Marlin differences

Chiappa, Marlin, Mossberg and non-Rossi Manufactured Pumas plus anything else with a leveraction.
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LDT63
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Marlin differences

Post by LDT63 »

I'm looking for a 45/70 Marlin and se ads for various different versions depending on when produced. Anybody have a link to a good rundown of Marlin production changes and what to look for in a usd rifl depending on when it was produced?
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Re: Marlin differences

Post by Archer »

What are you looking to do with the gun?

What do you THINK you want in terms of barrel length? pistol vs. straight grip? round or octagonal?

What kind of ammo do you expect to shoot out of it? Factory spec? Heavy loads/reloads? Jacketed or lead or a mix?

Do you want particular sights or optics mounted? Factory Irons? Receiver or Tang peep? Scope? Scout scope? Red dot?

I'm no expert on the Marlin changes. The .45-70 1895 was discontinued, reintroduced, the reintroduction ran a year with microgroove rifling then back to standard Ballard rifling. I've seen 'cowboy' versions with 18.5 & 26" octagonal barrels, full magazine tubes and straight grips. Various 'standard' models mostly with shortened magazine tubes. I own a SBL, that's the SS pistol gripped grey and black laminate with extended pic rail that bridges the receiver and the barrel. You can find about a dozen or more models on the Marlin site that were listed in the catalog when Marlin was last sold. https://www.marlinfirearms.com/lever-ac ... -big-bore/

The JMs were made in Connecticut. Remington bought the company and found the tooling was worn out and the blueprints had been altered to match the worn tooling. They moved production to ILION, NY and took about 3 to 4 years to get the guns reblueprinted and start turning out good guns. With the breakup of Remington all the lever gun designs and such was purchased by Ruger. I don't know how long it is going to take Ruger to start turning out guns. Remington (and probably Marlin before them) tended to put them out in batches so availability tended to be sporadic at best. Given that Remington reblueprinted the 336s, 1894s and the 1895s I would expect Ruger to maybe put out the 336s first since that's a deer caliber still in demand and follow up with the 1894s since the .357 and .44 Mag are probably more popular than the 45-70 and .444 Marlin if they even bother with the latter.

I really like the Winchester 1886 but the Marlin 1895 is possibly a little lighter and is a lot easier to run optics if that's what you want to do. Since my Win 1886 is a 26" octagonal and the Marlin (Remlin) SBL is 18.5" round barrel it is a bit hard to compare apples to apples.

I would advise an in person inspection with a fine toothed comb before actually purchasing one.
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