Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Which Rifle Is More Reliable a Bolt Action or Marlin Lever?

Just been thinking of this. Brain fart.

Bolt.

Depends.

There are really no problems with either one with ammo they are compatible with.

How long is a piece of string?

I'd vote bolt myself.

bolt hands down

Impossible to say. All bolt actions are not created equal and neither are Marlin 336's.

Bolts have 1/2 the working parts

Love my Marlins but for reliability I will take my Ruger bolt guns.

Neither - need a double rifle for reliability

I would take a well made pre-2010 Marlin 336 over many bolt actions. That being said, my go to rifle is an M70 Featherweight 'o6.

IMO it depends on which bolt action. Some are junk.

But why dwell on it? They are completely different styles of rifles.

Bob, I agree with you.

Levers are the most complex design among repeaters, bolt guns the simplest. I suppose there are some junk bolt guns, but I've never seen a lever that could come close to a bolt rile in reliability. Especially if you start asking the rifle to function when dirty.

Really ? There are a total of 72 parts in a Marlin 336, including all pins,screws,etc. VS 76 parts in a Savage 110. The Savage bolt alone has 22 parts vs 7 for the Marlin. I've had a bolt action [Rem 788] completely shut down operationally by a nearly microscopic amount of dirt in the trigger mechanism.

Yeah, and what's the difference between a duck?

I have worked as a gunsmith for nearly forty years. A good portion of that time was spent as Winchester warranty 'smith. I had to work on far more Model 70's than I did model 94's. Over the years, I've had to work on even fewer Marlins.
As far as working under adverse conditions is concerned,I have seen both bolt and lever actions come in to the shop in such condition that I was amazed they worked at all, but they did.
Just like a double action revolver, the old lever actions are an example of a complex design which, nonetheless, works amazingly reliably.
In the end, any rifle which has been well tested will probably be reliable regardless of what type it is. It worth noting that shooter error has always played a larger part in failures to function than has rifle design. GD

Hm. Interesting question. Good info, greydog. My gut reaction is to say bolt gun, but I have no back-up experiences. I've seen exactly zero malfunctions in Marlins during hunting, while having seen a few with various bolt guns over the years. That isn't apples-to-apples though, because the bolt guns come out much more often, and in more extremes of weather and terrain.

If ranges are only to 150 max, I'd prefer to have a Marlin lever gun in my hands: lighter, faster to aim, faster to work the action(by a hair), faster to swing at moving animals. If the range of my bolt guns isn't necessary, then I prefer carrying the Marlins.

I have lots of both levers and bolts in quite a few brands.

None have exhibited reliability issues.

I would say it's a draw.

my vote bolt

pump

greydog;
Thanks for your post, I always appreciate hearing from folks like you who have been in the business and have a better handle on such topics than I do.

To the OP I could only say that in my formative years through my family connections I met many Native hunter/trappers as well as farmer/trappers who lived on the edge of what was called "the bush" in the prairie provinces.

The most common firearm I can recall was the Canadian made Cooey bolt action single shot .22 rifle - most of them likely not having ever been cleaned any more than was needed to make them fire when asked.

After that the two most seen center fire rifles were Winchester 94's - mostly .30-30, but a surprisingly large number of .32 Specials too and SMLE's of one variant or another but usually the older Mk III.

Again if they'd been cleaned since the war I couldn't tell but they went bang often enough to keep the owner's family in meat - usually moose or deer but sometimes black bear too.

Funny though I can't recall seeing a whole lot of Marlins there for whatever reason - maybe because John Wayne carried a Winchester?

Anyway that's just one prairie kid's memories of seeing working guns back in the late '60's for whatever it might be worth.

All the best to you and yours again greydog.

Dwayne

Given a reliable design and properly constructed rifle (there are clunkers in both categories)and kept clean and used with proper ammunition, I think it's pretty close. I came late to the bolt game, grew up around the Savage, Winchester, and Marlin levers. All my older relatives had them and I used levers too. But I've been a bolt shooter now for about 15 years, and would have to say that in the case of a cartridge that is insufficiently sized or dirty, or a rifle that got dumped in the dirt or mud, the bolt gun wins, assuming it has an easily field-stripped bolt. Unless it was the hunt of a lifetime, away from civilization, though, I wouldn't be afraid to take an old Savage 99 and go on a hunt. And I remember reading either Dave Scovill or Brian Pearce about the old sheepherder who occasionally poured diesel fuel from the ranch tank through his M 94 and kept on shooting.

I have owned a couple of Marlins, and still own one which I inherited about 30-odd years ago. They do seem very reliable with factory loads or decent handloads, but I think they are less tolerant than a typical bolt-action of ammunition that is not quite right - overlength, for example, or not crimped.

They also don't have such ease of access to clear a problem as a good bolt does.

I've experienced 3 jams in several years of hunting. Two were extractor related in a bolt rifle, and one was a jam that can be attributed to the bullet, and this was in a lever.

According to my experience, I'd say the lever is more reliable.

But, I'd still bet on the bolt action.

Some bolts are more reliable than the Marlin, some are less.

Stupid question without specifics.........

That's like asking which can haul more groceries- a Chevy or a Ford?

Bolt.

Is it faster to Texas north or by bus?