Marlin 1889... They fixed what were broke!

[rusty gunns]

I have two Marlin 1889's. One in 38-40 made in 1890, the other in 44-40 made, I believe in 1899. Both suffer from the same mallity.

When you load the magazine, the first round often starts out of the tube, comes three quarters of the way out and jams, tail up at about a 30 degree angle locking the action up tight.

The only fix is to remove the lever and pull back the bolt, and the round can be dropped out.

If you load the first round through the ejection port, you can fire all the rounds in the tube without a jam. This was driving me crazy.

I Googled 1889 marlin jam, and this appears to be a common problem. (Which is why I'm sharing this.)

I thought of getting parts from Numrich, But the parts they get are from pieced out guns, so who is to say, the carrier I get is any better than the one I have.

On a lark, I went to Marlins page and checked repairs. They use private contractors for the old guns.
To make a long post short, I called Williams Gunsight (from Marlin's page). After a short conversation, I sent the gun.

In about two weeks, it was fixed. I was sure fixing a 120 year old gun was a Krap shoot. That any parts would be impossible to find. But she is fixed now and I have my "Red Headed Step Child" back.

So if any of you have an 89 with that problem, you may want to give them a call. Beats taking a bath on Gunbroker selling a gun you'd really like to keep.

[KirkD]

Thank you for that info. Valuable. I have an upcoming opportunity to purchase an original Marlin 1889 deluxe in 44-40. If it has that problem, I'll know what to do now. thanks.

[rusty gunns]

Thank you for that info. Valuable. I have an upcoming opportunity to purchase an original Marlin 1889 deluxe in 44-40. If it has that problem, I'll know what to do now. thanks.

Good, glad I could give some sound input.

The gunsmith did mention how ever that if he could not have gotten the tang screw out, it could have gotten complicated, so that is something to be aware of.
Other than that all he had to do was clean it out, tighten a few parts and replace one screw.