Ruger CEO: Marlin Model 1895 Inbound for Christmas

Christopher Killoy, Ruger's CEO and president, recently said the company will begin deliveries of the Marlin Model 1895 in December.

Speaking to Gun Talk’s Tom Gresham about the first Marlin rifle that will be released under Ruger this year, Killoy confirmed the vaunted 1895 lever gun, chambered in .45-70 Government, is inbound with production now underway at the company's Mayodan, North Carolina, factory. The Ruger head said they are concentrating on center-fire lever-action models at first.

"Number one priority that you'll see coming out – and it will probably be mid-December when we launch it and begin shipping those guns, again I gotta caution folks it will be slow to start – but we'll focus initially on the 1895," said Killoy. "Likely the SBL model, the Stainless Big Loop, in .45 Government."

Remington-Marlin, M1895SBL, 45-70 Gov’t — Famously billed as being able to take everything from bear and deer to moose and velociraptors, Remington-Marlin's M1895SBL in 45-70 Gov’t. featured a 6-shot tubular magazine, an 18.5-inch Ballard-cut stainless steel barrel, laminated pistol grip stock with a fluted comb, and an XS Lever Rail with a Ghost ring rear sight. It is unclear how the rifle will appear in Ruger's upcoming offering. (Photo: Marlin 2020 internet archive).

BROWSE MARLINS

Following shortly after the reintroduction of the 1895, said Killoy, will be a return of the Model 336, a people's champ in .30-30, and, later, the Model 1894 in .357 and .44 Magnum. Also fleshing out the Model 1895 will be rifles chambered in .444 Marlin

Ruger, who purchased the 150-year-old Marlin brand and assets in its entirety for $30 million at a federal bankruptcy auction last October from the assets of the defunct Remington Outdoors, has been teasing the return of the familiar line under new management.

As previously reported by Guns.com, court filings detail that Ruger stood to acquire more than 80 pages of tooling, machines, components, and spare parts needed to produce Marlin firearms as well as related intellectual property, patents, FFLs, domain names, social media pages, and trademarks. Ruger, flush after several years of record sales, paid cash for the assets.

Killoy said the acquisition, concluded in November, included over 100 tractor-trailer loads of equipment from Remington's plants in Alabama and New York.

"On November 23, 2020, the acquisition of Marlin by Ruger officially closed. By December 9, 2020, all assets were packed up for final delivery to Ruger's Mayodan, N.C., facility. Pictured here is the last truckload of equipment from that effort." (Photo/Caption: Marlin)

Killoy was recently seen on the floor at Mayodan, watching how the new Ruger lever guns are made.

Banner image: Color case-hardened Marlin lever guns at SHOT Show 2020 in Las Vegas. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

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