Marlin closing Northeast plant ... moving to North Carolina?

I just saw on Michael Bane's blog that Marlin is closing its Connecticut plant, another sign of flight from the unfriendly gun climate of the northeastern U.S. region.

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.

Bane says he's planning to buy a Marlin 1895GBP .45-70 guide gun sooner rather than later, but I doubt there's any danger of Marlin going out of business. The Freedom Group is expanding and consolidating costs of its family of firearms businesses, so Marlin's manufacturing may well be coming to the Remington plant here in my state at Madison, NC.

My Marlin 1894SS .44 Magnum lever carbine is my favorite long gun (that's it in the header of my blog) and I nearly bought a Marlin just like it in .357 Magnum, but somebody else bought it at the shop where I work before I could get my act together. Now I wish I'd been a little quicker on the draw.

I'm confident Marlin isn't gone, it's just moving from the northeast to a friendlier gun clime. But if we get a used Marlin lever gun in .357 Magnum, I'll just have to jump right on it.

The short (.327 Fed. Mag.) and the long (1894 Marlin .44)

Went to the range again today and shot the shortest gun I have, Charter .327 Federal Magnum 2.5" snubby revolver, and the longest gun I have, Marlin 1984SS .44 Magnum lever-action rifle.

Top photo is the Charter with its new Crimson Trace Lasergrips. First handgun I've owned with CT Lasergrips, and I like it. I see more in my future. The Charter is vastly improved since I had to apply Kentucky elevation for its fixed sights, which aimed about 4" high from the point of impact of most loads. Now I can put the red dot where I want to hit and let 'er fly.

It's also an improvement because my 61-year-old eyes have a hard time seeing short snubby sights in the first place, so now I can forget about the sights and keep my eyes on the target. I'm a bit fuzzy up close without glasses, but I can see crystal clear once I get beyond the length of my arms. So my pistol shooting will improve with the Lasergrips.

First I zeroed it with American Eagle JSP 100-grain loads, then had to zero it again with my carry loads, Speer Gold Dot JHP 110-grain loads. The second photo is the results of my zero work, sitting at bench rest at 21 feet, a reasonable distance for shooting a snubnose revolver.

Third photo is a closeup of the CT Lasergrips beaming brightly from my Charter Patriot .327.

I gotta say it's a real handful sitting at a bench rest. It's a totally different experience than standing offhand with a two-hand grip and sitting down you really appreciate what a nasty round the 327 Federal Magnum really is. I don't wanna get shot with nothing, .22 included, but I'd really hate to get hit with 110-grains of .327 sizzling at 1400 fps. That's .357 Sig or 9mm +P kinda speed, two of my favorite auto pistol rounds. And I read an article this week that FBI-standard gelatin tests are showing 13-14" of penetration and very impressive expansion with either .327 Fed. Mag. load.

I do believe a S&W 632 Carry Comp Pro Series is waiting out there for me in my near future.

When I got the Charter suitably zeroed for carry, I moved on to my new Marlin 1894SS Stainless Steel .44 Magnum lever-action rifle. I brought my sight-tapper to the range and a couple of boxes of .44s, .44 Magnum and .44 Special, both 240-grain. The rifle and ammo is the next photo, followed by a small redman 11x17" target at 20 yards.

The first couple of holes in the redman were shot at 50 yards which confirmed what I found the first time I shot the Marlin, off to the right. So I decided to take the work out of it and move the target in to 20 yards to finish the zero. One little love tap on the dovetailed sight is all it took.

I love this Marlin rifle. It's a tangent from my current plans for carry pistols, but a very nice one.

Three .44s plus .45, 327 Mag and .357 Sig Compact

What's better than shooting holes in stuff? Shooting holes in stuff with friends. I couldn't find anybody to go to the range with on Saturday, so I called up an old buddy from way back and went out to his farm to shoot my new .44 rifle and other assorted pistols. At top is my new Marlin 1984SS, a stainless-steel .44 Magnum/.44 Special lever gun.

And I took two other .44 pistols, a Hy Hunter .44 Magnum single-action I borrowed from the gun shop where I work for a test run and my S&W Model 29 .44 Magnum. Also in that pistol pile is my S&W M&P Compact .357 Sig and my Llama IX-C .45 ACP. Not shown is my Charter Arms .327 Federal Magnum, which I was wearing at the time.

I don't have a single-action pistol and was considering whether the Hy Hunter was going to be my first.

The first target, the fullsize Blueman, was shot with the lever gun at 25 yards and the Cowboy pistol at 15 yards. Lever gun was shooting high, which I corrected, but a tad to the right, which I didn't try to correct. Of course I didn't read the manual first, so I found out afterward the rear sight is drift adjustable. I've got a sight pusher, so I'll fiddle with that next time out with the Marlin.

The Hy Hunter didn't need any sight correction, thank God, as I didn't want to even think about what adjusting it would require with its fixed sights. It shoots dead on, as a couple of holes in the center will attest.

With .44 Magnum loads, it's a hand cannon but shoots dead on. With .44 Special loads, it's a pussycat.

It was a lot of fun to shoot, but after slowwwwwwly reloading it a few times, I figured out why all the old cowboys are dead. They got shot while reloading.

I think I've cured my itch for a single-action pistol. This one is beautiful, black steel finish throughout and beautiful pearl grips. Handles well with its 6.5" barrel, great trigger that couldn't be more than about 2 lbs. It's even a good buy at only $350 which is a steal for a well-made carbon-steel pistol. This one was made by J.P. Sauer & Sohn back in the '80s in what was then West Germany. That's the Sauer that has since merged with Sig to create Sig Sauer. Those Germans make fine pistols.

But it's a range toy and I've got enough of those already. Back to the shop it will go. I've finally found a pistol I don't want to buy. Unbelievable I know, but true.

The second target is shot with my S&W 29. Lordy is that one fine-shooting pistol. It makes the single-action .44 seem a century out of date, which it is. I love shooting .44 Specials and I can see with this new lever gun and my Smith 29, I'm gonna have to buy more .44 ammo. A lot more.

My buddy, his wife and I went through more than 100 rds. of .44 Special and about 25 rds. of .44 Magnum. My gun shop is one of the few I've seen that stocks .44 Special ammo so that will be my next objective, stocking up while it's available. We've got several different brands of range ammo and hollow-points to choose from.

Next up after the .44s was a few magazines of .45 ACP for my favorite full-size pistol, my Llama IX-C 1911. I bought some Canadian-made 15-rd. magazines for it and had shot them once and had a jam or two, so I needed more work with them.

Target is a 11x17" Redman shot at 15 yards with four 15-rd. mags shot at center mass and at the head.

The first time I shot the Canadian-made mags, I found they will hold 16 rds. instead of the 15 marked, so I had to try that. One jammed a time or two, the other didn't. So this time I loaded both to only 15 and both of them worked perfectly. Lesson learned. Fifteen rounds is enough, specially when it's .45 ACP.

Next up was my fairly new S&W M&P Compact .357 Sig. I'm now up to about 250 or 300 rounds and have yet to have a bobble. Performance-wise, it's just as reliable as my S&W M&P full-size .357 Sig, which has yet to jam at about 1K round-count. S&W's so-called full-size M&P has a .4.25" barrel, which is compact in every other maker's book, and the M&P "Compact" with it's 3.5" barrel is subcompact size for all other pistol makers.

The small Redman target with the M&P Compact is shot with two 10-rd. mags and two 15-rd. mags. It's nice to have a compact pistol that takes full-size mags.

I've been carrying the compact but the more I shoot it, the higher my confidence grows that it will perform in the clutch when it really counts. And if your self-defense pistol isn't reliable, why carry it?

I'm in the process of down-sizing my pistols from full-size to carry size and so far have sold my full-size .357 Sig, a P226 Sig Sauer, and have my full-size 9mm CZ SP01 Custom and my full-size .45 ACP FEG Browning Hi-Power clone up for sale.

The Llama has earned a permanent job as my car gun, riding on the seat beside me, and I'll let my S&W 29 go right after I auction off one of my grandkids, so both of those are definite keepers.

I've only got one other candidate I'm considering for sale, my Steyr M357-A1. I never thought I'd let it go, but frankly, it's my least-reliable .357 Sig.

That's not to say it's unreliable. But I never had a jam with my P226 and I've never had a jam with either of my two S&W M&P .357 Sigs. I have one every now and then with the M357-A1, maybe one ever 100-200 rds., so that's makes it the least reliable of the four. It's a fine compact carry pistol with 4" barrel, almost identical in size to my so-called full-size M&P .357 Sig. They even share the same holsters. But as good as my Steyr is, and I love it, the M&Ps are more reliable.

And when I compare my M357-A1 to my Steyr M9-A1, it comes in second again. So far I have yet to have any jams with my M9-A1 with somewhere near 1K in its round count. Maybe the lower-powered 9mm rounds just don't create as much stress as .357 Sig and are less jam prone.

I really haven't made a decision on whether the M357-A1 stays or goes, but I'm considering it. I'll wait until after the CZ and the FEG are sold and then make a reassessment once I've added another carry pistol or two as their replacements to see where I'm standing.

Marlin Model 1894 in .44 Magnum/.44 Special assaults senses

So there I was, starting another day at the gun shop when it happened. I was pulling the covers off the gun counters getting ready for business when this bright, shiny Stainless Steel Marlin lever-action rifle just jumped right off the rack into my arms and refused to leggo of me.

A Marlin Model 1894 in .44 Magnum/.44 Special! It was exactly what I was looking for when I sold my Remington 742 in 30'06, but I couldn't find a lever gun in .44, so I settled for a Charter .327 Federal Magnum snubnose revolver instead. I had almost forgotten about my lever gun plans as I began saving toward the next carry pistol I have on my ever-growing list.

And then it happened. Oh well, life is what happens along the way to wherever you're headed.

I really do need a lever gun to match up with my S&W Model 29 and share its ammo. I had a brief fling with a Ruger .44 Magnum carbine, but it wouldn't cycle .44 Specials, so that nixed it.

But this Marlin lever gun will feed and cycle .44 Specials just fine because I tested it at the shop. And then promptly put $200 of my small firearm fund into layaway until I can raise the rest.

Wish I could bring it home tomorrow, but I gotta learn patience. Oh Lord, I need a big load of patience. And I need it right now!

Seriously, I'm really looking forward to getting this Marlin .44 out of hock and shooting it. If it shoots as good as I expect it to, and I know it will, it's going to be my car trunk carry gun. Or maybe I should break down and buy myself a pickup truck and hang in the rear window.

After all, I am a genuine Southern redneck, so I gotta have a truck!