Remington bought Marlin in December 2007. The Marlin Equipment was so worn out that Remington eventually shut down the Gardner plant at the end of 2008 and in early 2010 finally closed the North Haven plant for the same reason. Both of the old plants were turning out poor to very poor quality guns and Remington was getting the blame for the substandard quality of the "New Remlin" Marlin levers. Remington completely retooled with all new machines, new employees and CNC technology, setting up the new production in Illinois. After that move, the Marlins produced with the MR leading in the serial numbers were markedly better guns and on par with the old JM guns from pre 2000. I own both and have owned a lot of Marlin levers. You do not want to buy a Marlin made between 2000 and 2010 (and only 2010s that are post MR prefix as some 2010s were still made in New Haven) if you can help it.
The later built Remington made ones are MUCH better guns than the Marlin built JMs that were built the last 5 or so years, so basically 2000 to 2007, that Marlin was running out of money and approaching bankruptcy. They are also head and shoulders better than the ones that were built the first 3 years Remington owned them and was trying to build the guns with the old Marlin employees on clapped out machinery.
So, I would use the serial number to date that JM Marlin and include the above info in the sale advertisement. If it was built before 1998, and is pristine as described, you should be able to get around 2000 for it in 45-70, 1800 or so in 444. If it was built between 2000 and 2010, with the JM stamp, a knowledgeable buyer is not going to buy it unless they can test shoot and cycle it. Even then, it is worth maybe 1000 bucks.
Starting in 1973, the year of manufacture can be determined by subtracting the first two digits of the serial number from 100:
Example: SN 2512345 would have been made in 1975 [100 - 25 = 75] and SN 94365295 would have been made in 2006 [ 100 - 94 = 06 (2006)
(Serial numbers work different after 2010 when Remington had them and coded them MR versus JM).
Hope this helps.
Last edited by Dean2; 11-19-2024 at 10:36 AM.
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