I bought a 1894FG in January. It was unusable.
It would not chamber a round from the magazine without at least shaving brass off the case. 50-75% of the time the case would snag on the sharp edge of the chamber and lock up the action.
The carrier was seriously out of time. All the cartridges in the magazine would try to come out at once. So it was in effect a single shot rifle with a neat looking lever on it.
After a few calls and faxes to Jo Ann in customer service, I shipped the rifle back to Marlin. They received it on Feb. 28th. I received it back on March 29th. They said it would take about a month and it did.
That was a busy time for me, so I ran samples of all the .41 mag. cartridges I had on had at the time through the magazine. What a difference!!! They all cycled fine. Even the 230gr Keith and 300gr. SSKs. I put the rifle back in the safe for a couple weeks. :lol:
When it was time to go shoot my new rifle, I pulled it out of the safe and fondled it a bit. I thought I felt the stock shift just a little bit. I looked closer and saw a crack in the stock just below the tang screw. I turned the rifle over and saw 2 cracks on either side of the bottom tang. When I flexed the stock I could see the main crack on top extended 4 inches into the cheek piece. I was not at all pleased. :eek:
To be sure this was a shipping issue. I doubt Marlin torture tests their stocks before shipment, especially if UPS will do it for free. I wondered what Marlin would do.
I called Jo Ann again. I was not even through with my tale of woe when she offered to either take the rifle back again under warrantee to replace the stock, or just send the stock to me. I agreed to change the stock myself if they would ship a new one. 3 weeks later, the stock came in.
Thank U UPS :roll:
I had not had the stock off of a 1894 before. The ear on the right side of the stock was broken off completely and stayed in the gun. The ear on the left side was badly cracked, deep into the interior of the stock. It looked to me that a ton of pressure was applied to the left side of the stock. There were no obvious signs of damage to the box this rifle was shipped back in. Other than the cracks and broken pieces, the stock itself showed no sign of mistreatment. No scrapes, dents, or surface marks.
It took till the end of April, but it finally all came together. I now have a good looking smooth functioning FG. This rifle should last a lifetime.
The folks at Marlin hung with me through all this, even when I got a little ugly. I wont forget it. Thanks Jo Ann, and Marlin
Rick