Marlin (Remlin made in 2019) 1894 CS, .357/38 lever gun

[Trooper Joe]

Just picked up this Marlin 1894 CS, .357/.38 yesterday. This carbine was made in March of 2019 and was one of the last of the Remington Marlins. It only had about 10 rounds through it according to the dealer. I just bought one of the new Ruger/Marlin 1894 .44Mag carbines and when I first looked at it I thought it was one of the long awaited .357/38 models from them.

Even though it was one of the infamous “RemLins”, I bought it anyway and took it home. The action was very smooth and when I got it home, I found that A-Zoom snap caps fed very smoothly also. This gun came with the original box and papers and looks almost unfired.






I may not keep this one since I already have 4 .357/.38 lever action carbines ( Marline 1894 CS, Chiappa trapper SRC, Winchester/Miroku model 73, and a Rossi model 92).

Trooper Joe

 

[stagpanther]

I bought a "death throe" 336 30-30 made around the same time--I could find no faults with it and it shoots about as accurately as one can reasonably expect for the cartridge.

 

[Trooper Joe]

Just came back from the range. This one is a keeper (I can now boast 5 .357/.38 lever guns). One ragged hole with .357 or .38 at 30 feet. The trigger really is smoothing out (especially after about 100 dry fires this morning). Showed this to my local dealer today. He says these are about a $1,200 gun. I got it for $1,150.

My last three “JM” Marlins all had issues. This one seems flawless.

Trooper Joe

 

[stagpanther]

Here's my Ilion Remlin 336 30-30. It actually has a rather nice oiled stock, very smooth action and trigger breaks at 3 lbs. Fit seems excellent, I wish I could fault it but the only criticism I have is that the barrel basic bead blast finish needs keeping an eye for rust. As I recall I picked it up at a special discontinued stock clearance at wally world for around $450 +/-.

 

[FrankenMauser]

The later Remlins were pretty much fine.
They still had some issues with brittle screws and not breaking the edges enough on some parts of the receiver and finger lever.
But they tended to function fine and shoot reasonably well.
I had a 2018 made 336. It broke screws several times*, and the lever had very sharp edges. But it functioned fine and shot well.

*Between DPris and a Remington production manager that he knew, my documentation of broken screw reports, and samples from my rifle, the screw issue was partially resolved by about Oct 2018. Things were much better after that.


The Marlin cells were the last parts of the Ilion plant to shut down. When the plant was ordered to scale back and start shutting down, they, for whatever reason, first targeted the Remington models, with the Wingmaster getting pieced together for as long as possible. So a Wingmaster ended up being the last Remington firearm made before total shutdown. But there were two more days of assembly of 336s after that. A Marlin 336 was the last firearm that Remington made in Ilion. Pretty ironic.

 

[Trooper Joe]

If I change the sights I will probably use the “XO” sights like on my other Marlin 1894 “JM” .357/.38.