Marlin/Mad Pig Customs 1894: A Lever Gun for the Modern Age

Marlin/Mad Pig Customs lever gun for the discerning Space Cowboy.

Let’s take a gander at one of the most unusual lever guns Marlin has ever released, the Mad Pig Customs Model 1894. This is a collaboration between Marlin and Mad Pig Customs, a company that has built a reputation for taking traditional lever guns and dragging them into the modern tactical era. This rifle is not necessarily aimed at traditional lever-gun aficionados, but rather at those looking for a modern fighting lever gun.

Mad Pig has spent years building custom “Thumper” rifles featuring Cerakote finishes, action work, modern furniture, suppressor-ready barrels, and tactical accessories. This rifle brings many of those concepts into a factory offering.

This is not a traditional walnut-and-blued-steel lever gun, and it is not attempting such.

It feels more like a modern fighting rifle that happens to be lever-action. The rifle is easy to wield, shoulder naturally, and manipulate, reliable and accurate. The rifle feels compact, rigid, and purpose-built for optics, silencers, lights, and so on.

The Midwest Industries furniture completely changes the handling characteristics of the Marlin 1894.

I am attempting to steer clear of the term “tactical lever gun” because it has been abused so much, and that term needs a break.

Now this is a Marlin 1894 at heart, but think of it more like The Bionic Man of lever guns. They started with a solid platform and enhanced it a bit. With that comes an MSRP of $ 2,999, which puts it squarely in premium lever-gun territory. Let’s get into the what and why of all that.

Midwest Industries stock with an adjustable cheek riser and M-Lok

Midwest Industries handguard M-Lok port, starboard, and below. Full-length Picatinny Rail up top.

 Ergonomic grip angle with Mad Pig textured inserts.

OD Green Cerakote gives it a completely different appearance from a standard Marlin and offers additional corrosion resistance.

The rifle ships with an Angled Spade Scepter muzzle brake compatible with Plan-B-style silencer mounting systems.

One of Mad Pig’s biggest claims to fame has always been smoothing and tuning lever guns.

Even if a buyer never intends to customize a rifle, they’re essentially getting a rifle that’s much closer to a custom-shop build than a standard production gun. Don’t get me wrong, the Ruger-built Marlins are solid rifles, but a little attention adds a modicum of refinement to an already nice rifle.

Mad Pig tool-less takedown fastener allows you to field-strip the rifle without tools. This is more important than one would think. The trigger broke clean with very little take-up at four pounds and enough overtravel for good follow-through.

Already excellent adjustable sights come standard, but with all that rail, I had to add the Meprolight MCO Pro.

A few groups shot from a rest at thirty yards, measured to within a half inch. 100-yard accuracy is on par with the Marlin 1894 Trapper and Dark, about 3 MOA with iron sights. The rifle is soft shooting, especially with the factory brake. As far as running the rifle, it is balanced, shoulders easily, points naturally, and is fast on target.

The Big Question: Why Not Just Buy a Trapper?

A standard Marlin Trapper costs dramatically less.

The argument for the Mad Pig is that if you bought a Trapper and then added:

Cerakote

Midwest Industries furniture

Muzzle brake/silencer QD

Action work

Trigger work

Custom installation labor

You’d probably end up spending close to the same or more while dealing with wait times.

If you’re looking for a traditional lever gun, I would steer you to the Trapper. If you are looking for something a bit more modern but with traditional roots, the Marlin Dark may be a good fit. Still, if you’re looking for a semi-custom lever gun that definitely stands out as a modern iteration, this lever gun is absolutely worth a hard look.

If you have ever looked at a Mad Pig Customs build and thought, ‘I wish Marlin would just build one of those from the factory,’ that’s exactly what Ruger-Marlin has done here. The Mad Pig 1894 isn’t trying to be a cowboy rifle. It is a modern fighting lever gun. It would be more at home alongside Ripley fighting xenomorphs than hanging off a saddle horn riding into Tombstone. That comparison is for you, Dave. Now, whether that’s worth three grand depends entirely on how much value you place on having a factory-custom rifle right out of the box.