Marlin Firearms to Close Next Year
 

http://abcnews.go.com/m/screen?id=10208259

Today, 3:03 PM EDT

Marlin Firearms Co., a 140-year-old company which made a gun that was a favorite of Annie Oakley, is closing its Connecticut plant, company officials said Friday.

Workers at the plant in North Haven say they've been told all 265 employees will lose their jobs.

Jessica Kallam, a spokeswoman with Madison, N.C.'s Remington Arms Co. Inc., which owns Marlin, said the Connecticut plant will close by June 2011 and employees would be offered severance and help finding jobs. She said Marlin is relocating its manufacturing operations to an undetermined site.

Kallam could not confirm if all employees in Connecticut are losing their jobs.

She read a company statement that says Freedom Group, which owns Remington, must reduce its costs to remain competitive.

"Although long term prospects of the business look positive, economic factors beyond Freedom Group's control related to increasing costs and pricing pressures within the firearms industry are impacting the entire Freedom Group of companies," the statement said.

Remington Arms bought Marlin for nearly $42 million in 2007.

Marlin's Web site says John Marlin opened the company in 1870 in New Haven after having worked at the Colt plant in Hartford during the Civil War. The company says its lever action 22 repeater was a favorite gun of Annie Oakley.

Re: Marlin Firearms to Close Next Year
 

Those green shoots are popping up all over the place!

Re: Marlin Firearms to Close Next Year
 

dam there never good news anymore

Re: Marlin Firearms to Close Next Year
 

Who's going to make the 22lr marlin model 60 now? That has been a best seller for over two decades!

Re: Marlin Firearms to Close Next Year
 

yeah, i found out a day after I ordered my 795.......... They are doing rebates on em all year this year though. Shop around right, you can get a new one for right around 100$, used probably cheaper.

Might grab a model 60 before they go under.

Re: Marlin Firearms to Close Next Year
 

I just bought a stainless model 60 last week since I read about this on another thread. The newer ones are not as good as the older ones since Cerberus Management (New York Jews) runs Remington/Marlin.

The model 60 is easy to carry, sleek and well balanced with a long sight radius, as compared to my short and fat poorly balanced Ruger 10/22 (though extremely reliable) which I will get rid of.

There is much good info on Marlin .22's on this forum: http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums...splay.php?f=20

Re: Marlin Firearms to Close Next Year
 

I debated long and hard on which of the two to get, marlin or ruger. After picking up the rugers and the marlins, getting a feel for them etc, I very much like the marlin. Not to mention all the other bonuses such as out of box accuracy etc. I didnt plan on pimping my .22 so it was a good decision, but it seems that both marlin AND ruger quality has been slipping as of late.

Re: Marlin Firearms to Close Next Year
 

It's another form of gun control. They buy up good firearms manufacturers and cheapen them by using softer internal parts like case hardened sears and replace some aluminum castings with plastic and so on. I have been a long time fan of Sig Sauer handguns and then a few years ago some jerk by the name of Cohen took charge and made them into lower quality handguns with trigger creep and then he no longer supplies parts for the excellent West German Sigs. Same thing with Smith and Wesson.
I had not kept up with Ruger since the old man died, I'm sorry to hear the quality went downhill. Mine is 20 years old so it should be a good one, I just don't like fat rifles.

Re: Marlin Firearms to Close Next Year
 

I hear ya man. Its beyond any reasonable business sense to do what most of these companies under new ownership are doing.

At least ruger has a million and a half aftermarket companies that make literaly every single part for the rifle, usualy better htan ruger does. Marlin doesnt realy have that, but they do have some of the key things, like all metal FCG's, some decent stock (can retrofit a model 60 stock to a 700 series easily) and sights.

Good thing is theres some up and coming companies that are trying to step into the major manufacture role that Sig, Marlin, Remington, etc are starting to fail their customers in. Its a tought battle and a lot of them are trying to corner the tacticool market it seems, but theres hope yet.

Re: Marlin Firearms to Close Next Year
 

I hope I can still find one. A marlin semi auto 22 is on my to do list, but I hadn't gotten to it yet.

From the linked forum they are selling out fast. I'd better call around and get one this weekend if I can.

A clean used one might be best considering the quality deterioration issues.