Home Forums Lever Action Central Marlin 336 Lever Actions 336 marlins

What’s driving the high prices on these rifles? Used to be no one wanted them, now it’s like everyone wants one, $119 at the walmarks not long ago, wtf is goin on with the rage of got to have them.

Yellowstone. Seriously, we all noticed it. As soon as RIP and Kevin Costner became a mainstream hit 30-30 rifles swelled in price. Because the Duttons use 30-30's. And since a rising tide raises all ships the other traditional hammer leverguns have seen a bump too

As far as hollywood goes don't forget about Wind River and Jurassic Park.

Back when I was on FB and following a bunch of levergun pages I didn't see any talk about what rifles the Duttons were using, but I did see a lot, A LOT, of talk about what levergun was best suited for home defense, survivalist stuff, and such things. This of course stemmed from the relentless govt talk about banning AR15s and other semi-autos. Folks was figuring the levergun would be one of the last the leftists would try to come after but still be something with a fairly rapid rate of fire and larger mag capacity.

Naturally the choice would be the Marlins because they're the easiest to slam a red dot or other optic onto, and they're the easiest to junk up with aftermarket tacticool parts. We've all seen those and there is a huge market for it. Simple capitalism. Demand created, supply produced, price points affixed accordingly.

The other side of this was Remington selling to Ruger. There was a change there in how folks looked at Marlins. It was bad enough that there would never be any more JM's made, but now the Rem Marlin we had slowly accepted as the new normal was over too. Anybody that wanted one went and cleared out the distributors of what was left. That not only drove prices up on the Rems, but made the JMs skyrocket even worse on the used market.

Ruger saw all this crazy demand and jumped in the ring with rifles priced twice what they are worth (in my opinion) and people are buying them as fast as they can be made. The other levergun makers are just riding the bandwagon until the wheels fall off the demand.

The current economy adds to the price as well. Raw materials are more expensive, labor is more expensive (just to get people to show up), insurance has gone up, shipping has gone up, everything has gone up, and the end user pays that bill.

For the kind of money they want I’d rather spend a couple hundred more on a nice older hunt worthy Winchester 94, 86, 64 or 92.

I'm just glad I'm only lacking a couple calibers to round out my humble collection, all aquired before prices went nuts. Those two are "builds" anyway, and I already have one of the donors to put together a 375 Win. I'll either find the 219 Zipper someday or run across a local deal to build one with. Not a huge priority, just a "want".

Yes Jurassic Park (and Wind River to a lesser degree) really put the 45-70 on the map with the younger crowd

And all these fudds paying ridiculous price for them, unreal.

Yeah, pretty crazy prices on the Marlin 336s. Everyone needs at least TWO 30-30s!!

The Marlin 1895s prices are just as crazy. Anywhere from $800 to over $2000. Stupid crazy!

Btw, I'm getting ready to sell two Marlin 1895s in 45-70 Govt. One is unfired with Marlin tag on it and the other one is 90-95% (which I have never fired either-bought it several years ago at a gun show in Bozeman, MT). I'm including new Skinner sights for both rifles. I'll let you guys know when I post them for sale.

What's "not long ago", 50 years? lol
In '78 (my earliest reference book) a Marlin 1895 retailed for $210, a plain Jane 336 $145, same as an 1894.
By comparison, a 3/4 ton Chevy 4x4 had a base price of $6,127 at the time. Some of us are stuck in a time warp

What’s going on with Marlins is a little different from everything else. Was at a small gun show on Sunday. Two pre-64 Winchester 94’s in 32WS & 30 30 in good shooter condition $800 each. A Remlin 336W with that ugly hardwood stock $850 and a 1970’s Marlin 1894 44 mag in fair condition $1200.

I do remember when you could buy a brand new Marlin .30-30 for 119.00 but I can't say that I'd call the '70's "not long ago".

Poor boys used to use M94 Winchesters they bought at TG&Y or Kmart. The Glenfield 30-30 with a 4X scope was the next step up. If one was a rich kid, a 742 with see thru mounts was the way to go. Times have changed.

I bought my first centerfire, a new Winchester 94 and two boxes of ammo for $77 and some change. I think the rifle was $69. I think the Marlin 336 usually was about $10 more. About 1974?
Take care!
Rick

I don't know how much movies increased prices. I think a lot had to do with Marlin selling to Remington. People wanted the "real Marlin" not a Remlin. Not sure that's the reason or not. I ran into a guy months back that was buying all the Remingtons he could get cause they weren't making them anymore. Go figure???

I always thought the appeal of a 30-30 was that you could buy a repeating rifle capable of deer hunting with to normal woods hunting ranges and do it for not much money. Before Marlin went under they were inexpensive and most weren't interested in them anymore. I wasn't interested at 300. I'm sure not paying 1300.

Longmire and Yellowstone changed the demand. Hunters wanting a cheap rifle grab the Savage Axis. People buy leverguns now because they want them

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The anti-gunners and ban states have been targeting semi-autos and standard capacity magazines.
Leverguns fly under their radar and that is one reason for the uptick in levergun popularity.

That's definitely true too. That's why the Marlin rep told me they're working on a Marlin 1894 in 9mm Luger with 20 shot capacity

$124.95 is as low as I remember the Marlin 30-30

A pawn shop in town, just before hunting season, always stocked a long shelf of 336s and 94s for 69.95 back in the mid 60's. I believe that new ones were in the $90 range.