Home Forums Lever Action Central Marlin 336 Lever Actions Back in the saddle after about 35 years

I was 14 years old when I got my first Marlin 336 in .35 Remington. Killed exactly 1 deer a 5 pointer with it and it was like the hammer of Thor hit it. Went to college and I was so "smart" I traded my first rifle for a Ruger 77 in 7X57. I have lamented that decision for a long time! Friday I walked into one of my favorite haunts and hanging on the wall was a pristine 336 in 30-30. I snatched it up in a heartbeat. Yes it isn't a .35 but trying to find ammo for that in Colorado can be problematic, back in PA not so much. 30-30 ammuinition is as close as the neighborhood Walmart. Anyway, this one isn't going anywhere soon and it was made in 1981 so the quality isn't a problem, nor is that nasty hammer block safety. I have been looking for this for quite a while so now I guess I have to start looking for something else I was "smart enough" to let slip through my fingertips!

Welcome home! Enjoy that Marlin.

Rung it out today and it shoots too, I'm very happy!

welcome home to the levers alot of fun and produces alot of game to the table.Enjoy the marlin glad it turned out to be a shooter

When I was fifteen, I got a Winchester 94 for Christmas. Never could hit anything with it, lost interest and sold it to buy a Remington boltgun or two.

Didn't miss it a bit, either, except it was light and handy.

Last February, I stumbled onto a 336SC, and decided I wanted to fool with a .30/30 again.
It's a bit muzzle-light, but handy, and a deer suicided itself in November. One shot, one kill, although the deer DID run about 40 yards. She left a nice bloodtrail Stevie Wonder could follow. Now I gotta wonder if I should have kept a levergun around all those years I was packing boltguns.

For the record, I will continue to use boltguns, but I won't ignore the leverguns any more.

You will enjoy that purchase. I started with a Red Ryder as a kid and went lever-less until about 15 years ago. Now I have 14 and counting.

Growing up in blacktail country, all dad ever used was a Marlin 30/30. I remember him carrying that old rifle up and down, through the vine maples, rain or shine, mostly rain!

One time as we were driving from one hunt to another in the old van mom and I spotted a pair of bucks crossing a gravel road far below our current position on the mountain. Dad and grandpa were in front, mom and I in back. He sped the old Dodge van on down there, and mom and I bailed out above the bucks, while dad and grandpa went down below and set up watching the gravel road. We did a lot of pushing thickets to the spotters, dad and grandpa.

It didn't take mom and I long to hit tracks of those two bucks in the reprod thicket. Soon they split, and the bigger set of tracks started circling. We followed the tracks going straight down, keeping the pressure on that one smaller deer.

Soon, we heard one shot, and it didn't sound like grandpas aught six, so it had to be dads turdy turdy. Our job with that buck was done, so we circled back to find the bigger bucks track, to see if we could flush him out too. That one was a smart old deer. After hearing what befell his junior, he'd have no part of the jump-and-run routine. He just kept spinning in that little 100 yard square piece of real estate, slipping by us several times by just a few yards.

After a few loops in the thicket, we were wet and tired, so we went on down to the road to meet up with dad and grandpa. We come across dad perched on a slash pile watching the road. There in the road laid Mr. Smaller Deer. You could see where his four feet had hit the road hard when he cleared the reprod thicket at a dead run. Big, deep, split-hooved tracks in the wet gravel right by the ditch, then the body about 20' away where he landed after dad got him in mid-air with that Marlin 30-30. To a young lad, my Dad was a wing shooter with a Marlin 30-30! There weren't a deer in the woods had much of a chance against the old Marlin. At least that's what I figured. he killed a deer each year with that Marlin. It was dependable, I'll give it that.

Sadly, dad lost his 30-30 to a burglar, along with moms jewelry and old WWII coins and collectibles. That was in the days before safes were anywhere other than banks and offices. He did replace it, but it wasn't the same, to me anyway. It turned up two years later in a police raid in Seattle IIRC, but by then dad had no need for it. Like most old timers, he wasn't the least sentimental, it was just a tool to him, one long replaced and forgotten. But an effective tool in his hands, as I remember it.

I'm sure yours will serve you well should you choose to embrace it heartily.

It will definitely see time afield this fall. I have never shot a deer with a 30-30. My dream gun was a Winchester 94 as a lad, but my uncle, who was a gun aficinado, talked my dad into the Marlin. My father, not the hunter deferred to him and that was what I got. I never regretted the purchase as it was my first, new deer rifle. When I got out of college I started my life as a "semi-loonie" with guns and foolishly traded it away. When I saw this one I couldn't resist since I was watching for a while. I had foolishly passed on a pristine .35 in a Marlin about 4 years ago and kicked myself since. Colorado might not be the ideal environment for a 30-30, but used judiciously I see no problem. In my 20 years of hunting Colorado I have exactly one kill beyond 200 yards so I think I'm OK, time will tell!

Check out the Hornady Lever Evolution 30/30 ammo. Longer shots are possible with it.

RS308MX this thing like Federal Blue Box 170 a whole lot so I think I'm good to go.

The Federal Blue Box stuff is good ammo. You'll do fine. In case you run up on any, though, keep a lookout for Remington 170 grain Core Lokt HP's. They are pure deer cyanide.

I have a buddy who is a very good rifleman. He tells me every so often that he has never owned a lever action rifle.

I just don't see how an American can reach the age of 40 without once owning a Lever Action rifle.


Oh well, I'll keep him in the will.


Back to the point. Congratulations on your new rifle. I've owned both Winchesters and Marlins, but if I am honest, I have to say that I always preferred the Marlin.

You did good to pick up the 30-30. Ammo is SO much easier to come by.