Home Forums Lever Action Central Marlin 336 Lever Actions Put a 336 SC on layaway....

Today, I stopped by one of three pawn shops I check on a regular basis and asked if they had any Marlin's in the back. The manager said he had one but it was in really poor shape but he brought it out.

I could see the missing sight hood, silver barrel and rusty receiver from ten feet but it was a 2/3 magazine model so I was interested to say the least, and it definitely had a big hole in the barrel. With enough I strain to cross my eyes I was able to see 35 Remington near the rear sight, an R-Prefix indicating it was built between 57-58.

The action felt fine, the trigger felt great, no damaged screw heads, the forend and high comb stock are flawless but oil stained and dark. It had a junk scope mounted in junk rings mounted to a one-piece base, all trash as far as I am concerned. The action is almost covered with rust, light but I didn't see much if any pitting.

My question about waffle top down below is ironic, I was looking at them on Gunbroker and noticed they were not drilled and tapped.

This rifle will never be a collectors rifle and I believe a good candidate for a refinish; I have wanted to try nitrite bluing for quite a while.

Sounds like a great project gun! Good find and keep us posted.

" high combed stock.." ? If it is checkered it likely is an SD. By 1957 they were D&T for scope mounts from the factory.

It is checkered and definitely a high comb stock, that is good news if it was drilled from the factory.

Dave,

Should look something like this. The below is an SD in 35 Rem. High comb on stock (for scope use), checkering fore and aft and deluxe sling studs. They came with swivels and a leather sling. Many had a skoshy-bit better wood than the SC's or the RC's.


I'm with Gundog....we need pics and progress reports

I went to look at it during lunch and it looks similar to the rifle you posted above, white line spacers, no checkering, high comb but the trigger is black.

The wood grain looks really nice, I think it will clean up real nice and look fantastic when I refinish it. I took pictures and will post them tonight.

Looks like a 336A

Very nice keep us updated.

I like those high comb stocks.

Since I prefer the carbine length barrel and I have been wanting a Manson military crown tool, I may take it to the local shop and have the sight holes re-drilled and chop the barrel.

I make no promises but I might try a peep sight and see if I can see well enough to hit 6"-8" bull at 200 yards.

If my eyeballs won't cooperate, how about a gloss Leupold straight tube, like a 1x4 or 1.5x5?

That would look great with an old Lyman receiver sight on it IHMO

Being a rehab kind of guy, I would enjoy working with that one. A=24" barrel, SC=20". 0000 steel with light oil would do wonders for it.

If you are going to chop it, I would suggest just clean it up and use it. Jack

I picked it up last week and will post better photos later. My first task is to clean the bore and action and lube it, swap the scope and test a few loads to see if it's worth keeping or flipping.

After I shoot it I will strip it down and remove the rust to assess the condition of the metal. The front sight base is screwed in place, if I chop the barrel I can have the sight re-installed locally.

Karnis gave me some good tips on re-finishing the stock and look forward to bringing out some nice grain.

Whats the recoil like with 180-200 gr bullets?

I found time last night to replace the junk scope with a Redfield 3x9 that I picked up off the classifieds for another rifle. It is the only spare I have right now. I checked the scope base screws and cleaned the bore and bolt and lubed the moving parts.

It was late so I just picked the recommended load from Sierra and dropped 38.3 gr's of 4064 in a dozen cases and seated the 200gr Prohunter's.

I had a perfect morning to shoot except for a knucklehead with an AR10 that asked to go downrange twice ten minutes apart to "mark his loads" before I told him that was enough.

I noticed the first shot was high left twice and low right once, but shots two and three are right together and consistent on all three targets. I want to go back and try three cold shots to see if they are consistent and then try some 200 yard shots.

Ya'll think 6" at 200 is good enough?

I was expecting some recoil with the 200gr slugs but it was a pussycat!

I am ready to move forward chopping the barrel and re-finishing the wood and steel, this is most definitely a keeper

The pictures suck, I had the Nikkor 50mm aperture WFO and focused on the receiver so everything left and right is out of focus.

i'm coming into this late, but you're talking about chopping the barel? What????

RDW

How do you like the Redfield scopes. A while back I bought a Marlin 336W 30-30. At first I wasn't going to scope it then changed my mind. I like to purchase american but I didn't want to spend a lot of money so I bought a 2x7 Redfield revolution. It looks great on the Marlin and the optics are good. Haven't taken time to sight it in but I'm hoping it stands up and holds zero.

Sorry not trying to steal the thread.

I like the Redfields, I put them on my daughter's 243's and they work well, made in the USA with a lifetime guarantee. I picked my daughter's up at Academy, they had them marked down to 99.00 before Christmas last year. I will also try a 2x7 Accu-Range on another carbine I have that needs a scope.




Yep, I prefer the look of the carbine like this one and my 336 is no where near a collector piece.

I know what you mean. I had a waffle top 336A that I couldn't bring myself to tap and sold it because I wanted to scope it... Well I wish I spent the $55 to tap it because I have not found one since and I should have resisted the hardcore collector purist advice.

Not to tell you what to do, but I bet someone at marlin owners forum would trade you a SC to get your rifle and you wouldn't have to spend any money and they would be tickled too. 336A's in 35 are hard to find and they would appreciate a hunting grade gun.

I finally decided I would attempt to drill and tap the front sight base holes in lieu of paying 25.00 each at the local shop. The local shop has a competent gunsmith but he is normally distracted by customers just walking in an talking so a lot of the stuff gets handed over to one of the sales guys, none of those I truly trust.

I spent a good two hours locating the holes using some hillbilly engineering, mounted the rifle in the drill press and drilled the holes 3/4 depth one size smaller than needed for 6-48 screws. I ordered the drill and tap, and a sight hood from Midway but the rear sight elevator was out of stock.

Then I chopped the barrel to 20 1/16", filed it flat and touched up the crown with my brass screw. I will order a Manson tool and finish it off later.

I prefer the carbine length and it looks so much more balanced now, yes, the front sight and screws are taped to the barrel for safe keeping. Next on the list is stripping and refinishing the stock and forearm, Karnis gave me some tips and I look forward to that part of the project, it has very nice grain and almost no damage at all.

The final step will be Cerakote, probably graphite black and I will use this rifle as practice. I have compressed air, a mini-hvlp gun and the means to media blast now, I do need to build a small oven.

One of my other goals it learn to checker, I received all the tools a decade ago but never made time. I am not sure if I will checker this rifle or not but that is a possibility too. It may be a decent source of income down the road.