Kutter nailed the era. Mid to late 1920's. When the Depression started Marlin stopped using the star as a final inspection mark. The Kenna family took ownership of Marlin in 1923 when Marlin Firearms Corporation filed bankruptcy, and not long afterwards Frank Kenna started using the star inspector's mark as an advertising gimmick. They stated in advertisements that the star stamp indicated these guns had gone through final inspection and were the highest quality Marlin produced. In more recent years people transposed this to mean some guns were chosen to get the star stamp because they were deemed somehow special. But as Kutter mentioned, ALL Marlin rifles during these years got the same star stamp, not just some.
One correction to Kutter's mention of high speed ammo. Those guns with the bolt modified to handle high speed .22RF ammo has a "HS" prefix.
Last edited by Vall; 09/08/20 10:43 AM.
