Home Forums Lever Action Central Marlin 336 Lever Actions .35 Rem ammo keyholing at 50 yds from Marlin 336

Anyone experience this ? Ideas?

I've got a '59 vintage 336RC in .32 Win Spl that keyholes badly with every factory load on the market. I have not tried the LeverEvolution load, but the three 170gr FP loads land sideways at 25 yards. I figured the bore had a bad imperfection, even though it looked perfect to the naked eye. For kicks, I handloaded some ammo with the Speer and Hornady bullets and all the problems vanished. With either bullet handloaded it will put three into a little over an inch at 100 yards with a 3x Weaver. The difference seems to be the bearing surface. The two component bullets have significantly more bearing surface that the Federal, Remington and Winchester bullets and at least in my rifle, it makes a hell of a difference. That Micro-Groove rifling can pose problems compared to Ballard rifling.

have it recrowned

What ammo? And have you tried different kinds? My 1970's 444 Marlin shoots all over the place even at 50 with factory Remington 240gr ammo, but shoots tight groups with Hornady 265gr Interlocks. My pre safety 35 Rem 336 shoots good groups with factory Rem ammo.

I second this .....start with the basics first! Just like troubleshooting a car engine.

Thanks all for the replies. My experience seems to mirror that of SCGUNNUT and marktheshark. Samples of rounds from 5 of 7 boxes of Remington 200 grain factory loads are producing the keyholing - 2 do not. My reloads do not. I've been using this rifle since 1962 and have never seen this before. Guess I'll just have to start sampling every box from now on. By the way, all the bullets were 200 gr Core-lokt, even my reloads.

Have you tried the Speers in 180 or 220 JFP?

sounds like bad ammo. i have well over a dozen 35's of various makes/models and have never seen the 200 CL's not shoot great. same can not be said for the 150's.

May want to slug your bore and take a measurement, along with getting a measurement of the diameter of the bullets that are keyholing. Could be that the ammo is no good, or it could be one of several problems with your rifle.

This was a common problem with some older Marlins for a while. On some rifles the front sight attachement holes were drilled a bit too deep and when the screws were tightened down two little bumps would portrude into the barrel. Bullets would tumble like a SOB.

If the barrel is clean and you shine a light you can see them. I had one of those rifles.

Rebarrel or cut a couple of inches of the barrel and magazine tube


.Micro groove. copper, and cleaning are not the problem


Lefty

Just curious....
Since your hand loads for this rifle are shooting extremely accurately, why not just stick with hand loads?

I have always used the reloads and will continue to do since I have enough components to last for the few seasons I have left. I cannot determine anything wrong with the rifle. It's just that (aside from the current ammo hoarding), .35 Rem cl has been increasingly difficult to find down here So I decided get some while I could. I'm betting on the bad ammo idea since all of is of recent manufacture and I've never had the problem before.
Thanks all.

you guys are mising the point,

Check the barrel for those protruding screws.


Lefty

I agree with the recrown.

I hear 35 R.E.M. Ammo is at this time value able. Sell it and reload IMO.

Lefty has a suggestion also......but why do reloads shoot good and factory not?

My older rifle key holes the gummy tips.
Shoots great with 180 gr Speers

Guys, you are making a mountain out of a molehill. If you can't find a load that shoots, sure, you have a problem, but, if you have some loads that shoot great, and some that don't, does someone really have to tell you which ones to stay with, and don't worry about it. Wallacem in Ga

Yup, start simple.