New to me Marlin 336

dakota.potts · July 24, 2016, 06:37 PM

As I posted about previously, I recently picked up a used 1974 Marlin 336. A coworker of mine bought it used locally and found out that the entire finish had been replaced with what seems like flat black grill paint (not applied very well either). Every single external and moving part is coated in thick layers of it, and it's even gotten into the crown and the last couple inches of rifling. I anticipate all of that will come off with denatured alcohol or some other solvent and a stiff plastic carding brush. My plan is to strip the finish and polish it, refinish with hot caustic blue, color case harden the finger lever and cocking lever, and nitre color the trigger and screws. I might add an extended recoil pad and wrap with leather as well. I'd also like to get a receiver aperture sight and modify or replace the front sight.

Took it out shooting today to see what I can expect from it, and if it will need to have the barrel pulled to re-crown or possibly even to replace.

I was less impressed with the way it shot, but I believe that boils down to two major factors: Ergonomics and sights. I tried the rifle first at 100 yards and the round front sight almost covered the entire paper target. I did get somewhat of a useful pattern in that it was shooting low at that distance but 7 of my 10 shots were in a 6.5" pattern and the other 3 below the paper. The sights, in addition to being large enough to cover almost the entire of the target, are low enough they are hard to keep focus and repeatable point of aim on. The rifle is also not greatly comfortable from a bench (I anticipated this since it's a Brush gun designed to be fired from field positions) and the recoil is surprisingly stout from the 170 grain loads. I don't know if it's because of the thin plastic recoil pad, but it actually hurt enough to fire that I started anticipating my shots after 15 rounds.

We moved it in to 50 yards and did a little better but consistently not as well as I would have liked to do. My 5 shot group measured a spread of about 3" all centered pretty well vertically and hitting left of target. Whether this is due to the rifle's zeroes, not properly aligning the sights, or pulling my shots (I'm a left handed shooter) I'm not sure.

A friend of mine went shooting with me and has experience as a competition rimfire shooter using exclusively iron sights so I let him have a try. He shot a 5 shot group with 4 shots grouping in roughly an inch and a half and one flyer and that was good enough to tell me that my poor performance is more in regards to the operation of the gun than the mechanical accuracy. I may still elect to re-crown it but I don't think swapping out the barrel will be necessary. I understand that this is meant to be a hunting gun and not a bench rest gun, but I would like to be able to hit an effective group of a couple inches at 100 yards with iron sights. We'll see how that turns out.

603Country · July 24, 2016, 08:36 PM

I had one for years, in 35 Remington. Probably killed about 100 deer with it. That was decades before I thought accuracy was super important. It was certainly accurate enough. Longest shot on a buck was 260 yards, but normally a long shot was about 150 yards or so.

dakota.potts · July 24, 2016, 09:55 PM

I'm not going to ask for MOA accuracy for it because I know it's a brush gun (seems like it would be great for hogs) but 7" at 100 yards with some shots off the paper is embarassing for me. I'd like to be able to shoot it a little better.

FrankenMauser · July 24, 2016, 10:27 PM

I'm not much of a fan of factory sights and the ergonomics of 336s, either. The comb doesn't work well for irons, nor is it good for optics.
The sights, rear in particular, are too imprecise and annoying to use.

My personal preference for factory Marlin rear sights is actually the cheap, one-piece, aluminum Williams sight that Marlin installed on 336Ws for a few years in the early 2000s (elevation adjusted with a set screw, and windage adjusted by driving the sight). It has a better leaf shape, a better V-notch, a better finish that doesn't shine like blued steel will, and a white-outline around the notch. Combined with a 'cutaway' hood on the front sight, they're not too terrible.

Sights aside....

A new crown can make quite a difference.

This '69 336 (.30-30) had a pretty rotten barrel, with substantial pitting around and inside the muzzle, and all over the crown.

I test fired it with several types of factory ammo as a benchmark;
(30 yd for first group in center, 50 yd for remainder)

...Then chopped the barrel to 16.25" and gave it a quick crown. These first groups (50/65 yd instead of the previous 30/50 yd) are representative of the norm -- except when I mounted a scope that turned out to be bad, and I chased my tail on that for a while

:

July 24, 2016, 06:37 PM	#1
dakota.potts Senior Member Join Date: February 25, 2013 Location: Keystone Heights, Florida Posts: 3,084	New to me Marlin 336 As I posted about previously, I recently picked up a used 1974 Marlin 336. A coworker of mine bought it used locally and found out that the entire finish had been replaced with what seems like flat black grill paint (not applied very well either). Every single external and moving part is coated in thick layers of it, and it's even gotten into the crown and the last couple inches of rifling. I anticipate all of that will come off with denatured alcohol or some other solvent and a stiff plastic carding brush. My plan is to strip the finish and polish it, refinish with hot caustic blue, color case harden the finger lever and cocking lever, and nitre color the trigger and screws. I might add an extended recoil pad and wrap with leather as well. I'd also like to get a receiver aperture sight and modify or replace the front sight. Took it out shooting today to see what I can expect from it, and if it will need to have the barrel pulled to re-crown or possibly even to replace. I was less impressed with the way it shot, but I believe that boils down to two major factors: Ergonomics and sights. I tried the rifle first at 100 yards and the round front sight almost covered the entire paper target. I did get somewhat of a useful pattern in that it was shooting low at that distance but 7 of my 10 shots were in a 6.5" pattern and the other 3 below the paper. The sights, in addition to being large enough to cover almost the entire of the target, are low enough they are hard to keep focus and repeatable point of aim on. The rifle is also not greatly comfortable from a bench (I anticipated this since it's a Brush gun designed to be fired from field positions) and the recoil is surprisingly stout from the 170 grain loads. I don't know if it's because of the thin plastic recoil pad, but it actually hurt enough to fire that I started anticipating my shots after 15 rounds. We moved it in to 50 yards and did a little better but consistently not as well as I would have liked to do. My 5 shot group measured a spread of about 3" all centered pretty well vertically and hitting left of target. Whether this is due to the rifle's zeroes, not properly aligning the sights, or pulling my shots (I'm a left handed shooter) I'm not sure. A friend of mine went shooting with me and has experience as a competition rimfire shooter using exclusively iron sights so I let him have a try. He shot a 5 shot group with 4 shots grouping in roughly an inch and a half and one flyer and that was good enough to tell me that my poor performance is more in regards to the operation of the gun than the mechanical accuracy. I may still elect to re-crown it but I don't think swapping out the barrel will be necessary. I understand that this is meant to be a hunting gun and not a bench rest gun, but I would like to be able to hit an effective group of a couple inches at 100 yards with iron sights. We'll see how that turns out. __________________ Certified Gunsmith (On Hiatus) Certified Armorer - H&K and Glock Among Others You can find my writings at my website, pottsprecision.com.

July 24, 2016, 09:55 PM	#3
dakota.potts Senior Member Join Date: February 25, 2013 Location: Keystone Heights, Florida Posts: 3,084	I'm not going to ask for MOA accuracy for it because I know it's a brush gun (seems like it would be great for hogs) but 7" at 100 yards with some shots off the paper is embarassing for me. I'd like to be able to shoot it a little better. __________________ Certified Gunsmith (On Hiatus) Certified Armorer - H&K and Glock Among Others You can find my writings at my website, pottsprecision.com.

July 24, 2016, 08:36 PM	#2
603Country Senior Member Join Date: January 6, 2011 Location: Thornton, Texas Posts: 3,998	I had one for years, in 35 Remington. Probably killed about 100 deer with it. That was decades before I thought accuracy was super important. It was certainly accurate enough. Longest shot on a buck was 260 yards, but normally a long shot was about 150 yards or so.