Marlin's Model 39 Turns 120

Let’s be clear: I never, not even in childhood, longed for a Marlin Model 39.

- Terry Wieland

Although I spent many hours poring over the 1965 Marlin catalog, sipping coffee and listening to Gordon Light foot, my attention was always directed at either the Model 336 (a real deer rifle) or the modern (and modernistic) short-throw Levermatic Model 57 .22 Long Rifle. I doubt that I ever cast more than a glance at the pages extolling the virtues of the Model 39A.

To my callow and untutored eye, the 39A was both old-fashioned and ungainly. The barrel was too long, the action too small, and the overly generous forend seemed out of proportion. It vaguely resembled the lever actions of the television westerns, but not in a way I would like. I never gave it a second thought.

Today, the Model 57 I so admired has been consigned to the scrap heap of history, discontinued in 1965 as an intriguing concept that didn’t work out, while the old Model 39A is still with us, still being made (albeit as a custom proposition) and, while a used Model 57 sells for relative peanuts even to its minor cult following, Model 39 variations are collector’s items that sell for good money, sometimes big money. Obviously, a lot of people knew a lot more than I did about what was a good rifle and what was not.