First post here in the Marlin section. Good friend stopped by today to ask my help in solving his problem. 336 in 35 Rem, as near as I can remember its been in his family since mid 60's. Best estimate of rounds through it since that time is less than 200. Its your "2 shots to check sight setting's, 2 shots for deer for the year" gun. It has started misfiring. He tells me its been to the gunsmith for cleaning; 11th shot after getting it back misfired as before. Chamber was clean, but seemed to have some crud on the shoulder of the chamber so we cleaned that and got a fair amount of crud off and it now looks clean to the naked eye. He called me to say that it fired 2 out of 5, 3 misfires. He's going to bring it back over for me to take a look. I'm no gunsmith so I'm not sure why he's bringing it here but.......

The transfer bar at the back of the bolt seems to move freely. Seems to line up straight to the firing pin as finger pressure will push it forward with no dragging. I've seen some of the cartridges, both fired and misfires. In those that fired, the indent is what I would consider normal, perhaps ever so slightly off center (I've seen worse), rounded as normal, and plenty deep. The misfires have hardly a dent in them, as though the pin never made it far enough to set off the primer. He's tried Winchester and Federal ammo; misfires with both. The little gizmo between the underside tang and the lever seems to be working properly, hammer trips every time when I looked at it earlier.

Is the bolt, firing pin and firing pin channel easily cleaned by a tinkerer such as myself or is it a gunsmith job? Is this misfiring normal on an older gun, or was this model known for developing a certain problem thats easily remedied with a bit of TLC? I don't have a Stoney point headspace bushing that will fit it or I'd check some of the new factory ammo and the fired ammo to see if the shoulder dimensions change radically. He is not a reloader so all shooting has been done with factory ammo.

I'd appreciate any thoughts you Marlin enthusiasts might have. Thanks for your help! Ken