Trying this thread again now that I've got the picture thing figured out......

Years ago I bought a Marlin 30TK .30-30, a relatively rare model of the 336 made for Kmart from 1988-90. Basically they're a .30-30 guide gun with an 18.5" barrel and 3/4 magazine. Wonderfully trim and handy, they seem to have developed a bit of a cult following among Marlin fans. I really liked mine. These rifles were made with lighter barrels and thinner forends than seems to be typical for most variations of the 336. The problem was power, I needed more! I've long enjoyed Marlin lever actions but could never find one which really filled the bill. 1895/guide gun .45-70s were too fat in both barrel and forend for my tastes. The little TK handled great and was a joy to carry but a .30-30 isn't exactly the cartridge I want to count on when hiking salmon streams or blowing a deer call around here. Prior experience with JES reboring made me decide this TK needed sent down to Cottage Grove for re-education to something more suitable.

Research indicated the .444 was a the cartridge for me as it would allow the most bullet diameter out of that svelte barrel contour. Brass and bullets are readily available. When loaded with heavy bullets you get suitable power and have better trajectory than with the .45-70. The conversion involves more than just a rebore/rechamber. Modifications are required to ensure reliable feeding and ejection. The extra work raises the price from his normal $250 to $325. I also specified a 1/20 twist since I plan to shoot bullets no lighter than 300 grains. I sent the rifle off in early December. A mere 17 days later I had it back, no longer a .30-30!

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The next concern was wood. The TKs were made with birch stocks. Yuck! One day rummaging through a junk bin at the local gun store I came across an old Marlin forend for $5 and snatched it up. Then I obtained a semi-finished buttstock from Boyds. Fitting the butt was the first job I took on. I got it fitted easily by smoking the metal with a candle to show the contact points and then removing the wood until it fit. Come to find out, the Boyds stock was a bit lacking. Below you can see where they took off too much wood around the front of the inlet where the wood meets the receiver, which caused some gaps. Also, the hole they drilled for the tang screw was off. Oh well, part of the fun of projects like this is figuring out how to solve unexpected problems. One solution to this would've been drilling the hole out to 3/8"s, gluing in a dowel section and then re-drilling the hole. As it turned out however, once I drilled the hole to 3/8" the tang screw was able to line up with the bottom hole just fine. Then I glassed the entire inlet for strength and to fill in the gaps.

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Now that I've figured out how to post pics if there's interest I'll keep this thread running with how things progressed.