Current level of Marlin Quality Control

Cabelas just sent 4 back and had another 2 that had serious function problems that should have been caught at the factory. Yeh, 6 guns ain't a lot considering how many are produced every year, but for one company to send 6 back is not a good thing. Remington better get their shit together FAST!! I was NOT happy to hear about this QC issue at all. I love my 1895GS and would buy another if I had the chance and reason, but not with the current situation with QC. You should not have to send it out to a rifle tuner before you take it to the range!

just about made myself sick reading these posts about the potential issues as i just signed for a Marlin Sbl when i initially looked it over i had no idea that there was Qc problems with marlins i was just happy to see one in stock after looking for the past year i threw money on it and will be picking it up on pay day, i looked it over and worked the action seemed about right for a new rifle but i didnt exactly go over the rifle with a magnifying glass to check for canted sights cracked stocks if this rifle has issues i do have some options as i have not taken posession of it nor have i paid it off yet just a bit of a let down

I would just make sure the action works properly and feeds ammo the way it should before you take it. Maybe bring some dummy rounds to put in the tube and make sure it works right. One guy somehow got ammo into the chamber but couldn't open the thing or it stuck half way or something and had to get a gunsmith to tear apart a loaded full of ammo gun! Almost sounds like it was short chambered or something.

went into the shop to inspect "my" Sbl it was rather upsetting , 2 of the screws in the rail and 3 of the screws on the receiver were all mashed up like a kid with a flat blade screw driver had striped the heads on it ok i thought no big deal simple call to marlin and its squared away but thats when i saw it machining marks and small gouges in the receiver where the barrel met the receiver and barrel did not fit flush to the receiver at this point i was pissed then i noticed the rubber butt pad looked like someone had purposely held it to the grinder too long on one side and used it as a door stop it wasn't a even oval shape after seeing all of this I wasn't taking it home the shop owner was pissed off that it even made it threw marlin Qc so now I wait was told anywhere from 6 months to a year epic fail on the factory's part

I just don't get it. I mean, it's not like the Marlin's are being made in a damn toilet bowl factory or something! They are being made at frigging Remington!! Do Remington rifles frequently hit the market with these ignorant problems with this frequency? I don't think so as far as I can tell. These issues are not issues for the most part, with the fact that it is a gun that nobody at Remington has ever made before. I mean sure, the lever functioning is Marlin specific, but this is not the first post where screw heads were buggered up like crazy and sights were tapped with a steel hammer and all scratched up and whatnot. Maybe they just don't give a shit and want Marlin to go away? I wonder what will happen when Bushmaster starts pumping out rifles from the Remington factory??

Tried a 336 at Wally World this morning and it cycled like there was sand in it.

Kinda off topic but I have been looking for a 1895 cowboy, the 45-70. Has Marlin quit making them? Nobody around here can get one.

Marlin's from Walmart do not have the bullseye on the buttstock, which is supposedly a quality assurance mark.

Marlins 1895's and 1894's seem to be in a shortage right now.....at least the 1894c in 357 is....been looking for a new one in Austin TX for a few months.....every one is out and back ordered. I will even take a used one but the only one I have found was beat to shit.

Kinda. The bulls eye really means a Walnut stock. The Wally World and other big box companies without it have a different hardwood, birch mostly if I remember right. Something way back in my mind says something about a couple of springs and the sights but I could be confusing it with another rifle. It's been a long time since I looked into it.

So when do we start saying pre-'10 Marlins? Or let it ride out the back stock and use pre-'11. I do hope they straighten out the brand. It would suck to watch a company with a good product sink. Esp an American company that actually produced something. I suppose it was inevitable. I wasn't comfortable watching Cerebus buying up all the firearm companies when they did. Many of my favorites too like Remington, Bushmaster, Marlin and so on. I thought then that eventually they would turn them into crap. I'm pretty much done with my collection, at least as far as lever actions go, so it's a fairly moot point with regards to myself. It's the future shooters that'll end up with junk.

dont understand how hard it is especially for remington to put these rifles together properly was told 7 months until i see my sbl im about to back out of it all together and start looking for a used one

One thing to remember is that Remington took none of the Marlin employees from New Haven, CT to Illoin, NY. Then Remigton hired new personnel to operate that line. So, what we see here are new employees with no firearm background building a semi complicated machine of levers and angles. They got a short steep curve to overcome.

CD

youd think that remington ,cerberus would start cracking down on this qc issue especially with all these rifles being returned and the lack of sales because of it

I heard they took ONE person from the original factory. It all seems a little idiotic though. Why would you staff a complete line of gun builders with brand new employees anyways? You would think any half way intelligent manager would take some existing gun builders and split the new and old employees to make sure things go right. Or do they really care?

A rumor in NY community is that they were given a grant from NY to "create new jobs" at the Ilion plant. Not sure if its true or not, but makes some sense - why they didn't want to transfer employees. I would say the Illion plant is capable of making decent guns - just that there is some teething on this line from all the transition and loss of craftsmanship from the line workers. I hope they get it right - after all they are a US company and I want them to succeed.

I saw a brand new out of the box stainless 1894 44 on Saturday and it would not cycle closed unless you got a strong throw into it from all the way open, also very rough. Not like my 35 rem or 444s which are smooth as glass and have actual little use. Dealer was sending it back to the factory - Hopefully they will get it right.

this would explain things

I have a stainless Marlin .357 with failure to feed problems. I purchased it last Oct and it looks like it was built by Marlin, not Remington, so I thought it would be a safe buy. While it may make gunsmiths who specialize in Marlins jump for joy, I will be getting a Rossi or Winchester as a plinker next and never look back.

I also once tried an up to then 100% reliable Marlin .45-70 with some factory Remington ammo and the darn thing jammed up so tight the owner had to disassemble it get it unjammed. I was going to get one for defense purposes until that happened and I checked the internet to find out about tons of problems.

Marlin and Remington are on my "Do not buy list."

Do not buy a recent Marlin made in the North Haven, CT plant. I won't even go to much into my tales of woe with those idiots. I really hope they get their shit together.

I had to plunk hundreds of dollars into my recent 1894 in .44 mag to get it even functional. Out of the box it shot around 8MOA at 100 yards with frequent fliers so far off the target that could only be described as extremely "dangerous". Honestly I had no idea where they went. The laws of physics didn't seem to apply. McPherson tore the thing apart and made it right. He commented how poor the entire recent crop of Marlin's was.

A recent 39a is essentially relegated to the junk pile having been back to the "factory" probably 6 or 7 times.

After visiting their North Haven facility (now gone), I can clearly see why they closed that plant and hopefully shit-canned everyone there.

The current 700s are the straightest and best made I've ever seen.

I saw too many 700's fail at a Gunsite rifle class to ever consider them again for anything serious. Too many fast rounds through them, like you get in a week long class, tears them apart, from extractor to magazine. The instructors said that was the usual 700 experience a few days into the class. They might be okay for slow-fire bench type stuff, or other light use, or if you have an armorer to work on them every few hundred rounds.

I also have a shooting friend with a 700 that has a crooked receiver. I could ask him for a picture if you want to see what passes for QC at Remington.

I'm too soured on them from personal experience for anecdotal internet praise to change my mind.

What bolt-actions do Gunsite or you recommend? Seriously, I'm looking for one.

This was back when Cooper ran things and I do not recall any recommendations made in the class by him or the staff. I long ago misplaced my notes from the class. One thing I do remember is Cooper liked the controlled-feed Mauser extractor, but at that time Winchester had dropped them from the catalog and imports of controlled-feed receivers were scarce and expensive. Winchester has since brought that feature back while the Remington design is stagnant.

Also of note is he preferred the semi-auto for war and the bolt-action for hunting or if he was responding to minor trouble at the ranch. The bolt-action rifle, especially with "modern" bolt handles instead of the slick old military versions, are too slow to keep up with semi-autos. For war, Cooper preferred the BM59, which was a shortened Garand with a 20rd detachable box magazine.

I work on them every day.

It was proven to me, my friend, classmates, and Gunsite instructors.

If you think 700's look so great on your workbench, prove it with pictures showing lack of wear on the extractors. Meanwhile I'll ask my friend for a picture of his bent receiver and I'll try to get pictures of my own deteriorating extractor.

Not sure but the current group of Marlin 45-70's my FFL friend got in has the CT markings and Remington markings. The fit and finish of them are above the last group of all CT made ones––those looked like the assembler could have cared less, maybe because they knew they were going to be out of a job.

Rather than the extractor being a separate part on the 700 it's just a raised sliver cut on the face of the bolt:




There is visible wear and chips. This one is just at the beginning stages of wear:



When they get this bad they won't reliably extract the case out of the chamber 100% of the time.

This is the main reason why the 700 is not a popular rifle among hunters of dangerous game.

I saw that on a new 700 I was looking at for my son's birthday and couldn't believe it. I couldn't tell if the bolt comes apart but if it doesn't, when the extractor fails do you have to get a whole new bolt, have it fitted, and headspaced? If so, Remington is 'completely off the table' for me as unsound mechanical designs.

I did some research on this today. I was once told you had to replace the bolt face to fix this but found that extractors can be replaced.

Rivet type:
http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=321/Product/REMINGTON_700_STYLE_RIVETED_EXTRACTOR_KIT

Non-rivet:
http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=10925/Product/EXTRACTOR__RIVETLESS


So it does not look hard to fix in case of the second model, but I was getting extraction problems with less than 500 rounds and internet talk is the slow fire crowd can go as many as 1500 before problems. That's not what I would call longevity. It's so flimsy. Some claim they never have problems. Maybe their rifles never get hot or dirty like they do in the deserts of Arizona.

I think we need to understand the function and deffiition of QC versus QA and Production. From my experience with manufacturing, I've observed that increased pressure to produce numbers usually causes problems with quality of the product. QC (Quality Control) should be the one who produces the product. QA (Quality Assurance) monitors and audits the processes. You can't make quality products when you stack all of the responsibility on Quality Control & Quality Assurance.

Marlin, now Remington, has gotten away from some of the basic tenets of manufacturing quality products; you've got to keep on top of your design, processes, and inspections to maintain good quality in your products. After 41½ years in the Aerospace industry we developed a ton of sayings. One I used many times was, "You can't inspect in better quality, you must design, manufacture, and build to it."

What he said!

tag for updates on the latest Marlin rifles hitting the shelves....

hope they get their act together

This ought to tell everything anyone needs to know about the current state of affairs at Remlin. http://www.levergun.com/order_form.htm

And you should read here too:

Marlin Owners: Marlin Rant Forum

From everything I have read, you want to look for one that was made before the North Haven plant was closed and production moved to New York and Kentucky in 2010. Just bought a 2008 Marlin 336C and will shoot it for the first time today. I will let you know.

That is pretty fucked up. Who would think that making the extractor part of the bolt face would be a good idea?

Shot the 2008 Marlin today and she was flawless.

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