Marlin Model 1889

About the Marlin Model 1889

The Marlin Model 1889 is a lever-action rifle and the first Marlin lever gun to use a solid-top steel receiver with side ejection of spent cases, a layout that became the hallmark of every Marlin lever action that followed. Designed by Marlin engineer Lewis L. Hepburn, it added a locking bolt and firing-pin interlock that prevented discharge until the action was fully locked. Chambered for popular frontier cartridges including the .44-40 Winchester, it was offered as a rifle, carbine, and musket.

The Model 1889 established the side-ejecting, solid-top-receiver formula that Marlin lever actions are still built around more than a century later. Marlin's design team believed a solid steel top was safer in the event of a hang-fire and stronger than an equivalent top-eject frame.

Marlin Model 1889 specifications

Production ran roughly 1889-1899 with about 55,000 rifles, carbines, and muskets built before being superseded by the Model 1893. Offered in .25-20 (very rare, around 34 made), .32-20, .38-40, and .44-40, with a wide range of barrel lengths and tubular magazine capacities.