Why did Marlin stop making them?
Some say they didn't fit in with Marlin's image, which is weighted towards the FUDD side of guns. Some say they didn't sale that well...
Personally, I've owned and sold a Marlin Camp Carbine in 9mm. It was more Meh than anything.
Some downsides of the Marlin Camp rifles...
Undersprung from the factory. Particularly the 45ACP versions. This would cause stock cracking. Wolff gunsprings makes 16.5 and 21lb springs that will work in both, but does make charging the weapon harder.
Factory bolt buffer disintegrates. If it falls apart and is not replaced, the stock and sometimes the reciever cracks. Blackjack makes buffers for it.
Lower- lower is made of plastic, and it's an old tech plastic that is NOT solvent resistant. Get a little too enthusiastic with the solvent and your lower can start to melt. That also makes me wonder about durability issues. We all know Glocks are extremely tough, but Glock uses a hi-tech plastic, and it doesn't melt when it comes into contact with strong solvents. And then we've all seen aged, brittle cheap normal plastic that breaks...
Some of the internals were prone to breaking, exactly what I do not recall, but since Marlin isn't making any more parts, that would concern me. Back in the day, some police departments issued the Marlin paired with S&W autos (since the 9mm Marlin takes S&W 9mm magazines) and I recall an account of at least one officer on one of the gunboards stating that the Marlins would break parts frequently and could not stand up to the rigors of patrol.
I'm much happier with the AR-15 pattern rifles. If I wanted another pistol caliber carbine, I'd buy an AR-15 chambered in the preferred caliber. It'll be more expensive than some, but parts availability, weapon familiarity, the modularity of the AR, etc help a lot, IMHO.
