My strong advice, having owned Marlins and a Howa, is to run as far as you can from a new (within the last 5 years) Marlin. Their QC and customer support is terrible now. Just take a look at their stocks for starters.
Try the trigger on a new Howa. You'll love it. Also, you can buy just the barreled action and put precisely the stock you want on it, along with other variations.
