The Guns of John Marlin

THIS YEAR, THE Marlin Firearms Company, fou d in 1870, celebrates its 150th anniversary. Marlin will mark the event by nufacturing presentation grade commemorative Model 444 and Model 60 22 rifles as well as commemorative am nition. Theirs is a long history a some f it is little-known. Few are aware that Marlin became one of the largest producers of machineguns in the USA, many of which went into fighter aircraft. But let’s start at the beginning…

The history of the lever-action repeating rifle design really began with the Henry repeating rifle, immediately progressing to the Winchester 1866 Yellow Boy, after which followed one successful model upon another. Out on the frontier of the American West, a lever-action repeating rifle gave a man tremendous fire-power compared to the old muzzle-loaders. Frontal attacks by hostile native Indians were halted by the seemingly endless hail of lead thrown at them, and consequently tribal strategy changed to that of cunning ambush and surprise