Remington/Freedom Group have really gone in the shitter as a whole. They ruined Marlin. Went from being king of the lever guns to lemon city. Fired all the old skilled craftsmen, replaced them with a bunch of green assed children with zero experience. If you are in the market for a Marlin, make certain the barrel is stamped JM. The quality really started to drop when the North Haven employees were told they were getting the axe (Freedom Group moved production to their plant in KY). So even the last year production of true Marlins are shitty. Avoid the transition rifles in particular. 07-13 are probably the worst. I’ve heard they’ve improved somewhat, now that the new folks have some experience and the tooling and equipment is functioning smoothly. I wouldn’t know, I’m not spending a red fucking cent with Freedom Group (nor any of their subsidiaries).