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

.
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.

For real?

I'm in.

There's the excuse I needed to pay the Ruger price.

I think they will sell a bunch of them in 9mm ,with all the restrictions on semi autos in chitt hole places with the available of cheep ammo will make it easy. plus for people with not a lot of experince in larger cal. guns

.
9mm in a levergun ?
Seems like it would take some clever engineering to make those short 9mm cartridges cycle reliably in a tube-fed.

It's not just a modern thing with the Yellowstone series. Lever guns and single action revolvers would have died after WW-1 had it not been for the proliferation of cowboy movies made from the 1920's to the 1970's. Our grandfathers were influenced by what they saw on the silver screen too.

At one time I had 12 different Marlin and Winchester lever guns. I liked them, enjoyed shooting them at the range, but from a performance perspective they are really lacking. When prices started creeping up, I gave one each to my kids and sold all but 2. I got anywhere from 3X to 6X what I paid for each of them. If I'd held out a little longer, I could have gotten even more. I thought the people who paid the prices they paid for mine were nuts then.

You mean like they figured out long ago with the .22LR?

LOL
I wouldn't equate those two.
22LR has a better shape and it's rimmed.
We'll see how they do with 9mm.

Yeah, hope they nail it because I want one.

Now that I think back on it he also mentioned the 45 ACP

The performance isn't lacking at all in the Woods. Yeah they're not Prairie guns but under 200 yards the performance isn't the problem I'll promise you that. And your Cowboy movies don't explain Savage 99 sales

Thought I'sd share a pic of one I kinda like, 1953 SC Box, hang tags and Marlin patch

Sweet. I had three of those

It’s simply more expensive to produce lever actions than ARs or Tupperware®️ bolt-actions. Used prices are driven by nostalgia to some degree, maybe TV, but also by the prices of new ones and limited availability, plus the expectation that older one will work properly.

I bought a decent used pre-safety 336 a couple of years ago, my first, and while it worked perfectly and shot acceptably well, it was as heavy as a couple of commercial 98s, and the finish was mediocre, just like the 1894 and a couple of 39s I owned before. My curiosity has been satisfied and I’ll stick to bolt actions, falling blocks, and maybe an AR or two. Hell, my Henry SS, a .357, is much better-finished, with seriously nice wood, and cost much much less than a beater 336 brings, about 1/2 or less than a new levergun costs. I suppose older Marlins from the 50s or thereabouts, along with Winchesters from the same era are nicer, and worth the price, but I think I’m done with all of them.

For most of my life they made a lot of sense for me and I did well with them. But anymore as the big northern woods I hunt matures I'm getting more and more opportunities beyond 200 yards. Of course since it is maturing I get way less opportunities but more of those are at long range. So I'm trying to wean myself off of lever actions and just become a bolt guy for the most part too

Hah! Based on the PCC market, nobody will want them unless they take Glock mags 😛

200 yard shots don't faze me with my .30-30. I've shot several deer between 200 and 250 yards and killed every one with a single shot but 250 is about my comfortable limit. The last couple seasons I've been hunting a new spot with longer shot possibilities {out to 400 ish} so have been taking one of my bolt guns. Last season I killed one at 285 with my .243 and the season before one at 270 with my 6.5 Creedmoor. The most amazing thing is both were killed with a single shot, no dialing needed and my crappy Leupold scopes steered my bullets exactly where I intended. That and the 270 yarder was killed 28 minutes after sunset, just 2 minutes before the buzzer without 2000.00 "alpha glass" or an illuminated reticle. Talk about miracles huh ? LOL !

During the off season last year, the DNR bush-hogged most of the head-high weed fields on the local WMA, disked them up and planted food plots. Now, depending on where I sit, shots can be as long as nearly 300, though the terrain might interfere with the view. Lost a lot of bedding cover, but gained the opportunity to watch a bunch of grab-ass activity during the rut. All things considered, an improvement, and I’m thinking the turkeys will like the new strutting grounds.

Previously, 50 yards was about as far as deer could be seen from the ground for the most part.

I've done 200 with my 30-30 but opportunities exist out to 300 where I hunt. It didn't used to be that way

I think you have to consider how things changed once Remington took over. Kinda like what happened when Winchester shut down. That set people to scrambling once they realized there wouldn’t be any more and drove the prices up. They’ve came down some since the frenzy but they’re never gonna be “like it was”. I bought a ‘67 Malibu Sport Coupe at a dealership in 1985 for $850 out the door. Unmolested, all original and in phenomenal condition. That’ll never happen again.

Multiple lever action platforms debuted at Shot Show 2024. What effect do you think that will have?

I picked up a 336 Texan straight stock Marlin with the 18.5" barrel today for $400 in 30-30 of course.

Year and a half ago I bought a n.i.b condition Remington 760, May of 1979 production, .35 Remington for $1500. Considering her performance, she was a bargain. SPOOKY accurate and makes lovely batches of chest soup.
Just picked up a 1981 production Marlin 336, also a .35 for $500. Haven't shot her yet, so jury's out on bargain status...
Also got a new Ruger/ Marlin. 357 Model 1894. Paid a grand for that one. FINE little carbine that I'd put up against any original JM I've ever owned or held. Polite on the shoulder, buckets of fun to shoot and ACCURATE.
Long story short, if ya want it ya gotta pay. Always been that way. Always will be...

You pretty much summed up my first days of deer hunting. I had to wait until I was 15 to get a .270 Win.
Before then it was shotguns with buckshot or slugs.

This:

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.

Ruger is offering Classics for $1300. NIB. Why not just buy a real nice used Marlin for $800? Marlins price is too much for me. I doubt they will ever make the Model 39A & M again and if so it will be $1300++.