[Tim_the_Bald]

I am not happy with the Marlin Model 9 and find it a cheap poorly designed weapon.

The problem with the buffers shattering is well documented elsewhere. I changed the buffer and recoil spring and put a folding stock on it, intending to use it as a backup carbine to my Ruger Mini 14.

Yesterday I took the wife out to learn how to shoot it. She put quite a few rounds through it, then it stopped working. I took it home and disassembled it to find that the hammer strut bridge had broke.

I had previously lost one of these when cleaning the weapon; one side of the receiver had opened up a little and the bridge was shot out into oblivion.

It took me at least 2 hours of frustrating effort to force the new assembly into the proper place on the weapon, even using a work bench and clamps. One time the hammer strut bridge was shot once again into oblivion. At this time I swiched to a nickel one that I had previously obtained from Numrich and I hope it holds out better than the regular ones. Then another hour to get the weapon back together, for some reason the front pin holes did not align properly.
The fact that this weapon is not manufactured or sold anymore speaks for itself. Marlin does not even sell all the parts to it anymore. I will look into purchasing a more robust carbine, perhaps the Kel-Tec Sub 2000 9MM SW59 Grip which would take the same high capacity magazines as the Marlin.