What do you do when your flagship lever-action .22, the venerable Model 39, is pricing families out of the market? In 1955, if you’re Marlin, you license a clever cam-and-roller system from a defunct shotgun manufacturer and build something entirely new.
The Marlin Model 56 and 57 represented Marlin’s boldest departure from traditional lever-action design. Unlike the side-loading, tube-fed Model 39 that had defined Marlin’s rimfire lever guns for decades, the Levermatics—as they came to be known—employed an innovative cam-and-roller system that delivered an exceptionally short, smooth lever throw. The action was so slick you could cycle it with just your fingers, keeping your thumb over the stock’s wrist.
The Model 56, introduced in 1955, was Marlin’s first Levermatic. Chambered in .22 Long Rifle and fed from a detachable box magazine (available in 7, 10, or 12-round capacities), it represented a clean break from Marlin’s lever-gun heritage. Early production featured steel receivers and 24-inch barrels, but by late 1955 Marlin had settled on a 22-inch barrel, and by 1956 they’d switched to an aluminum receiver to keep costs down and weight manageable. Similar to their production path for the Model 80 & 81, in 1959 they added a tube-fed variant.
The timing, however, was unfortunate. The mid-1950s were the golden age of TV westerns—Gunsmoke, The Rifleman, Have Gun Will Travel—and American kids wanted lever guns that looked like the rifles their heroes carried, not something that resembled a Savage 99. The Model 56, with its streamlined profile and box magazine, looked more at home in a duck blind than on a cattle drive. Production totaled just 31,500 units over its nine-year run, a far cry from the hundreds of thousands of Model 39s and Model 60s that would dominate Marlin’s production numbers.
Despite their innovative design and legitimate accuracy, the Levermatics never achieved the widespread popularity Marlin had hoped for. The unconventional styling, the higher price point compared to bolt-actions like the Model 80 & 81, and the competing pull of traditional lever guns like the Model 39s all conspired against them. Production of the Model 56 ended in 1964 and the Model 57 in 1965 closing the chapter on Marlin’s most unusual lever-action experiment.
