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Can you re-bore a Marlin 336 in 30-30 to 375 Winchester?


I know that Winchester came out with in in '78 but had to beef up the frame to the Big Bore 94. Marlin came out with it but I don't remember any changes to the frame.

Member Weagle had JES rebore/rechamber a Marlin 336 in 30-30 to 375 and he says good things about it.

JES rebored a Tikka 30-06 to 35 Whelen for me. Great results.

I had JES rebore a Marlin 30AS to 356 Win and it is great. He is good, fast and fair.

Yes. You can.

Remember that the 375 Win is, in terms of power and speed, about equal to the 35 Rem. A downside that I see in the 375 Win is that ammo, brass, and component jacketed bullets are often hard to find and, when found, more expensive than the equally effective but plebeian 35 Rem.

The only area where the 375 Win is probably a more logical choice than the 35 Rem is if you're going to shoot cast lead bullets. If you do have JES rebore/rechamber your Marlin 336 from 30-30 to 375, I highly recommend the now discontinued 220 grain Hornady bullets, if you can find a stash of them. The last time that I looked, the Barnes Original 255 grain and Sierra 200 grain were the only component jacketed bullets still being made for the 375 Win.

I considered that conversion a while back, but ended up having Marlin (pre-Remlin) install a 38-55 (Cowboy) front end on my 336. Not up to the power level of the 375, but I wasn't really looking for anything other than an Eastern deer
rifle in a unique caliber.

Speer still makes the 235gr SPFN with the cannelure close to the ogive for the .375 Winchester. I bought a bunch of them for my .375-06.

Ed

Will those expand at 375 Win velocities?

I have shot some of the 220 grain .358" Speer FPs from my 356 Marlin and they hardly expanded on their way through a 120+/- lbs. whitetail doe. I changed to the 180 grain Speer FPs for deer and they kill much better/quicker.

I had JES re-bore a 336 to 38-55 this summer. He uses a hybrid bore/chamber combo. .375 bore with a Saami 38-55 chamber. Reports are that you can use .375 in it, but I'm just loading low to mid range 38-55 loads with cast bullets in Starline 38-55 cases. There have been no problems of any kind through several hundred rounds so far.
Very accurate with my home cast 250 grain plain base bullets sized to .377. Most have been with 10 grains of Unique or Universal clays either powder coated or lubed with Winds Wonder wax. 21 gr 4198 and 28-30 gr 3031 have been very accurate as well.
Shot a doe during our early doe season with the rifle and 21 gr. 4198 under a fairly soft 9 bhn cast bullet at just over 1400 fps. centered the near shoulder and exited the far flank. Took a 2" section of shoulder bone into the ribs with it on the way through. Really enjoying this rifle
I have no interest in jacketed bullets for this rifle so I have nothing to offer there.

IIRC, that's what they were made for as they have a flat point.

I was digging around in my .375 stuff this afternoon and came across a full box of Sierra 200gr FP for the .375 Win. Don't know if Sierra still makes them or not.

Ed

Yes, Jess was very reasonably priced and turn around was less than 2 weeks. The rifle is a Marlin 30TK which was a Kmart exclusive marlin. I really like the .375. Hits deer hard like the .35 rem, but milder recoil.

When I was shooting the 375 in Marlin and Savage lever guns, I settled on the now discontinued 220 grain Hornady as my "go to" bullet, as it fell midway between the 2 factory loads that Winchester/Olin offered at the time, a 200 and 250 grain. I was at the storage unit the other day and while rooting around for some 9.3x62 ammo, I came across several boxes of old white boxes of Winchester/Olin "BIG BORE" 375 Win ammo, probably 35 years old, maybe a little older.

Shooting cast 38-55 level loads most of the time is perfectly acceptable to me as I am a caster. As far as jacketed 300 would probably last most of my life. Few to load develop, few to verify zero each year, that's about it. 200 cases, no more is needed, probably make the cast cases from 30-30 brass.

The subject of 35 Remington is irrelevant to me as that round is not legal in Ohio for deer hunting.

Then the whole thing is irrelevant as I have a 45-70 lever gun. It's just one of those " Just because I want to" things. Clearly being a want rather than a need.

If you do decide to go with the rebore to .375 Win, let me know and I'll ship these 200gr Sierra JFP to you. Sierra still makes them if they shoot OK in your rifle.

Ed