New Marlins from Ruger

[W.R.Buchanan]

Yeah, you ain't gonna see any decent Levergun for $500.

Let me clue you in as to the cost to produce anything today versus a few years ago.

Here is an assembly that I make for the Navy. It is a Latch that secures the Guide Doors (front and rear) on the RAM Missile Launcher. There are 2 on the front and 2 on the back of the Launcher. and I have made every one in the Fleet and the German Fleet as well. Probably in excess of 600 total.





When I started making these around 1996 the whole assembly was $750 and that price stayed in place until about 2012. Then the cost of materials started climbing. So I had to start raising the price,,, and after I saw what the DLA was charging the ships for this assembly, I raised it some more. They were marking my price up 200% so I figured I was leaving a bunch of money on the table . In 2016 they were $1250, IN 2018 I raised the price to $1650, then again in 2020 to $2150, then in 2021 to $2450, then $2950 last year, and this year they are at $3150.

I have never been asked to justify my pricing since I am sole source on this product. But the cost of the Blank to make the Striker Plate which is made from a 2x3x3/8" piece of Titanium has risen from $25 each originally to just over $700 today due to the fact that all our Titanium comes from RUSSIA! And they have that war thing going on!

Got news for ya. Everything has gone up and in order to be competitive your pricing must reflect what it costs to make the product, in this case the gun. The only places where there is room in pricing is between the Distributor that Ruger sells thru and the various Middle Men and the Shop that sells the gun to you. Hence MSRP.

So quit whining about the fact that you can't get a better gun for the same cost as 30 years ago. It is not a valid argument. How much more did you last car cost you? Bet it was a lot more than the one before it?

Reality is a Bitch!

Randy

[tladues]

Yeah, you ain't gonna see any decent Levergun for $500.

Let me clue you in as to the cost to produce anything today versus a few years ago.

Here is an assembly that I make for the Navy. It is a Latch that secures the Guide Doors (front and rear) on the RAM Missile Launcher. There are 2 on the front and 2 on the back of the Launcher. and I have made every one in the Fleet and the German Fleet as well. Probably in excess of 600 total.





When I started making these around 1996 the whole assembly was $750 and that price stayed in place until about 2012. Then the cost of materials started climbing. So I had to start raising the price,,, and after I saw what the DLA was charging the ships for this assembly, I raised it some more. They were marking my price up 200% so I figured I was leaving a bunch of money on the table . In 2016 they were $1250, IN 2018 I raised the price to $1650, then again in 2020 to $2150, then in 2021 to $2450, then $2950 last year, and this year they are at $3150.

I have never been asked to justify my pricing since I am sole source on this product. But the cost of the Blank to make the Striker Plate which is made from a 2x3x3/8" piece of Titanium has risen from $25 each originally to just over $700 today due to the fact that all our Titanium comes from RUSSIA! And they have that war thing going on!

Got news for ya. Everything has gone up and in order to be competitive your pricing must reflect what it costs to make the product, in this case the gun. The only places where there is room in pricing is between the Distributor that Ruger sells thru and the various Middle Men and the Shop that sells the gun to you. Hence MSRP.

So quit whining about the fact that you can't get a better gun for the same cost as 30 years ago. It is not a valid argument. How much more did you last car cost you? Bet it was a lot more than the one before it?

Reality is a Bitch!

Randy

What a bad ace niche you got yourself into!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[splithoof]

Randy, that’s a very good analogy you offer. Given the increases in everything related to manufacturing, I think most firearms today are actually more affordable than they were in years past, adjusted for inflation and the mentioned rises in all costs. I would easily pay more for quality, and I must say that the current line of RuMar products I’ve handled are far superior to past attempts. I’m very pleased with my 1895 Trapper, and I should add that Apples (a MLC member on this board) was a very positive influence on my decision to acquire one.
With that said, I wish Ruger would add a “premium” line of existing models. An example would be a 10/22 takedown, with stainless steel receiver (not aluminum), a nice checkered walnut stock that is properly fitted, a superior trigger that isn’t like wiping an ape’s butt, integral optics bases, and better iron sights.
One can always hope….

[Imageview]

I did the math a while back in another thread, but adjusted for inflation marlins cost about the same as they did in the 50s.

[Ki6vsm]

They say that the end run of the JM builds before the Freedom Group acquisition fell off due to worn out tooling and machinist attrition.

I have a 2005 JM and it had some broach bit tooling marks in the receiver that were so bad that I thought the receiver was cracked.

In contrast, I have a 1970s JM that is a masterpiece.

I don't know if it's true for all the Marlins. My 39A, made in 1967, is beautiful on the outside, but the tooling marks on the inside of the receiver, as seen when the rifle is cracked open for take-down, are horrendous. Maybe they just consider that important in those days. It's purely "cosmetic" and not actually seen when the rifle is together. And maybe because it's just a .22 and perhaps considered a "kid's gun"?

[PogoJack]

New Marlins from Ruger

You guys are right about things costing more. I don?t know how Henry is keeping their costs relatively low.

Perhaps Mr. Imperato knows the secret and they will become the working man?s lever action. He?s a great patriot and I?ve bought a lot of his guns.

Anyhow, I love the new Marlins, their price isn?t unreasonable, and I would buy one if they made an 1894 in a new caliber like 10mm or .454 Casull.

[Ki6vsm]

Well, for what it's worth, I just found one difference between the old and new "Marlins" so far. Ranger Point Precision offers a new muzzle brake just for the "Ruger-Marlin" 1895s, which have smaller diameter: 0.762" vs 0.800", apparently:

https://rangerpointstore.com/ruger-marlin-1895-comet-muzzle-brakes

[200Apples]

How many older Marlins were made with threaded muzzles? pre-Remington... I can't think of any although there's bound to be one or three...

...and only one Rem-lin: the 1894 CST.

[Ki6vsm]

I couldn't say, about any earlier models with threaded muzzles. But just extrapolating from RPP's offerings, there were versions of the 1894 and 1895 called "Dark" that had threaded muzzles. I assume those had to have been Remlin rifles. And that they were all blacked-out.

The headline here of course is that Ruger seems to be making the 1895 barrels skinnier. Interesting choice.

.

[Imageview]

The darks were offered in 45-70, 444, 30-30, 44, and 357 with the same furniture as the cst, black cerakote (I think that was the coating, 16.1 or 16.5 barrels, and xs rail on top. It was the last year of production so not sure how many ever made it into the wild. Much like the current new releases prices were excessive on the secondary market.

[k1dude]

The headline here of course is that Ruger seems to be making the 1895 barrels skinnier. Interesting choice.

Better metallurgy?

Or lighter weight? How much does the old Remlin one weigh compared to the new Ruglin?

[W.R.Buchanan]

I don't know if it's true for all the Marlins. My 39A, made in 1967, is beautiful on the outside, but the tooling marks on the inside of the receiver, as seen when the rifle is cracked open for take-down, are horrendous. Maybe they just consider that important in those days. It's purely "cosmetic" and not actually seen when the rifle is together. And maybe because it's just a .22 and perhaps considered a "kid's gun"?

What you said, I can verify. It takes me about 2 hours to do a complete Action Job on a 336 or 1894. It took me over 6 hours to do one on my 39A. The inside of the gun was atrocious. it was like they were using dull cutters and not being very concerned about surface finish. This is ALWAYS a product of workers that don't give a ship about their work. They are there to work and take home a check, Period! The the Union influence doesn't help because it backs up the workers poor attitude towards their job performance with a "No Consequence for Poor Performance Contract." Crap work is the product of such an environment..

The biggest difference between then and now is that everyone on the Marlin Project does give a ship about their work and I assure you that if they didn't they wouldn't be working there. Ruger takes this very seriously.

I spent 45 minutes on the Phone originally with Eric Lundgren covering all the fine points of making these guns the best they could be. He called me! No one from Marlin or Remington ever called me, or anyone else who had some idea of what was needed.

Every problem with previous guns had been known about for 30+ years but nobody at the factory ever made a move to change anything! I got most of what I do off Paco Kelly's Leverguns.com Website, nearly 20 years ago!., And we ain't talkin' big costly fixes here we are talking simple Deburring operations and sharpening of tooling and making machinists simply try to make clean cuts instead of ramming parts thru operations just to make a quota for the day.

Now all those previously Manual Operations are done on Advanced CNC machinery that can hold tolerances and do roughing and finishing cuts automatically with cutters that are changed regularly. A far cry from what was happening 20+ years ago.

Also the amount of Hand Work to assemble these guns has almost been completely eliminated. The largest amount of cost in manufacturing any gun is in the "hand work" required to fit parts during assembly. Thru careful redesign of the MFG Process all of that hand work has been eliminated. Guns are assembled from parts that are ready to go right out of a box of parts. There is no "fitting."

A simple example of this was a machine I built for a customer who ran a Small Software Company. He gave me a simple CAD program that I learned how to use in about 30 minutes and still use today. I designed the complete machine on that program and printed out drawings of every part. I then went out to my Milling Machine and made all the parts and guess what? Everything fit together perfectly with no Hand Work or fitting or modifications whatsoever. !!!

I designed my Hand Press on that program in a little over 2 hours. Since 2016 I have made exactly two "Tolerance Changes" to speed up assembly. Otherwise the tool is exactly the same as when I drew it up the first time.

Even the wood on the new guns is CNC machined to a much closer tolerance that ever previously thought of and the wood to metal fitment is nearly perfect on every gun I've seen.

Everything just fits together the way it's supposed to, and the people doing it are proud of their work!.

And that is the difference between then and now!

Randy

[Spyder]

How many older Marlins were made with threaded muzzles? pre-Remington... I can't think of any although there's bound to be one or three...

...and only one Rem-lin: the 1894 CST.

My 1971 .444 was! ...at least after I sent it off to have it re-made that way.