Outdoor Life magazine, May 1931
1931 was an odd time to introduce a new rifle. The country was in the throes of the great depression. GDP per capita had dropped from $858 in 1929 to $623 in 1931, and would continue dropping to a low of $455 in 1933. A new rifle, particularly one that could shoot quicker, was a luxury few could afford. But Marlin’s competitors had long offered a self-loader, and the still newly reformed company was not going to be left on the sideline. The resulting Model 50 was the first entirely new model introduced after Frank Kenna bought the company in 1924. It was introduced to reviews that were less than glowing:
“In short, the Marlin Model 50 is too dangerous to be placed in the hands of any boy, not to mention careless men… [it] is inexpensively constructed and not particularly attractive in appearance, but is well proportioned for offhand plinking… Also, it must be said it is the most dangerous rifle on the market when entrusted to comparatively inexperienced shooters.”
-Excerpt from a review in American Rifleman Magazine, August 1932, full article can be found here
The Model 50 was short lived. Prohibition-driven organized crime drove congress to adopt the National firearms act of 1934, which essentially outlawed automatic firearms though an oppressive tax stamp process. The Model 50, which fired from an open bolt, was simple to convert from semi- to fully-automatic operation. While rumors exist that Marlin discontinued the Model 50 at the behest of the treasury department, they are likely unfounded. The Model 50 wasn’t exactly the street-sweeping weapon of choice for gangland mafioso – it is more likely that Marlin instead chose to upgrade the Model 50 to address the rifle’s shortcomings.
