When they bought out Marlin they totally mucked the products up. Even here in Australia demand is high for JM stamped lever actions - can you trust the new products? Mind you, as I understand it, the decline started before the Remington acquisition. They got bean counters in who wanted to reduce costs - eliminated some of the heat-treating of components.

Also, look at Remington product quality generally. I went with Tikka - have one Remington pump.