Model 56 or 59? I don't think I had a lot of problems with it - I know it was my go-to .22 rifle for at least 2 years after the Browning broke - maybe more. (By the time Dad got the Browning fixed, I was out of high school and in the Army) I can't imagine I'd have continued to use it if I was having regular problems with it - not with so many others there on the rack to choose from. I do remember having some failures-to-feed here and there if it go particularly dirty, but normally it functioned fine.I have a model 56 that I love. it never jams...
I'm not sure why I gravitated to the Marlin 39A. I didn't know enough about .22 rifles at that point in my life to realize that the 39A was such a nice rifle, and especially not a 1940s model. I think it was just the aesthetics of a lever action rifle. I always felt that the 39A would look better with a straight stock rather than the pistol grip stock, and if they'd have shaved down that fat fore-end a bit, but it still carried much of the same aesthetic of the Winchester 94 I liked so well. (I have that rifle too - manufactured in 1950)
That 39A got away from the family because my sister and her husband are dorks. We had to bid on the guns we wanted at the sale my Mom had for Dad's stuff, and there were two Marlin 39A's - one that had been plumb worn out and would spit powder back in your face, and the second one bought to replace it, which was the one I used. My brother-in-law had this hard-on for for the Marlins, and although I wanted it because I'd used it, I was already taking so many guns out of the collection I decided to concede on that Marlin 39A and let them have. They got confused on which one was which, and by the time I tried to bail them out by bidding on it, the auctioneer said, "SOLD!" I'm STILL bunt up about that, and that was 12 years ago. Finding a vintage Marlin 39A in the same condition that one was is next to impossible - NO ONE who has one wants to sell it.
Anyway, I'm wool gathering and straying off of the topic at hand, and that's Drickster's next purchase, which he already made.
It looks like that CZ Scorpion is going to be a lot of fun, although it will be more expensive to feed than a 22.