Your gun has been chopped. If the work is well done it may be impossible to see evidence of a chop job but they did not offer a factory 16" 44 mag until decades later.

 

This is what the crown looks like, guy that had it before me left it riding on the truck seat for years. Messed up the crown and magazine cap.

 

Welcome to Marlin Owners. Others with more knowledge on Marlins and gun-smithing can give you an answer for sure. Your date code of 1978 is correct. But I don't know if Marlin made a short 16" trapper length barrel.

The only (2) Marlin' I know of in recent times was on a Marlin 1894S TALO 16" length barrel. in .45 Colt or .44 Mag. made in around 1996 IIRC. The 1894P (ported) was the other one. I don't know if just the 16" barrel on the TALO version was available for sale or not. For people to convert their rifles to the short trapper length as Some did with their 336 receivers to a Cowboy Model. Others here at Marlin Owners with more knowledge on everything Marlin Firearms shall offer more information.

Another way to check if a barrel has been cut: If the face of the muzzle end was flat cut (90Degree) across the front with no proper taper or crown. A good competent gunsmith can correctly replicate a factory muzzle end as well. it's a mystery for sure...How does it shoot? Caliber?

Old Creek
U.S.M.C. (Ret.)

 

44 mag,it shoots pretty good, oddly enough it doesn't seem to have been shot much at all

 

In my eyes that defiantly looks cut!
I'm no gunsmith!

 

Me neither, but I don't think I've seen another Marlin with a recessed crown before

 

From that pic, I will definitely say it's been cut down. Marlin never did a crown like what is pictured and the barrel should extend beyond the magazine tube. They look even in your pic when enlarged.

 

mag tube is actually about a half inch shorter, it looks good, even would look funny

 

Every factory Marlin crown I've seen has been rounded or domed. Not flat and certainly not recessed.
Good bet it's been shortened.

Better put a tape on that barrel and make sure it's at least 16" and better a fraction longer.

I think the official way to measure a barrel is to drop a dowel into the barrel against a locked up bolt. Mark the dowel where it exits the barrel and measure the dowel. It it's any at all less than 16" you could be at risk for a "short barreled rifle".

 

yep,crown looked redone to me too
dowel down the bore measures just shy of 16 and 3/4".I haven't re-crowned it cause a tape down the top of the barrel reads just a grunt over 16.

 

The Trapper look on a levergun is da bomb. I cut my wife’s .45colt carbine down and love it. Holds 10 Schofield loads. Measure from the closed bolt face for barrel length.

 

Sweet! I'm gonna see if I can get 10 44colts in mine

 

Somebody that has a copy of Brophy’s (the Marlin Bible) will be along shortly and we’ll know when the first 16” trapper was offered.
I like it either way, cut or original. I’d carry it scouting any day.

 

I like it too,handy as all get out slipping through the woods

 

I took a couple pictures of a Winchester 30/30 a 1974 model, I had cut down also 16.2 inches to keep it legal!

I'm in the process of refinishing it! Bought it from the pawnshop just down the road from me, sat in a boat for years, rust was on barrel and the stock need refinishing! Got all the rust off and have the stock half/azz done.
Picture of the crown, done by the gunsmith at my LGS. I paid $125 for this Winchester!

need to finish it!

 

Good deal!

 

How does it shoot?

 

Shoots better than it should for the shape it's in. I'm gonna do some work on it before I try to see if it'll really shoot

 

Well, they all should do the same: pull the trigger, and it goes bang. If it hits the target, you are doing good.