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.
Has this problem 0f QC come about since Remington bought them?
