A 336 .35 reconfigure story

[xtriggerman]

A while back when everygunpart still had a bunch of Marlins coming & going, I grabbed a straight stock 30-30 on one of their one day sales. I thought I would build a light weight 336 some day once a stripped receiver came across my path.  That day came.... sort of a few weeks ago on GB when a guy sold me an early 1950 336A 24" bl  in .35 that was mostly stripped save for the lower tang, trigger & loading gate. Found a 35 bolt on Ebay and then once the 35 was in my hands, I found the reason for the dumping of it. Some Gun smith??? drilled and taped the receiver but ended up with off center holes just enough to have a problem getting a scope to zero in. The thing with tapping a non taped 336 and older was the ceiling of those receivers have a arched cut nearly half way across the ceiling of the receiver top.  2 of the dead center holes actually cut threw into that open slot that is where the lever sweeps up threw the bolt. Once a drill breaks the very surface, it quickly wants to move into that empty space and thus, bores the hole over to the right where there is hardly any resistance. Luck for this receiver, the guy didn't use the newer 8-40 base screws of a regular Marlin but some odd ball 6-40 screws. This allowed me the room to mill the small holes over in the mill just enough to over bore them with 8-40's of the weaver base and be damn near dead on straight! All tho he also drilled a 5th hole in there that was beyond help.
  Then for some ridiculous reason, someone extended the forend tip dove tail more than 1/8th forward so nothing would fit it. So much so, it was clearly visible sicking out beyond the wood! WTF..... well, I cut a new wide dovetail blank and friction fit that one and a second one up where you see the front barrel band. Both got belt sanded down to barrel OD and sand blasted & cold blued to pretty much match the matt finish that was on it as received. The pistol grip lower tang got a trim job that matched the straight stock yet kept the G300XXX SN in place. I'v read the cast bullet shooters love these pre micro groove barrels. I cut & crowned to 16.5" Trapper style. Makes for a good small critter gun with cheap lead loads. Any way, I topped it with new irons and a pretty decent China Spina 1-5 scope that has surprisingly nice glass.
  Originally, I would keep this since its as nice as an old meat gun comes but last week I closed on a pasture lot auction that is adjacent to my 13 acres giving me 30 and extending my back 410' against the state park land another 411'.  Needless to say, I walked out of the closing with my pockets turned inside out. I'm dumping some guns these days that normally would have been traders or value makers.  The last time the pasture lot was for sale was 1946.  It was a total of 78 acres and the tax on it was only $680 bucks. Needless to say... a once in a life time buy for me and now puts me in green belt tax catagory for what I will keep out of the new 17 acre addition.  
   Funny thing is the land auction closed 9 days before I collected my first SS check! If it wasnt for that new found cash..... the land buy would not have been possible.

Compared to my 20.5" barreled model 36 30-30

 

[xtriggerman]

Thanks for the !  out of 28 views, must be no one likes the idea of a gun like this.  At least the folks here got me into joining TFA.  Alot of good discussion there that I can rely on.  Gun story tellin.... not so much! lol

[papa61]

I like it. the shorter heavy barrel and low mount on the scope make it. .35 is on my wish list too.

[KahrMan]

I like it.  The only thing I would change is to make the scope a low power on a scout scope mount.  

I have a 16" lever gun in .45-70 and it is my favorite woods gun.  The short barrel really makes for an easy carrying, quick shouldering and fast follow up shots if needed.  

 

[xtriggerman]

2 hours ago, KahrMan said:

I like it.  The only thing I would change is to make the scope a low power on a scout scope mount.  

I have a 16" lever gun in .45-70 and it is my favorite woods gun.  The short barrel really makes for an easy carrying, quick shouldering and fast follow up shots if needed.  

 

Now thats a serious woods hammer! The checkered walnut was way, way too long in coming Marlin.  Now the thing I like about the regular 1-5 scope is the fact that little scope gives you 81' at a hundred yard of view.  Basically no magnification at all on one power. There has been a few times when one step or slight move scattered a number of deer in a general direction and the low to no power was able to make a fast determination on all their sizes because they were all still in  scope view. Dropping the biggest one when they stopped & turned around to look (as doe's do),  pretty much convinced me on that particular set up.  I admit tho, I never put a scout scope set up in the woods but with my bifocaly odd glasses, not sure it would work for me.

[KahrMan]

4 hours ago, xtriggerman said:

Now thats a serious woods hammer! The checkered walnut was way, way too long in coming Marlin.  Now the thing I like about the regular 1-5 scope is the fact that little scope gives you 81' at a hundred yard of view.  Basically no magnification at all on one power. There has been a few times when one step or slight move scattered a number of deer in a general direction and the low to no power was able to make a fast determination on all their sizes because they were all still in  scope view. Dropping the biggest one when they stopped & turned around to look (as doe's do),  pretty much convinced me on that particular set up.  I admit tho, I never put a scout scope set up in the woods but with my bifocaly odd glasses, not sure it would work for me.

I really like the scout scope set up. Took me a little To get used to it but once I did it is fast acquisition.  The scope on mine is a fixed 2 power.