- Marlin 336BL
This rifle appears to be a recently manufactured one. It does not have a "JM" on the barrel that I can see, and it has both a Remington Serial number AND (first time I've seen one like this) a QR code etched into the receiver, as well as a couple of barrel marks about which I am still ignorant.
Quality / Price:
- The most critical complaint against earlier "Remlins" was that many of them were delivered with the barrel improperly clocked relative to the receiver, such that the front sight would be properly aligned with the receiver, but the rear sight would be cocked off to the right a little bit, causing points of impact well to the right of point of aim. It was often not noticeable at first, and it was the point of impact shift that brought the owner's attention to the rear sight issue. Mine does not appear to suffer from that problem as the front and rear sights are both inline with the receiver. However, there are other, smaller misalignments. They don't affect the performance of the rifle, but they do speak to Remington's still not having gotten 100% behind quality control ever since their acquisition by the Freedom Group. On my particular rifle, the magazine tube is very slightly out of line with the barrel above it, and the wedge (if that's what it is called) that separates the barrel from the tube near the muzzle is slightly off-center under the barrel. Again, it's not one of those things that jumps right out at you from a few feet away, but it is apparent on close inspection. I have a picture of the offset below.
On the other hand, we are also talking about a rifle that costs much less than many bolt actions, indeed less than some other makers' lever actions. MSRP for this model is, near as I can tell, $589.95. I paid $504 for mine from Sporting Arms in Lewisville.....which is a bit more than some of Marlin's more common models. For instance, Academy offers both the 336W (20" barrel) and the 336 Compact (16" barrel) for $399.99. The 336BL (18" barrel) appears to be a less common model, and therefore more expensive.
- Mechanically, the 336BL works smoothly, although there are things which seem to be happening internally as the lever is being actuated which make the effort required greater or lower at various points along its arc. But none of these various points of resistance are particularly difficult to overcome, and rapidly manipulating the lever proceeds without any significant hangup. I imagine that it will become even smoother as it breaks in. Loading is accomplished by inserting rounds through the loading gate in the side of the receiver, and into the magazine tube. The tube will hold up to 6 rounds, plus the one in the chamber. I haven't loaded it yet, but others have reported that the last round is quite difficult to get into the magazine, and can even require use of some kind of a tool to push against the cartridge rim, since it is difficult to push hard enough with one's finger/thumb. Apparently, rounds cannot be fed into the loading gate at all unless the cocking lever is pulled all the way home.
- The trigger is heavy for a rifle......averaging 6 lb 8 oz out of 4 attempts as measured on my Lyman digital trigger pull gauge.....but it breaks cleanly, with no creep and a very small amount of overtravel. It is worth saying that my results are quite a bit lighter than what others have reported in other reviews of this particular model. In the last review I read, the reviewer said his rifle's trigger measured 10 lbs, also on a Lyman gauge; so either Remington made an improvement, or I got a lucky one.
The hammer has two positions, at half-cock, and full-cock. The safety is a simple cross bolt type, that when engaged prevents the hammer from falling past the half-cock. The safety can be engaged at half-cock or full-cock, but cannot be engaged when the hammer is all the way forward. I don't know if it is intentional or not, although I suspect that it is, but the trigger cannot be pulled if the cocking lever isn't pulled all the way back into the stock.
- The sights seem to be well-made, but they are not my favorite. There's probably nothing wrong with them, but my eyes are not up to the task. The rear buckhorn sight has a folding leaf with a rather small u-shaped notch, and a notched elevator ramp to set elevation. The rear sight assembly is dovetailed into the top of the barrel, and windage adjustments are achieved by moving the assembly right or left in the dovetail, with a mallet and brass punch.
The front sight is a shiny brass-colored bead on top of a thin blade, which is dovetailed into a mount which is threaded into the top of the barrel at the muzzle end. The bead fits tightly into the notch on the rear folding leaf, which makes the front sight bead very difficult for me to see if the bead is in deep shadow and looks dark. The rifle comes with an optional front sight hood that is relatively easily put on, but a little more ornery to remove. I have two complaints about the barrel hood: (1) it has an odd shape, almost flat across the top instead of arched, and so there is not a ton of light between the top of the side blade and underside of the hood, which makes for a smaller than desirable sight picture beneath the hood; and (2) it prevents too much light from reaching the front sight, making the brass bead appear black and indistinct in the rear sight notch. In all fairness, that is my impression indoors after dark. Perhaps in full daylight, it might be easier to see the brass bead, and the hood might be more useful......even though that portion of the target visible under the hood will still be attenuated because of the oddly shaped hood.
All of that said, I have intended all along to replace the rear sight with a XS Sight Systems rail and rear peep sight, which will extend the sight radius, and then mount a scout scope I own onto the rail, so the iron sights will become strictly for backup should the scope fail or break. I may replace the front sight blade with one with either a white ramp or a white dot with a tritium lamp in the center.
- The bluing is evenly applied on all metal surfaces except the bolt, which is in the white, with what look like blued "flutes" along part of its length. The cross bolt safety is painted red on the left side of the receiver, which when protruding, indicates that the weapon is hot. The stock is of laminated wood. It is actually a darker, richer brown in person than it looks like on the Marlin website, and it is quite handsome. The rubber buttpad is well fitted to the buttstock. There are very small gaps and or "irregularities" where the wood furniture mates to the receiver and barrel. They are not so obvious as to spoil the overall appearance of the rifle, but they are there if you look for them. The cut checkering is even, but not particularly sharp, although the pattern is very pleasing to the eye. There is a black cap on the bottom of the pistol grip, held in place by a brass-colored screw, which also gives a pleasant aspect to the stock. There is a blued barrel band that retains the forearm, and two rifle sling studs, one on the barrel band, and one on the buttstock. There was a fly in the ointment, as my particular rifle came with a small but noticeable blemish in the wood's finish on the left side of the buttstock. It looks as though that will be easily remedied with a furniture touch up pencil or brown crayon or something similar.
Overall, it is a very nice looking gun, not quite a carbine length, but not quite a full rifle length either. It weighs 7.5 lbs unloaded out of the box, and it looks "handy". Indeed, it is.
The rifle, as it comes out of the box:
Here are the barrel markings, aside from the model/caliber information:
The laser etched serial number and QR code:
Details of stock fit / finish:
The flaw in the finish:
Rear Sight:
Front Sight:
Crooked alignment of magazine tube to barrel:
I've never had the opportunity to closely examine a Marlin 336 from Marlin's heyday, so I don't know if these little irregularities are common to the brand or not. They don't bother me that much, but a fair reviewer won't overlook them.
I also purchased 4 different boxes of .30-30 ammunition at my local Academy on my way home, and in the next few days I am going to test the rifle for accuracy, and chronograph the loads for ballistic calculation purposes. I will add my results to this thread when I have them.
