Rossi Rifleman

back around May I was down the street from buds and stopped in sportsmans warehouse for reloading supplies.
Asked the counter guy to let me handle that brand new remlin marlin 336 in 30-30.
I showed him the plastic barrel bands, he took a second look and shook his head.
That told me the future of marlin doesnt look to good, unless you deal in plastic gun parts.

I agree plastic sounds bad but look at glocks. If the plastic parts are done right there is nothing to worry about. If done right that is truly the question here. I think I would prefer metal every where as well. I am just saying the newer marlins could be just fine and lighter as well. I have no clue whether they are gtg or not.

Plastic barrel bands are wrong IMO.
The first gun I saw them on was a Browning 92. Once FN bought Winchester and started putting them out under the Winchester name they went back to steel.

Ruger 10/22s with the plastic bands seem to have more problems with them.

Remington has tried to use plastic several times. Apparently they did a good job with the Nylons or at least made a good profit and didn't torque of the customers too much as they knew what they were getting.

A few years ago they tried to do the same thing again with the Viper but the attempt to use plastic internally and for small parts was over done to the point that they failed in rapid order. They might have fixed the engineered problem with those guns I think the 522 turned into the 597 eventually but I'm not sure they managed to make them reliable.

My Marlin 45-70 has steel bands.
I'd probably like a 336 but if the bands a plastic then they can keep it.