Current lever actions

[t.r.]

Yesterday I attended the huge Sportsman's Show in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. I handled all the current lever action rifles and carbines. The "new" Marlins seem quite well made to me. Same goes for the Rio Grande model by Rossi. But I thought the Mossberg 464 seemed a little rough to operate in comparison. But still a good rifle; my nephew has one. Winchester model 94 and 71 are pricey imports but exceptionally well made. Browning's BLR is tops but so is pricing. Smoothest of all are the modified Marlins built by Wild West Guns of Alaska.

Today's consumers have a wide choice of lever actions to choose from.

TR

[Pete44ru]

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Didja git a chance to coon-finger the BLR-like Henry Long Ranger ?





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[Wildgoose]

Along this line I just had a recent discussion with my local FFL. He runs a classic type one man operation and has an old school approach to gun dealing. He also handles a lot of transfers for the local vintage gun types that collect and trade a lot of firearms. I was picking up a new Henry at the moment and he asked me why I had choose that particular rifle over a Marlin as they are more or less in the same price range. I told him that the quality questions that have plagued current production "Remlins" had put me off on them so I had decided to go with the Henry. His opinion on the Henry choice was interesting to say the least but that's another subject. What he said about the newer Marlins was just as interesting. He conceded that the fist production Marlins after the take over by the current version of Remington were to say the least flawed. There were a lot of reasons for this and he also felt that Remington had made a great mistake in not getting things right before putting out a product that was just not acceptable. And that costumers were justified in being very unhappy with the guns. But he felt that as of the last part of 2016 and to date the rifles that he has been receiving are indeed of much better quality and he has not had the to deal with the issues of the prior production runs. So at least in his opinion the current crop has been back to the level of quality that the name Marlin should imply. I think at some point in the next year or so I may well pick one up based on this information and a few of the things I have been reading on line lately that reflect the same situation. I do know that the prices on JM stamped guns are the reason I went with a new rifle on this last purchase of the Henry and if the new Marlins have been improved its something to consider for the more budget minded. Of course this is all just opinion at this time but time will tell. It does go along with what t.r. has posted on his experience with checking out the new Marlins. I agree with his assessment on the current lever guns available as well.

[t.r.]

I didn't spend any time at the Henry display booth because of the large crowd there.

TR

[AJMD429]

There were some crummy Marlins for awhile, and some crummy Rossi's for awhile, but generally I've not been disappointed with leverguns any more than other categories of guns I've purchased in my lifetime.

I'm glad to hear Marlin is back in shape, and I think the Rossi's I've seen for the past few years have been very serviceable. I had one Rossi in 454 Casull that was splitting cases but sent it in and they rebarreled it at no charge and had it back to me in exactly two weeks.