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Another NEW Marlin jam

3K views 4 replies 2 participants last post by  cowboy33713 
#1 ·
Howdy;
thought I was immunized against this, but it must have worn off!
Bought a brand-new Marlin 1894 in .44 magnum, and thought I was going to shoot with it- that was stupid! Double feeds every time ( except when single-loaded, of course), requiring the lever to be removed so the bolt can be gotten out of the way so the weapon may be safely cleared.
Called Marlin by phone; talked ( after a lengthy wait ) to a young (sounding) lady who seemed very interested in ending the call ASAP. Had to TELL her I needed a shipping label to return the rifle to Marlin for the required warranty-covered repair. I swear I could HEAR her roll her eyes. Hope she was just having a bad day, like the customer who shelled out $500+ for a new rifle that would not work with ammunition.
Rifle went out early this A.M. from UPS, having been left there yesterday afternoon, with enclosed letter outlining the problem. We shall see.
First Marlin lever gun that truly would not work for me; I have three others right now, they are fine.
Will update when it comes back
cowboy33713
 
#2 ·
Update-
Last post in this thread got wiped in the unpleasentness; but not much else has changed.
Marlin STILL has that rifle, and it STILL is not repaired. They likewise STILL have no explaination when I call every week.
Pretty disappointing when you consider this rifle was purchased factory new and as such should have been good to go from the first. Guess Marlin's crack inspetion process took the week off on this one.
Gettin' pretty disgusted with them, and am willing to share this experience and perhaps help someone who may consider other makers.
GI9
 
#3 ·
Cowboy,

Sorry to hear that story. If it helps, Remington did the same thing to me with a 572 pump .22

They had it literally for just under a year and when it came back all that changed was a broken fore-end (which they finally fixed after trying to tell me it came to them that way (not true) and still exibiting the same (jams) problem it had to start with.
 
#5 ·
Okay, here's how the story ends up:
UPS delivered the rifle back to me on Wednesday, around 6 in the evening. Unboxed it, found inside a copy of a letter to acknowledge receipt of the rifle ( I had never been sent a copy), on which had been typed a gross oversimplification of the problem ( won't feed), and hand written notes as to repairs done. Part of my letter, since I'd had to send the gun back in the first place, complained about the poor external fit of the bolt when closed, at the rear of the receiver; not even a nearly flush fit, it literally caused cuts to my hands with handling, aside from the complaint of double feeding of cartridges 100% of the time, making the rifle useless as a repeating rifle.
First things first. The repair staff replaced the shell carrier, and "adjusted" extractor tension- not that I'd had opportunity to actually witness extractor function before. Rifle now fed dummy rounds fine, and exhibited the stiff operation I've come to expect from an unmodified Marlin lever action. If nothing else, this alone pointed up the fact that this one should not have been released for sale as it was.
On the bolt- the repair staff noted they repolished and refinished the bolt. Well, they did the minimum they could get by with. The bottom rear of the bolt is now flush with the receiver, and being cut by the sharp projections is no longer a problem. The TOP of the rear of the bolt retains the poor fit it displayed intially- obviously not flush. Why do half the job?
The gun was dirty- at least they'd actually tested it with more than one round to see that it wouldn't harm the user.
After cleaning the bore, I noted that it did not display the fine interior finish that my Marlin CB .45 Colt rifle does, but I bought that one years ago, and standards may have changed at Marlin since then. In fairness, it is accurate enough with jacketed factory loaded ammo; I shall likely fire it more to help settle the bore down prior to trying lead-bulleted loads, as I hate to spend hours de-leading a rifle bore.
This was just NOT what I'd come to expect from Marlin. I am not blind to the fact that there are many nice imports around, and the Henry rifle company is strong.
No brand loyalty on the next one. The best rifle will get the nod, regardless of make.
Just my 0.02
cowboy33713
 
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