Picked up an older Marlin Camp Carbine the other day.
Anyway, I had heard about the buffer problems and had plans to order one on payday.  I cleaned the carbine, the buffer was intact.
Took it out to run a mag or two through it today and first shot, the buffer disintegrated.
Still very happy to have this gun back and stoked to get a new buffer soon.

Yesterday was payday, so I ordered the parts.  Hopefully I'll be able to try it out next weekend.
I'm just going to think of it as an upscaled .22 .  Still pretty excited to have it back.  My friend could have have sold it, or let it slip away from him during all this time,
but he didn't and it was kinda like getting a nice gift when he returned it.
I may post all this in the pistol caliber carbine forum as they may be interested.  Would it be a dupe to have these posts in two different places on this site?