Is It Really A Marlin?
BY Herschel Smith
1 year, 2 months ago
“We’re mighty proud of it,” said Mark Gurney. “But it’s not a Ruger Marlin. It’s a Marlin.”
[ … ]
In July, 2020, Remington filed for its second Chapter 11 bankruptcy in two years. That fall, Judge Clifton R. Jessup, Jr. of the Northern District of Alabama approved the sale of Remington’s non-Marlin firearms business to the Roundhill Group for $13 million. Ruger got Marlin for $28.3 million.
Ruger’s intent? Use lean manufacturing methods to build traditional Marlin lever rifles to original or higher standards of quality. Quite a task! Ruger CEO Chris Killoy and VP Mickey Wilson had visited Ilion before 2020’s auction. A prompt move was imperative; winter was in the wings. Ruger’s engineers arrived to plan extraction of 40,000-lb. loads, take the measure of tooling to be transferred and ready it for the 650-mile journey. The destination was Ruger’s Mayodan, N.C. plant, where the company builds most of its bolt-action American rifles and its AR-556.
In November, Darryl Freeman, facilities chief at Mayodan, kept decommissioning crews working overtime to accomplish a two-month job in one. They did — finishing December 9 just as snow came to Ilion. The 150 tractor-trailer loads included 450-odd pallets of unfinished and out-of-spec parts. At its new digs, Marlin would be assigned a 105×180-foot cell bringing parts in a compact loop through 53 steps in lever-rifle manufacture. Materials would be fed and people stationed to make the most efficient use of space and movement.
Bruce Rozum, whom I knew when he’d headed R&D at Marlin, had moved to Ruger’s Newport, NH as chief engineer. Now he tapped North Haven’s auto-CAD drawings to design a hybrid production model holding CNC tolerances of 0.002″ on a rifle developed 125 years ago.
I remember this, and honestly I simply do not get the sentiment that it’s a Marlin, not a Ruger. I cannot fathom why the Marlin brand would not want to be associated with a great firearms manufacturer like Ruger, and I also cannot fathom why Ruger wouldn’t get a great deal of credit for having the vision to bring back the Marlin brand, make it better, and give customers what they wanted.
It’s a Ruger Marlin. That’s good enough for me.
On August 24, 2023 at 5:08 am, jrg said:
I’m very glad to hear the demise of a brand new American lever action isn’t here yet, but my soul – a grand for such a gun hurts my flinty heart ! Now if it were a brand new Savage 99, I might have different feelings, but a thutty-thutty is still a bit too much.
Maybe I am in the minority. I remember pawn shops with used lever deer rifles for around $200. I’m still too close to that.
On August 24, 2023 at 1:19 pm, Porkpie said:
Heritage.
Marlin had been in the gun business for almost half a century before Bill Ruger was born. They contributed to the Allied effort in two World Wars before Ruger came into existence. It wasn’t from the inherent qualities of their firearms but from bad management that Marlin found itself in the ignominious position of needing to be rescued by Sturm, Ruger & Co.
I’ve owned 1911s with roll marks indicating they were manufactured by Ithaca, Remington Rand, Springfield, Savage, and Dan Wesson, but I never dared address any of them as anything but a “Colt.”
On August 24, 2023 at 2:13 pm, Herschel Smith said:
Yeah, but you answered it yourself. Their heritage includes bad management and having to sell overseas to folks who didn’t care about quality.
On August 24, 2023 at 6:03 pm, X said:
“Judge Clifton R. Jessup, Jr. of the Northern District of Alabama approved the sale of Remington’s non-Marlin firearms business to the Roundhill Group for $13 million. Ruger got Marlin for $28.3 million.”
Incredible that the Marlin brand sold for over twice what the Remington brand did. Incredible that the Remington brand was only worth a piddling $13 million with designs like the 700, 7, 1100 and 870. Now that every blue state has an assault weapons ban you’d think it would be profitable to sell 7600s and 7400s. But nope… apparently not.
On August 25, 2023 at 9:13 am, Andrew said:
1K for a levergun.
Figure that’s the going rate nowadays with the depreciated dollar.
It’s got a lot more moving parts than something Bolt Action, and is even more complicated than a pump shotgun.
Even with modern production this won’t be a cheap item, it’s not imported from countries with cheap labor either.
There.
That’s my “spiel” as someone who has owned a few Marlin 336 rifles over the years.
Will I obtain one of these new models?
Probably not, at least not anytime soon, but the price is…the price.
Friend of mine does have a 45-70 model and says, with a Can, they’re neat, handy, and in Ohio, would be a fantastic deer (…etc…) rifle.
On August 28, 2023 at 5:37 am, Trumpeter said:
The issue with Marlin lever actions WAS Remington. Anyone buying a Marlin was looking for pre-Remington models and $1000 was not that out of line for some of the choices. Marlin’s trouble was financial but Remington’s problem was Quality.
I love both Ruger and Marlin. Thanks Ruger for saving a great American gun!
On September 3, 2023 at 4:48 pm, TRX said:
> I cannot fathom why the Marlin brand would not want to be associated with a great firearms manufacturer like Ruger,
—
Ruger’s refusal to pay for medical coverage for employees who rode motorcycles was the first thing. Ruger’s fawning support for the 1994 AWB was the other.
Most people seem to have forgotten that nowadays, but some of us know how to keep a grudge.
On September 3, 2023 at 9:13 pm, Herschel Smith said:
As far as insurance goes, my daughter (NP) has a phrase for that. She sees the mangled and dead bodies when they come in – and there are a lot of them.
If you ride a motorcycle, it’s not a matter of if, but when, and will you survive.
A lot of insurance companies won’t cover a lot of things, and that’s a matter for the actuaries to figure out and try to manage costs. For example, they won’t cover skydiving (and sometimes) or mountain climbing/rappelling.
If you’re in the NG and get called up, your company insurance stops. The DoD has to give you war insurance.