whatnickname
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And I’m aware of all the bad press that Marlin ran into before and after they were acquired by Remington. This one is in like new condition and came with a Cabela’s caliber specific 30-30 scope. It had been sitting in my LGS used rack for quite some time with no takers. Someone had thoughtfully installed a 1/2” recoil pad on the butt stock bringing the length of pull up to a shade over 13”... roughly the same as the model 94 Winchester which suits me very well. The serial number has the MR prefix and the rifle has a laminated stock. Pretty sure it’s a “Remlin”. Have to admit I was a bit leery due to the well known quality problems. I recently saw a very good segment on American Rifleman TV about Marlin and the capital improvements that Remington has made to their plant to produce the Marlin line. It appears that Remington May have turned things around. My guess is that this is a transitional rifle as it has the micro-grove rifling. No two ways about it, this one was a gamble. My dealer offered to make me a deal on it and after a bit of haggling we agreed on a price of $400 out the door.
Took it out to the range Saturday with three different loads consisting of 150 grain Winchester, 170 grain Speer and 125 grain Sierra hollow points all loaded to respectable, upper end velocity, levels. I must say I was favorably impressed. It shot like a vintage Marlin 336 with groups running around 1&1/2” to 2” at 100 yards. The rifle ran very smoothly feeding and ejecting rounds with little to no effort. Probably could have shot better groups except for the 100 lb trigger pull that was set at the factory. All-in-all I’d say I got a good one; and one that merits a $115.00 after market trigger. I’m sure the new trigger will help the groups shrink. More to follow...