Jim Taylor
The Deadly Marlin Jam
Monday, November 10, 2025, 09:12

Back in 2024 our nearly 50 year old Model 1894 Marlin .44 began jamming. It had feeding issues for quite awhile and I had tried various things.

I called a good friend who specializes on leverguns and told him what was happening. He said for me to pull off the bottom tang/trigger guard and inspect the area where the small part of the carrier drops through the tang. I did and this is what I found.

You can see where over the years the carrier beat divots into it.

I asked him how he fixed it. He said: 1 - replace the lower tang/trigger guard with a new one or 2 - heat the carrier and bend it .020" to .o25".

I told him that bending the carrier was beyond my pay grade. How about installing a .020" shim under the carrier? He said that would work. So I cut the end off a .020" feeler gauge and made a shim. I Gorilla Glued it in place.

And it worked!

Until a couple weeks ago. I was shooting it and the gun locked up with the action fully open. I could not close it. I went back to the shop and pulled it apart and found my shim had come loose and wedged the carrier.

I found another lower tang/trigger guard on Ebay for a fair price so I ordered it. I have it installed now and the gun is running like new.

WHAT I DID WRONG: Talking to others who have shimmed their Marlins I found that either JB Weld or epoxy holds up. One friend has been running his since shimming it 14 years ago or so and using JB Weld.

AND .. the shim should have been on the tang, not the carrier.

Live and Learn!