At the time Ruger introduced the Vaquero model, there wasn't really any strong manufacturer for that type of revolver for ann affordable price and of their quality. Marlin had the level gun market pretty much all to themselves prior to the big CASS push and held a strong posisition in it afterwards. There were enough of the Uberti and other imports to fill in the gaps in Marlin's line up to satisfy the demand. Aside from simply recreating yet another copy, why bother entering that market? Pretty saturated and CASS isn't as strong as it was.