I sent it back to Marlin to be re-barrelled. I carefully packed the rifle in foam so it would not be damaged or marred in shipping. Imagine my surprise when I got it back to find multiple scratches on parts of the rifle's metal when I got it back. I called Marlin and complained. I had them send me a new forecap and several other pieces so I could replace the scratched parts.

Go f*ck yourself then you rotten know it all bastard. There is too a f*ckin screw that goes exactly where I said it does. I've got my Marlin 336 in my goddam hand right now and I'm lookin right at the f*ckin thing you azzhole. I've had a bunch of these things and worked on a bunch more and know EXACTLY what I'm talking about. You on the other hand, wouldn't know how to judge the quality and design of a firearm if you had it shoved up your azz. Now STFU and go find somebody who gives a shyt about your ignorant, uninformed opinion cuz it sure as hell ain't me.

Ain't a Remlin made today of the quality of my 1948 336 A-DL. [img:center][/img]