I just want a 444 dark with a 18-20” threaded barrel. Probably never happen

iirc Ruger said they were bringing back the 444's along with the 336's. All 3 1895 models are threaded so far, I'd guess the 444 will be too. That doesn't make it a Dark but it's probably the biggest part.

It really is.  When all this stuff started in early 2020-2021, can't recall, I sold my Winchester 1886 Deluxe Octagon for just over $3,000.  I bought that gun brand new for $1,600.  Now if you can find one they're over $2,000 as are the other "deluxe" Winchester models.  Prior to the lever gun craze they were going for like $1,600-1,900 I think for the 92 DLX and 1886 DLX models.  Now 92 DLX models command an insane price.

I suspect that Ruger has done as careful of market research as possible.  If they keep production levels down, they can keep prices up.  Increasing production would cost money, and would probably also depress the market.  So keeping track of production vs the market is essential.  Winchester did this for at least a decade - they cut out the budget models, and sold higher end rifles - for 4x as much.

If they see inventory accumulating, they will most likely release new models.  But honestly, I would not expect 45 any time soon.  They were never released by Remington.  Ruger would have to recreate the Marlin tooling, rather than taking the Remington shortcut.  Marlin never did the 454 route - and research indicated that it was not a good idea.  The action simply can not take the beating of full load 454's - and lawyers will not want to market as only 454 lite version.

I expect we will probably see more darks in a couple years.  Luckily I have every dark I really want, well accept the 45 and it will be a long way off.  

Here's a little ditty from another forum...

"So as I walked into the Ruger Booth at SHOT about 10 AM on Tuesday Morning I was greeted by Eric Lundgren who is the head guy on the Marlin Project. Eric recognized my name off my badge and started vigorously shaking my hand, then drug me over to meet Nate Brown.

I am buddies with Mark Gurney who is the Head of Marketing for Ruger, and I met him when he was #2 man on the Scout Rifle Project in 2010 and we've been friends ever since. When I contacted him about the Marlin project he sent my name and phone # to Eric So they could get my input...

Eric called me one day and we talked for 45 minutes on the phone about what needed to be done to improve the Marlin Leverguns. Turns out all he did was write down everything I said to him and pass it along to Nate Brown who is Head of Engineering for the Marlin Project. Nate then went over everything along with all the other input they got from various people they considered to be knowledgeable on the subject.

Some of the ideas that came only from me were the Chamber Chamfer, the Radius on the Hammer Face, Cleaning up the Groove on the Bolt that the Extractor rides in, and Tumble Deburring of all small internal parts.

Other changes were 1:20 twist in the .44 and .45 barrels, Radius on the Snail Cam to prevent wearing of the bottom of the Lifter causing the "Marlin Jam." Redesign of the Loading Gate so it wouldn't dig into your thumbnail, changing the way most of the parts were machined, and making of all the internal parts out of Pre Hardened materials for dimensional stability. also the Internal Machining of the Receiver was a far cry from the Crap Marlin and Remington produced. I was amazed that the underside of the receiver top was smooth,,, making the insertion of a cartridge into the chamber smooth as glass. No rough Broach Marks because they weren't done with a worn out broach! They were all done on a Multi Axis CNC Machining Centers. Pretty much all of the Machines, Tooling and Programs to run them are all new!

I talked to Nate for the better part of an hour about all the fine points in the Production Process and he was very forth coming with answers to all of my pretty technical questions. I left Swelled up like a toad!

I picked up several 1894's and 1895's and they all ran smoothly. Only slightly stiffer than my personal guns which had been reworked by me years ago and had also had many rounds thru them. These new guns will run similar to mine with very little "break in." The fit and finish on the metal and wood was as close to perfect as you could ever expect from a Generic Firearm**. And the whole Idea was to remove as much of the hand work (Preferably all of it!) as possible, so the guns could be assembled with parts from a bin with no hand fitting required. This should have taken place 25 years ago, but nobody cared enough to push it thru at the previous Mfg's.

I have no reservation in saying "These are the Best Made Marlin Rifles ever produced by anyone !!! PERIOD!"

The 1894's are just going into production as we speak and look for them on the shelves in the Spring.

This was pretty exciting news as I want an 1894 CB (Octagon) 20" in .44 Spec/Mag. It will be the first Marlin Rifle out of the dozens that I have reworked for myself and others, that I won't have to re work! It will run perfectly right out of the box,,, Which should have been the case for the last 30 years, if anybody had Gave a SHIP !

These guys actually care about what they are doing, and it shows! Our prayers have been answered! Thanks to Ruger!

Randy"

Who did you place the order through?

My local shop is 2AZone in Upland Ca. They just placed the order through their distributor. I'm sure any local shop can put in an order for you. It really doesn't mean much until the gun shows up.

I'll bet that some distributors already have a few pallets of them just waiting for Ruger to say the word.

Yet they're all somehow going for $800-$1200 in my neck of the woods.

No doubt. I saw a well loved one in a LGS a month ago and just about had a stroke.

I did see an article within the past couple of weeks in which a Marlin rep said that the 336 is close to production and should start appearing on store shelves very soon in the second quarter of this year.

The 1894 is next in line and is in the works. It should be available later this year.

I was about to say that Miroku cranks out specialty Winchester lever guns for $thousands.  Something similar could be done with Marlins. The 39A has a steep accuracy grade to meet but there’s certainly a market.

I saw a .45-70 trapper that was literally pushed out the door.  It arrived in the shop with no damage at all to the box, but with a significant dent in the magazine tube.  That’s an obvious QA failure.

Ruger is going to have to up its game if they want to make a quality lever gun that will command the price they are asking for it.

I have no solid information, but I just sent my '94 Winchester to Gunsite for one of their Gunsite Police Rifle aka "Brooklyn Specials". I spoke to the new gunsmith, Dave Fink about the project and asked why they weren't offering this as a standard product like they did back in the 90's? He said "We want to, and right now we do conversions on customer guns, but we can't get quantities enough to offer them as a package. Ruger said it may be a year or two before we can get a quantity of them."
So I went to the Ruger "Tell the CEO" page and said "Hey, you guys teamed up with Gunsite for the Scout program, with all the demand for levers, why don't you team up with them again and make the "Brooklyn Special" (30-30) and "Kansas City Special" (357/44) as a regular item?"
I was amazed when I got a reply, even more amazed when I realized it wasn't a generic, computer response; "Hey Chris, thanks for the input. I'll send your email over to my engineering team and see what they think."
Now maybe it's wishful thinking on my part, but I'm wondering if they did team up with Gunsite on this, perhaps it would increase the number of models being turned out? I see Scout rifles all the time, and while it is a bit of a niche rifle, the demand caused the production to increase. And every time I see a Dark, I see a Brooklyn Special so people who like them, ought to love a Gunsite version.
My 2 cents...

The only thing that specialty guns will do is pull production time away from the mainstream guns that everybody wants,

Well that's true to an extent. A lot of people want the "Dark" Marlins, which come really close to the "Brooklyn Special" that Gunsite makes up. To me it would add an avenue of availability for that product. If demand stays high, they'll increase production to meet it.

Your idea of "a lot of people" probably differs greatly from Ruger's. When you look at things as percentage of overall sales it changes things. My guess is the people that want Dark versions are low single digit percentage if not less than 1%. Lever guns is certainly one category of guns that has a lot of people wanting traditional guns. Threading is a hard enough sale but blacked out tactical is a whole other thing.

FWIW, Ruger released the Marlin 336 today...MSRP is $1239.00

I can't wait to see em.

Nice to see them put a sling swivel on the barrel band again, and the non-slip rubber butt pad is a welcome sight. Never thought I'd see a Marlin 30-30 retail for 1200 bucks...

And .41 Mag Dammit!

I hear that :(  my FFL just told me the price will be MSRP when they get it. I put down a deposit a few months ago.  I'm just hoping they can get one.


But Hey!! It's got the gold colored trigger

So they had a chance to get rid of the cross bolt safety but still didn't?

M39a Mountie please.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8Bld1Y07Ak

Yup, that (threaded please) after a 1894 in .357 but I noticed they don't even have the 39's listed in the site? That and I'd image they'd do a standard 39 before any "specialty" models?

and a minor gripe but I wish they'd put the serial number back on the tang like Marlin did and not on the side of the receiver ala Remlin

Since Rossi is out of the game and the Chiappa is hen's teeth, I'd love to see a "Mare's leg".

From Ruger/Marlin?

Hell Yes.  94s are on the way, so it’s not that much of a stretch

Anybody know what the MSRP was Before Ruger bought them?

I know the economy sucks, but that seems high given that it’s barely less than a stainless 1895sbl ($1479)!  
That crazy price will be a bad omen for sales volume if the street price isn’t significantly lower.  
They’ll be like a Ruger #1 that sits on the shelf for five years until some senile old guy buys it.  

Ruger didn't change the model # for the 336c. If you look at gun.deals, prices range from under $400 to about $700. Not sure when these prices were accurate, but I think it's safe to assume MSRP was comfortably under $1k

The market isn't that big.  Most of the folks that want a lever gun already have one.  It's one of those items people buy once a lifetime.  We're already seeing price resistance.  There will be something about the new ones the purists will dislike.  Ruger will sell enough of them but it will never be a big mover.  I've owned three or four lever guns over the years.  Don't have any currently and I doubt that will change.

The price on the other 3 Ruger/Marlins remain at MSRP or above. One of the larger gun store chains here in California won't even take any deposits on them because they have too many out standing orders that they can't fill.

I doubt we'll see anything lower then MSRP for a few years. (I could be wrong, again) just wait until the .357 model 94 is released. I bet we'll see some CRAZY HIGH prices on that one.

I really hope I'm wrong. I don't like the price either..

And so it begins....

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/979060648

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/978809970

WOW!
I was only off by $300.00, but this one is "rare"
https://www.gunbroker.com/item/979138981

You have to keep in mind that the price of everything has gone up dramatically since Remlin went under and that Ruger has invested a lot of time and money updating the tooling and processes used to make these rifles. From all accounts, these new Rugers are better made rifles than even the vaulted JM Marlins.

Sure, I'd love them to be sub $1k but I don't think that's realistic in today's market. Quality costs and market demand drives prices. Look at what used Marlins (and even Remlins) are going for on GB. I don't think Ruger is going to have a problem selling these.

 
Web Archive capture dated Sept 24, 2019 says   "Model 336C 30-30 Win. ORDER NO: 70504 | MSRP: $693.67"

https://web.archive.org/web/20190924190235/https://www.marlinfirearms.com/lever-action/model-336/model-336c-30-30-win

That would be awesome, but we need ammo to go with it. Hopefully that spurs more .444 production. I think it’s superior to the .44-70 and honestly I’m baffled as to why it seemed to have lost the popularity contest.

Awesome post!

I’ll take an 1894 .357 in stainless with brown laminate stock please!

454 Casull, Stainless, threaded 16" barrel.

I suspect that they are not going to flood the market with them.  Much better for the to maintain high prices.

If a 336 is $1200+, a 39A would probably be pushing $2K.

I’m not sure that extreme under supply in guns of any type results in more profit than if supply was a bit closer to demand.  Zero sales means zero profit!
Ruger isn’t getting the profit from gunbroker sales at double msrp - an individual who lucked into the gun is getting all that profit.  

They’re also giving up market share by not having product available.  Plenty of people here bought a henry because marlins are not available at any price and the likelihood that they will also buy a marlin is low.  

Whatever their thinking is they’re not going to share it with us!  I want one but long ago gave up because nobody sits on the sidelines for years waiting for something like this.  If they make what I want And the price is reasonable I’ll buy and if not then I won’t.  

In the meantime I’ll stick with my marlins that I can put my hands on!

I guess that's not bad when you consider what Remlin was asking. I think they started at $3.5k.

I doubt that I'll see a Ruger made 39 in my lifetime.

Remington was selling 39’s for $3500 is that what you’re saying?

No, I'm saying they were asking $3500.00. They had them listed as custom order only. The idea was to keep the 39 going. It's been made for a long time, longer then any other production lever action 22....IIRC.

I’m not sure the 39 went into actual production under Remington. They showed one at shot show, but that may have been a one off to keep the legacy going. Likely a handmade rifle just for that singular purpose.

No, AFAIK, it never went into production, they just had it listed on the Marlin site as a special/custom order.

Remington had all of the old old machinery to make em. They just didn't have anybody to set it up and run it. They might of tried, maybe even manage to spit out a few but I would think the hand fitting wasn't worth it..

I'm sure others might be able to add more or correct me..

IMWO, the had no intention to ever make one, who's gonna pay that much.

Yeah I don't think they really wanted to sell a 39A given the price point they had on them.  More likely what was mentioned with the "longest produced firearm" bit of advertising.

I saw one for sale on facebook back before facebook stopped gun groups.  Guy listed it at $450, and I hmmd and hawwwwd around on it and he decided to keep it.  I told him if he decided again to sell it i wanted it.

He messaged me a few months  later and I got it, and man am I glad I did, given what they're bringing now.

1974 vintage.

But most people won't pay that kind of money for a non-target rimfire rifle, so I'll be shocked if Ruger brings back the 39A.

$1200 for a 336, go to 4:40

Those prices will come down as they roll out more and more. Wouldn't be surprised to see 336's for $1100 a year from now

You just have to find a reputable dealer who isn't looking to rip off the customer.    I just ordered a Marlin 1895 BDL Guide Gun for $999.99.

There are dealers out there that are willing to sell at reasonable prices.  Granted they can be few and far between, especially concerning new products.  You just have to find them.