It kind of sounds like advertising hype to me, but that seems to be the content of magazines anyway. If they miss an opportunity to sell you something different with every paragraph, somebodys going to be flipping burgers somewhere by the end of the day.

I think 2005 would be way too limiting. I have owned Marlin's as late as 2009 that were flawless. Most of the general downturn came when Remington took over in 2010. At present it is still a crap shoot and sight unseen is risky. There have been reports lately of people finding good ones, but so far it's about 50/50 of good reports to bad. Of course people tend to report the bad far more than they report the good, since we expect qulity when paying the price wanted for things nowdays.

The real downer to all of this is the gun show ninjas have already started to try to rob you on the price of Marlin stamped guns. I found an eight year old Marlin 444 at the last show I attended and the guy wanted $695 for it. When I tried to trade him a guide gun in like condition he wanted $200 difference. I was willing to pay the guy some boot as that is expected when trading at a gun show. The guy didn't seem to know the guns, but was just trying to jump on the bandwagon and was going to hold out for some poor unsuspecting soul who was not up on the current situation. I'll let him carry it to a few more shows. It is not like there weren't thousands upon thousands made that are still sittin in the closet more than they are shot.

The Marlin Owner's board has had considerable postings on this subject, including info from former employees. Have been too busy this last month or so to do much 'Neting around and keeping up with topics. However, that board may be worth some time reading should you wish more info.