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Condition 6/10. Barrel length 20". Ser. #448199. Cal. 44-40. Most of the blueing is worn. Slight pitting on the left side of the receiver. A few dings in the stock and there are no cracks. The tube has no dents. The action closes tightly and the lock works flawlessly.
The Marlin 1894 was originally patented on August 1, 1893 by L.L. Hepburn. With this design, Marlin simplified and strengthened the internal lever-action mechanism while continuing the practice of using a flat solid steel top receiver with side ejection. With the Model 1894, Marlin removed the rear-locking lug, which extended down into the trigger guard and had a tendency to pinch the shooter’s fingers during rapid-fire cycling. Other design improvements over the Model 1889 included a one-piece trigger and a two-piece firing pin to prevent the rifle from firing unless the finger lever was fully closed or if the locking lug were missing. Additionally, the finger lever lock of the Model 1889 was eliminated on the Model 1894 and replaced by a latch built into the lever itself. This model was chambered in the same calibers with the addition of the 25-20 and later 218 bee.
The Model 1894 and its successors found particular favour in Canada, Alaska, and the Pacific Northwest, where precipitation combined with cold temperatures sometimes caused top-eject designs to freeze solid. During the Klondike Gold Rush, the solid-top Marlin design was preferred by many prospectors facing subzero temperatures and dangerous animals, since the solid top frame was better at keeping freezing rain, snow and dirt out of the operating parts of the action.
This is a 20 inch factory short barreled rifle in 44-40, the double stamp for the caliber is very unusual and reportedly has not been seen before according to the Marlin Collectors records, the forearm wood is standard length. Short rifles are scarce as the standard barrel length was 24 inches. Most people that wanted a shorter barrel would go to a carbine which had a 20 inch barrel standard, why spend money on a special order 20 inch barrel when you could buy a standard rifle with a 20 barrel in a carbine. We cannot say how many short barrel rifles were made as the records end in December of 1906, and there was another 10 years of production after that before the Marlin family sold the company. The new company continued producing sporting arms to 1921, when yet another company took over, producing sporting arms using left over parts. That continued to 1924, when the company went broke and sold to yet another company. So, you can see, there is a problem trying to determine how many would have been produced. By far, the 20 inch short rifles are more scarce than either the 24, 26 and maybe even the 28 inch barreled versions. The receiver shows mottled grey from fading case colours and there is case colours still present in the protected areas. Wood is good and solid, bore is mint (bright shiny, with strong rifling), barrel and mag tube blue is a solid 80%. Mechanically it is perfect and a great shooter.
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