This is a double post from the lever gun forum but I need some info.I am not a lever gun expert. I inherited this one and wanted to have it tuned up and rechambered. I the Marlin 336 rechambered to .30-30 Improved, an action job done, and the trigger was supposed to be cleaned up to offer as light and crisp a break as possible with a requested weight of no more than 4-4.5lbs. The gun was also re-blued because it has quite a bit of surface rust and some light pitting on the receiver from where it had not been maintained before I go t it. It has taken over a year to get this thing back and I just opened it up and took a look at it.

It appears that the chamber was cut after the metal was re-blued, chamfered after bluing for certain, and there is light rust in the chamber and the top of the barrel "extension" for lack of better words. It appears to have rust leaching from the threads also.



I have cleaned as much of it as possible from the action as possible but have concerns about long term serviceability.

It feeds ok as far as I can tell given the two cast lead dummies he provided and I just sized and loaded the empty case he sent with a Hornady FTX and it seems to feed fine as well. The cases come out scratched to hell though. It doesn't want to eject empty cases unless I run the gun hard. Two questions about these cases:



1. In the top picture of the cases, why does the groove above the rim disappear when I resize the cases? Is the brass thin and soft or is the chamber oversized and is the cases being over-worked at the web?

2. What causes these dents just below the shoulder? They were on every case he sent.

The trigger is inconsistent. It will break with no creep about 60% of the time and about 40% of the time it has somewhere between a little and lot of creep. I primarily shoot bolt action and AR guns with good triggers. What is a realistic expectation for a lever gun trigger?

I want to gather some information here before I go back to the smith with my complaints.

30-30 brass is thin, but should work fine in a 30-30AI chamber. Have you considered trying resized 307 brass in place of 30-30 brass?

Lube dents?

If you're not satisfied, you should talk to the 'smith. Unless you provide feedback, he'll probably assume that you are satisfied.

I intend to talk to the smith but am looking for some info to make sure my complaints are founded. The dents were there when I got the brass so I'm not sure what caused them and the case I made the dummy from was unsized but had the dent. I haven't tried .307 brass or much of anything yet. I just opened the package this morning.

I'm assuming bluing salts leaching around the threads.

I'd shoot the damn thing and see what's what. Not uncommon in the least for them not to eject/feed right unless the lever is worked with authority.

I agree the rust could be from bluing salts if it were blued with barrel attached to the receiver. It should have been pulled for chambering, crowning, and polishing (barrel is gloss and receiver is semi-gloss).

I just fit a slave stock to it so I can shoot it this week. I need to run it through its paces before I talk to the smith. I just wanted some initial feedback.

Why would the barrel have to be pulled?

He said he would for starters. I would also think he polished the barrel on a barrel spinner. I could be wrong, have been before, but that is how I would have done it. I guess you could chamber by hand, crown with a piloted cutter, and you could polish by hand without the spinner but that isn't how I would do it if I did this for a living. I would use a lathe, a lathe, and a spinner.

I hear you, just that I've known of more than a few to be done by hand, since you don't need to set back the barrel for the 30/30 version.

I haven't heard back from the smith but he shipped me the gun without charging me for it, just sent an invoice. Does anyone have a recommendation for a fix for any of the listed isses? Will polishing the chamber get rid of the longitudinal scratches on the case?

I went and shot the rifle today to see if I could replicate the scratches and dents. Cases do come out scratched but not dented. I think the dents below the shoulder may come from feeding them through the gun but cannot say for sure until I load some up and go try it again.

Longitudinal scratches are from going into the magazine, coming out of the magazine, or going into the chamber. Unless there is a burr or sharp edge on the mouth of the chamber polishing it won't help. Dents below the shoulder are likely from the case making the turn into the chamber mouth during feeding and will iron out when you fire them. Marlins are a push feed design and it is not uncommon for them to put a slight dent in cases during feeding. A bevel on the bottom of the chamber mouth may remedy the denting problem.

The reamer is a new PT&G because he had to order it for this gun. The chamber has a light chamfer (the bright ring that isn't blued)but doesn't have what I would call a bevel. I tried to get a picture to show the rough/rusted chamber and the chamfer:



I don't think the scratches are from the loading gate because they are around the entire circumference of the case. They look similar to scratches I have seen on guns that have rusty chambers from poorly dehumidified arms rooms. I have a tool I can polish the chamber with but that is what I paid him (not yet tho) for. This is a fired round with a .30-30 Win that got cycled through the mag, into the chamber and ejected. The parent case has a scratch on one side from cycling and does not resemble the fired case scratches.


I considered doing a Wild West trigger but he said he could clean the trigger up so I let him; I should have bought the Wild West trigger.

I guess what I'm looking for is an indication of whether y'all think this can be remedied with set back, re-chamber,and another go at the trigger. Or does this need to go to another smith to fix it?

Chamber cast it if you really want to know about the chamber. It sounds like you got a very average lever gun job and are comparing it to a blueprinted rifle. The scratched up case with the pointed round looks like resizing marks from here.....

A cast will tell you what you have. The rusty threads are quite typical. One more bath to rinse the salts won't hurt it. Sounds like the trigger issue may be a case of talent fell shy of the sales pitch.