Thanks Coffin -
I am of two minds about the thing.
Marlin was bought out around 1998 ish and the new mgmt went lawyer crazy, thus the "unsafe" missive.
"Now, if you have one, you should exercise caution should you intend on shooting it. According to Shotgun World,
"During 1998, Marlin issued a service bulletin recommending that slide action exposed hammer Models 1898, 16, 17,
19. 19S, 19G. 19N, 21,24, 26, 30, 42, 49 and 49N, in addition to hammerless Models 28,31, 43, 44, 53 and 63 should
not be fired as many of these guns are 70 to 100 years old and system failures can and do happen."
Should you disregard the warnings, have the gun inspected by a gunsmith with knowledge of the design and even
after its been cleared be sure to use light loads and wear your eyes and ears.
Up until that time, common knowledge was to have a 'smith trained in the old marlins take it completely down and
go over all the internals, especially the safety bits and disconnector(s) and replace anything that was too worn.
Of course even by 1980 parts were hard to find.
The Marlin 1898 and the Win 1897 are of the same time period, and are similar designs.
The early Win 1897 can be slam fired and have occasionally caused problems in the past.
The earliest Marlin had NO inertial lock, which was fixed in later releases, resolving almost all the problems.
here is a good write-up
https://candrsenal.com/marlin-model-1898/and here
https://www.marlinforum.com/articles/marlins-turn-of-the-century-pump-the-model-19-shotgun.74/here is maurauder's page
http://marauder.homestead.com/files/marlin98s.htmIn the cases of these beautiful old pieces they need to be in the hands of mechanically competent folks who are well versed
in the design and nuances, and well aware of the limitations and mechanical wierdities.
Mine was made in 1923, one of the "middle" grades, with smokeless steel, 2 3/4" chambers, and the latest in safety mechanicals.
The stock was "enhanced" by a prior owner. I have to make my photos much smaller, they are over 1 M each....
more later
prof marvel