I own and/or have worked with Marlin leverguns made over the past 10 years or so.
I have seen among those, among new Marlins at my dealer (two of which had severely messed up stocks, including one that swiveled between the tangs), and even among display samples at the Marlin booth at SHOT Show (where you'd expect them to be showing off their BEST stuff), a steady decline in levergun quality that began before the move to Ilion & severely nose-dived after the move.
I have not seen hundreds of 336s. I have seen hundreds of posts across multiple forums detailing first-hand accounts of similar poor quality experiences.
Including the die-hard Marlin fan Marlin Forum.
I have seen poorly built examples of their short-lived .410 shotgun, .44s, .357s, .45-70s, and a couple 336s.
Since the buyout, I have seen more Marlins WITH major manufacturing glitches than I have without.
As I said- not all were bad, but many were, which is why Marlin put some models on hold pending re-training, re-engineering, equipment upgrades, and creating new manufacturing drawings.
The quality overall IS returning, but things like canted sights, daylight UNDER sights, large gaps between wood & steel (either left open or filled with what looks like bubblegum), rough actions, busted stocks, lousy frame machining, and downright non-functional actions, are NOT Internet myths.
Denis