Home Forums Lever Action Central Marlin 336 Lever Actions Anyone shooting Hornady's LEVERevolution bullets

Retrieverman; Thanks for passing on that information; I'm no authority on 30-30's. I inherited this one from an 83 yr. old uncle in 2001. Checked the serial number and found it was made in 1991. And he bought it new which means he was about 73 when he bought it. No wonder it appeared unfired. It has a 20 inch barrel and is actually the "economy" version of the 336, (model 30-A.S.). Cheaper looking sights, cheaper looking wood,(birch?), no sling studs, etc. I always thought all 30-30's had a 12 inch twist so I never actually checked it. Now I will. It's probably a 1:10 twist. Maybe that's why it dislikes the LEVERevolution stuff. Like I said, I've heard a lot of good stuff about it and was kind of surprised that my 30-30 didn't like it. It's accurate as long as I don't feed it any LEVEREVOLUTION stuff. So maybe it's just a twist rate thing.

2250
It could also need a barrel band adjustment. There is a "how to" on Marlinowners.com forum that alot of guys claim has been very helpful in improving their accuracy. I personally have never had to do this, but it appears to be a common problem.

As I said in a previous post, my 1983 model 336T shoots 150 gr Federal and Winchesters under an inch at 100 yards but will only do 1.5" at 100 with LeverEvs. I wasn't happy with this loss in accuracy, but for the way most of us hunt, 1.5-2" at 100 yards is definitely "good enough". With 4 deer and 2 hogs with it last year, I am confident that I can kill at least out to 150 yards with no problem which IS good enough for me.

You might want to visit Marlinowners.com and look into some of the discussions and reference materials available there.

Retrieverman, Thanks again for the tip about marlinowners.com. Finally got around to checking it out last night. Lots of interesting stuff for anyone owning or just interested in marlins. Also had mine at the range yesterday; still doing great at 100 yds. with the aforementioned handload combo of a 170 gr. Speer FP and IMR-3031. If the 30-30 hits the deer woods this fall I've decided to go with that load. At woods ranges I don't think I'll have to worry about the extra range that the lever-ev rounds would give me. If those bullets ever get available to handloaders it would be fun to experiment with them, though.

I had an odd experiance with this ammo out of a Remington 141, 1947 pump gun, in .35 Rem. Now this gun will shoot just under an inch at 50 meters and about 2 1/2 inches at 100 meters with round nose Remington and Winchester's in 200 gr.

The Hornady ammo shoots like crap at 50 meters, 2 inches or so but shoots about 1 1/2 at 100 meters..........

So why would they shoot BETTER at 100 than 50? This is not a 1 time thing either, I ran a whole box, half at 50, half at 100 because I could not figure it out. I really want to shoot them because they shoot much flatter out of my gun. On at 50 and 100 meters, where when normal round nose is on at 50 Im about 2 inches low at 100 meters.

So why dont these group as well as the others at 50 meters but way out perform them at 100 meters?

I can't answer why, but 1.5-2" groups are plenty good for nearly all hunting situations. I am personally not happy with that kind of grouping (and it appears you aren't either), but from my range experiences, the average hunter, which are usually once a year shooters, can't do any better than that on their best day.

Im with you Retrieverman, Im looking for that gun to shoot 1 inch at 50 meters, it will do that with Rem and Win 200's, and 2 inches at 100 meters, it will do better than that with Hornady, but I cant get the close range performance with the Hornadys.

I think Im going to go with the old fashin round nose stuff, given the age of the gun its almost a sin to hunt with the modern ammo. I need to get one of the fancy satinless/laminate Marlins for that in .30 TC!

how bout the new Winchester Ballistc SP's with the Black coating?
I admit opening day i'll be using a diffrent rifle,but the 336 will get it's chances.

The Leverevolutions grouped Ok sith my son's 336, however, I was disapointed in the fact that no blood trail at all was left with the doe he shot yesterday morning. Has anyone else experienced the lack of evidence of a hit with these. They shot OK (good enough for deer hunting at 75yrds or less), but a good blood trail sure makes for easier dead deer locating.

They aren't fully stabilized at 50yds. This is a "common" problem with a couple of 308 long distance bullets, better groups at 200yds than 100yds.

I don't mean to offend, but I question the shot placement due to the lack of blood trail. I have killed over 130 deer and never had a single animal hit in the heart/lung area where the bullet completely passed thru not bleed. I have killed 4 deer and 5 hogs with LeverEvs, and in every case, the bullet did pass thru and deer did bleed.

retrieverman, no offense taken. The deer was about 35yrds away and quartering way. The entry was a little back, but the exit was perfect. about 2 1/2 inches behind the shoulder and about 2 inches up. The shot did completely pass thru. I will check my other pics and see if the entry or exit holes are visable.

The LeveRevolutions shoot very well in my 308MX which is a good thing as that is the only option. I suppose it's pretty common knowledge to everyone but me but is the LR bullet (except for the tip) an InterBond, InterLock, A-Max, or something else entirely?

Here is a group I shot on Thursday. ~10mph wind from 9:00 o'clock. This was not the tightest group but I liked it for the symetry. My son had the rifle out yesterday for a spike only elk hunt but no luck. Had six cows come by him, one at around twenty feet, but no horns.

DJR

Shot groups with two .30-30's yesterday: The 336CS put two within 3/4" @ 100 yards and then (perhaps by operator error) opened up to nearly 2.5" with the third shot. The 30 AS, on the other hand, printed three into a hair over 7/8". I was impressed. (But my family will be carrying Core-lokts and Power-points on opening day).

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong but I believe that they are SST bullets. Been drooling over the 308MX myself. Seems like I may have to get one eventually.