Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Marlin 39A with ejection problem

I have a Marlin 39A that does not eject fired cases very well at all. I thought it was a bad ejector so I ordered a new one from Marlin and tried it out this week end. It didn't work. The rifle would jam every three or four shots, always because the ejector would not pull the rim of the case out of the barrel. A friend at the range said that it looked like the thickness of the barrel was too great where the grove in the barrel for the ejector meets the chamber of the barrel. The rim of the cases does not appear to extend enough into the grove to allow the ejector to grab the case. He thought that filing the grove a little thinner would do the trick. I don't want to do that without some more advise. The rifle does eject live rounds fine. I have cleaned the chamber thoroughly and it doesn't help. Anyone have any ideas? There is no local gunsmith.

The gun "EXTRACTS" live rounds fine but fails to "EXTRACT" fired rounds. Well, the first thing I would do is look to see if the mouth of the chamber were burred or otherwise damaged. It's a rimfire and if for some reason the firing pin moved forward far enough without something in the chamber to stop it(the brass), as in Dry Firing, it could have hit the edge of the chamber, where the rim would be, forming a burr which could cause the problem you describe. It is also possible that the beveled cut for the extractor is not allowing it to move enough to capture the rim. Or, the problem could be with the "EXTRACTOR" itself. But I would doubt 2 of them having problems. I would look for a burr first.

BTW, the "EXTRACTOR" extracts the cartridge or case from the chamber, and the "EJECTOR" kicks it out.

EXTRACTOR not ejector! Sorry about that. Thanks for the advise. If there is a burr on the edge of the chamber from dry firing could it be sanded or filed smooth or should I send it back to Marlin,(which might be quicker than going to a gunsmith). I think the bevel on the extractor is fine because it has actually scaped the metal on the barrel grove.

Thanks, Danl

I wouldn't sand it or file it. We use a little tool called an "Iron" to iron these out. It is a piece of hardened steel, turned to the same diameter as the chamber, but with a flat cut on one side. To use, you lightly oil the tool, insert it into the chamber with the flat side going past the burr, and then once in position, you carefully rotate the tool and the burr disappears! A competent gunsmith should be able to do it within a few minutes.