If there was a rifle that symbolized America it would be the Lever Action. If there was a universal cartridge it would be the .22 longrifle. The Marlin 39, then, may be the quintessential, universal American Rifle: a rifle that carries the heritage of the west and the spirit of adventure – a rifle that is at home on the trapline, under an old oak full of bushytails, or on the range rolling tin cans. The 39 is the culmination of the updates and improvements to Marlin’s Models 1891, 1892, and 1897.
The Marlin Model 39 is arguably the most significant rimfire rifle in American firearms history. Introduced in 1922, it was the evolutionary descendant of a design lineage stretching back to the Model 1891 — the first lever-action rifle ever chambered for .22 Long Rifle — through the Model 1892 and the takedown Model 1897. Over the next century, more than two million would be manufactured across all its variants, earning Marlin’s claim as the longest continuously produced shoulder-fired rifle of all time. But the Model 39 was not born into a thriving company. It was born into a crisis.
The Great War and Its Aftermath
In 1915, Albert Rockwell purchased the Marlin Firearms Company, reorganizing it as Marlin-Rockwell Corporation. Under Rockwell’s ownership, the factory was retooled entirely for military production — manufacturing Colt-Browning machine guns under contract for the war effort. When the Armistice came on November 11, 1918, the wartime contracts evaporated and Marlin-Rockwell was left with a factory tooled for machine guns, not sporting rifles.
In 1921, Marlin-Rockwell divested its firearms division to John F. Moran, who reorganized the company as The Marlin Firearms Corporation and set about rebuilding commercial production. Moran’s first task was reestablishing the Marlin brand in a market that hadn’t seen a new Marlin sporting rifle in years. By early 1922, advertisements began appearing in sporting publications announcing the return.
The Model 39 Emerges
Moran’s reorganization included rebranding Marlin’s existing designs with new sequential numbering. The pre-war No. 20 became the No. 37. The pre-war No. 32 became the No. 38. And the venerable Model 1897 — Marlin’s flagship .22 lever-action with L.L. Hepburn’s proven takedown system — became the Model 39. A Canadian trade notice from 1922 provides some of the earliest published confirmation of this transition, explicitly identifying the Model 39 as “the very popular Model 1897, lever action with a full pistol-grip stock and full magazine, and now known as model 39.”
By the fall of 1922, the Model 39 was being advertised alongside the No. 37 and No. 38 as a coordinated product line. Marlin leaned into heritage — “50 years of tradition behind these Marlin rifles” — while emphasizing the features that distinguished their .22 repeaters from the competition: Ballard rifling, side ejection, standard 24-inch barrels, and quick takedown construction. The Model 39 sat at the top, priced at $26.50, described as “the only .22 Caliber Lever Action Repeater made.”
The distinction between “The Marlin Firearms Corporation” and later “The Marlin Firearms Co.” barrel markings is one of the key identifiers collectors use to date early Model 39 production. Rifles bearing the “Corporation” stamp, like the example shown here, were produced during the Moran period of the early-to-mid 1920s. It was during this turbulent era that someone even ordered a factory-engraved Model 39 with deluxe walnut and hand-cut checkering — a rifle that by all rights shouldn’t have existed in a factory struggling to reestablish basic production. That remarkable story is told in our feature, After the Guns Fell Silent.
Kenna and Stability
By 1924, Moran’s tenure was over. Frank Kenna acquired the company around 1926, bringing financial stability and promotional ambition. Under Kenna’s leadership, Marlin modernized its operations, expanded distribution into major retail catalogs like Sears, Roebuck and Company, and by 1928 had become one of the first firearms manufacturers to advertise on radio — broadcasting through WMSG, the station atop Madison Square Garden.
The Great Depression hit in 1929 and the firearms industry contracted badly. The No. 37 was discontinued in 1931. But the Model 39 survived, appearing consistently in catalogs and in the pages of The American Rifleman through the worst years of the economic downturn.
The Model 39-A (1939)
In 1939, Marlin introduced the Model 39-A — updated with a heavier round tapered barrel, a full pistol-grip stock, and a semi-beavertail forearm. The timing married the model number to the calendar year, creating an enduring marketing association. The 39-A would prove to be one of the most successful evolutionary refinements in firearms history, continuing in production for over sixty years.
An American Classic
After World War II, the Model 39 entered its most commercially successful era. Marlin introduced the “Golden” series with gold-filled triggers and select walnut, and the Model 39M “Mountie” with a shorter 20-inch barrel. By the 1950s and 1960s, the 39A had become cultural shorthand for “the .22 that works” — the rifle a young American received when his parents bought him the rifle he would keep his whole life.
By 1984, Marlin had produced two million Model 39s across all variants. The rifle’s story — from a design born in the crisis of a postwar corporate reorganization to an institution that outlasted every competitor — is, in many ways, the story of American manufacturing resilience itself.
Related:Model 1891 | Model 1897 | No. 37 | Model 32 & 38 | Shop Model 39 | A Factory Engraved Model 39
