It is currently the dominant seller of lever-action rifles in North America.

However, in the 1980s and 1990s, Marlin finally began to outpace its old rival. Marlin Firearms labored for a century as an underdog levergun maker to Winchester (formerly of New Haven). In 1917 Marlin Rockwell bought out the Hopkins & Allen Arms Company to promote an expanded line of firearms and restore the image of the Marlin company as makers of 'sporting arms'. In World War I Marlin became one of the largest machine gun producers in the world for the US and its Allies, building the M1895 Colt–Browning machine gun and a later variant called the 'Marlin gun' optimized for aircraft use. Marlin was considered the main competitor to Winchester. Marlin produced a large assortment of firearms such as lever-action rifles, pump-action shotguns and single-shot rifles. Marlin Firearms was founded in the 1870s by John Marlin. These letters are small and may be hard to read, and are always upper case.Marlin gun mounted on De Havilland airplane, 1921 This information is stamped onto the lefthand-side of the barrel where the old ‘JM’ stamp used to be. Since the MR serial numbers are computer generated, they do not coincide with a date of manufacture. The use of ‘MR’ began in May 2010, with some overlap to the 89/90 prefixed rifles. However, not all of these rifles are bad, continue reading for the Remlin dating system. Once Remington took over Marlin, the prefix became ‘MR’ for ‘Marlin Remington’, which is a dead give away of a Remlin. Below is the most amount of information I can find about serial numbers and what they mean for telling when your rifle was made. For a brief period Remington Marlin (Remlin) were putting out some poor quality rifles. Every body loves a Marlin lever action, but not many love getting one that is sub-par.

Marlin 1894 year of manufacture