Marlin 336BL Initial Review

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The Annoyed Man
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Re: Marlin 336BL Initial Review

#16

Post by The Annoyed Man »

puma guy wrote:Thanks for the initial range review. Looking forward to your next one. BTW, Did you remove the front sight hood? That helps a little. Being that your a lefty here's a little story about my older brother, also a lefty, shooting my Marlin 39 Mountie .22 lever action. He complained to me that the gun wouldn't fire after the first shot. (I had chambered a round, let the hammer down and handed it to him and went to shoot at another spot.) He handed the rifle to me and it functioned fine. I filled the tube mag and gave it back to him with a round chambered, hammer down. He pulled the hammer back, shot the first round and then levered it to shoot again. I noticed he was turning the rifle on it's side to lever it and that's when I saw the problem. The round fell off the lifter and out the ejection port before he pulled back on the lever. There was a little pile of .22 cartridges where he'd been shooting before. I told him to keep the action vertical when he racked it and it did fine. I don't know if a 336 would do the same thing or not, but something to keep in mind.
I've never tried the Hornady Leverevolution in 30-30, but I'm definitely going to try some. Thanks again for the report and Happy New Year.

(did you get my PM regarding Marlin?)
Yes, I did get your PM. Thanks for the information, and sorry I didn't reply. Usually I do reply to PMs.

Yea, I did take the front sight hood off. Actually, in the box, the front sight hood was included as a separate part, not mounted on the rifle. I put it on, and then took it off a couple of days later because I hated it. So that wasn't an issue yesterday....it was just that I was shooting from a shaded place (the 50 yard range at Elm Fork) into sunlight, and the bead wasn't lighting up.

As far as the alignment of the magazine tube goes, I showed it to my gunsmith son, and we can fix it. Because the barrel is short (18"), there's no barrel band at the muzzle end, holding the barrel and tube together. Instead, there is a dovetail on the underside the barrel, with a steel wedge dovetailed into it. The wedge is what keeps the tube aligned with the barrel. There is a screw in the end of the tube that threads into that wedge. The wedge isn't properly centered under the barrel, and needs to be drifted further in to center it. I think it is probably a very easy fix, and I'm going to take a punch to that wedge today and try drifting it over to center it under the barrel.

The issues with the fit and finish of the stock, I can live with, because this is essentially a "knockabout" gun.
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Re: Marlin 336BL Initial Review

#17

Post by puma guy »

The Annoyed Man wrote:
puma guy wrote:Thanks for the initial range review. Looking forward to your next one. BTW, Did you remove the front sight hood? That helps a little. Being that your a lefty here's a little story about my older brother, also a lefty, shooting my Marlin 39 Mountie .22 lever action. He complained to me that the gun wouldn't fire after the first shot. (I had chambered a round, let the hammer down and handed it to him and went to shoot at another spot.) He handed the rifle to me and it functioned fine. I filled the tube mag and gave it back to him with a round chambered, hammer down. He pulled the hammer back, shot the first round and then levered it to shoot again. I noticed he was turning the rifle on it's side to lever it and that's when I saw the problem. The round fell off the lifter and out the ejection port before he pulled back on the lever. There was a little pile of .22 cartridges where he'd been shooting before. I told him to keep the action vertical when he racked it and it did fine. I don't know if a 336 would do the same thing or not, but something to keep in mind.
I've never tried the Hornady Leverevolution in 30-30, but I'm definitely going to try some. Thanks again for the report and Happy New Year.

(did you get my PM regarding Marlin?)
Yes, I did get your PM. Thanks for the information, and sorry I didn't reply. Usually I do reply to PMs.

Yea, I did take the front sight hood off. Actually, in the box, the front sight hood was included as a separate part, not mounted on the rifle. I put it on, and then took it off a couple of days later because I hated it. So that wasn't an issue yesterday....it was just that I was shooting from a shaded place (the 50 yard range at Elm Fork) into sunlight, and the bead wasn't lighting up.

As far as the alignment of the magazine tube goes, I showed it to my gunsmith son, and we can fix it. Because the barrel is short (18"), there's no barrel band at the muzzle end, holding the barrel and tube together. Instead, there is a dovetail on the underside the barrel, with a steel wedge dovetailed into it. The wedge is what keeps the tube aligned with the barrel. There is a screw in the end of the tube that threads into that wedge. The wedge isn't properly centered under the barrel, and needs to be drifted further in to center it. I think it is probably a very easy fix, and I'm going to take a punch to that wedge today and try drifting it over to center it under the barrel.

The issues with the fit and finish of the stock, I can live with, because this is essentially a "knockabout" gun.
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Re: Marlin 336BL Initial Review

#18

Post by Pawpaw »

It appears Williams offers several replacement sight options for the 336 including the Ace-in-the-hole sights I mentioned in the 10/22 thread.
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Re: Marlin 336BL Initial Review

#19

Post by The Annoyed Man »

Pawpaw wrote:It appears Williams offers several replacement sight options for the 336 including the Ace-in-the-hole sights I mentioned in the 10/22 thread.
Those are nice, but I'm going to go for the XS Sight Systems set up, with a rail, peep sight, and new front sight blade: https://www.xssights.com/Detail.aspx?PR ... 8&CAT=8291
Image
Image

Then I will mount the scout scope that used to be on my Scout rifle, a Leupold VX-R 1.5-5x32mm Scout:
Image

I ran the ballistics, using the 2,360 fps I actually measured with my chronograph yesterday for the 160 grain Leverevolution ammo. With that velocity, I get a maximum point blank range of 276 yards, with zeros at 17 and 235 yards, 5" high at 130 yards, and 5" low at 276 yards. At that distance, velocity is still 1697.3 fps, with 1023.3 ft-lbs of energy......plenty enough for deer and hog. And with my degrading eyesight, 276 yards is still right about the limits of my comfort-zone with a 5X scope. Happily, it is also well within the limits of the .30-30 cartridge. It also seems to be within the accuracy potential that cartridge exhibited yesterday. So I'm optimistic that combination will work out well.
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Re: Marlin 336BL Initial Review

#20

Post by The Annoyed Man »

So, I was looking the gun over yesterday afternoon, and I noticed that the magazine tube was no longer misaligned relative to the barrel. I also noticed that it was loose and had some wiggle in it.

If you look at pages 24 and 25 of the Marlin Owner's manual, you'll see that there is a stud that separates the barrel from the magazine tube, at the muzzle end. That stud rides in a dovetail, but it is not a tight fit. You can see where the factory was relying on staking the stud to hold it in place in the dovetail, but their staking-fu was weak; so the stud was loose in the dovetail. A screw goes through the endcap of the magazine tube and threads into the stud, such that tightening the screw pulls the stud tight against the dovetail. It is the tension exerted by the screw that holds the magazine tube tight against the barrel, and it is the stud which provides the proper spacing between barrel and tube. So, either that screw had shot loose, or the staking failed, and that is what cause the magazine tube to start wiggling, but it also allowed it to center itself.

My gunsmith son was over here this afternoon, and we took it apart to figure all of this out. About halfway down the barrel, where the forearm tip clamps over the end of the forearm, there is a second dovetail on the underside of the barrel, in which resides a tenon. That tenon has a threaded hole on each side, into which thread tread two machine screws which fasten the forearm to the magazine tube/barrel, providing mid-length stabilization of the two. On the left side of the tenon, the threads are poorly tapped, and the machine screw on that side doesn't thread in absolutely straight. It's not cross-threaded, but it acts like it is. It was a real booger to reassemble the rifle because of that one little screw.

One other thing we noticed, those two machine screws that go into the forearm tip/tenon are not blued, they are painted. My son is a very careful smith, but even so, simply using a proper gunsmithing screwdriver on one of those screws caused a flake of paint to pop off the screw, exposing the white metal underneath. REALLY cheesy, and a perfect example of where Remington is cutting costs in assembling Marlins.

Anyway, we got everything reassembled and all the screws tightened, and the magazine tube properly centered with its magazine plug screw properly tensioned, and it looks OK. I asked my son if we should loctite those screws, and he said no, for the simple reason that if we do, we'd probably knock more paint off them trying to get them loose if we ever have to remove them again. OTH, if they shoot loose again, I'm going to loctite the bejabbers out of them. I'd rather have an ugly gun that shoots and holds together, than a cosmetically perfect gun I'm afraid to pull the trigger on.

So, I am disappointed in Remington's quality control, which very obviously misses the mark. It is interesting that the origins of the word "sin" in Scripture comes from archery, where it means "to miss the mark". That describes the way that Remington has approached building Marlin lever action rifles......they are committing firearms manufacturing sins. The next time I take it apart, I'll try to remember to take pictures of those sins and post them here.

Again, on this particular rifle, which I characterize as a knockabout gun and not really an heirloom, I can live with the fit and finish issues. The rifle appears to be functioning just fine. The sights, crappy as they are, are straight. The upgrades I plan for it will alleviate the unusable sights. I've found a load which appears to shoot quite accurately from it, and will carry plenty enough velocity/energy out to the ranges that are realistic for this caliber/rifle combination.

But that said, I'll never again buy another Remlin. My next Marlin will be a bonafide pre-Remington gun, properly assembled, with some pride of workmanship shown in the product. I think that's what bothers me most about Remington......they seem to have stopped taking pride in their quality.
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Re: Marlin 336BL Initial Review

#21

Post by Deltaboy »

Even the beat up truck Marlins had better fit and finish than that one. It sad that after this much time they can't get it right. :rules: :banghead: :nono:
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Re: Marlin 336BL Initial Review

#22

Post by The Annoyed Man »

I took delivery of and bolted on the XS Sight Systems rail with rear ghost ring sight and replacement front sight. I'll post some pictures later today. But it looks sharp and the new sights are a vast improvement over the OEMs. Now I just have to mount the scope I have for it.
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Re: Marlin 336BL Initial Review

#23

Post by The Annoyed Man »

Here's a hurried video and some stills of what the XS Sight Systems lever rail with ghost ring rear and white post front sights. The rear sight comes with two sizes of apertures, with the larger one installed by default. It picks up very fast, and the front sight is MUCH easier to see, but I may decide to put the smaller aperture rear on it. We'll see.......



Here's a closeup of the rear sight, with the default larger of the two apertures that come with it mounted:

Image


Here's a closeup of the front sight, showing the white ramp. It is SO bright, that I wonder if the paint doesn't contain some kind of reflective element. But it stands out perfectly when viewed through the rear sight:

Image


And this is roughly what it will look like with the scope mounted. Those rings aren't actually attached to the rail yet. This is a Leupold 1.5-5x32mm Scout Scope, part of their VXR Firedot series. It just has a simple duplex reticle with an illuminated red dot in the center. I haven't decided whether to go with the rings that are on it, or a set of 1/4" higher Burris XTR rings I have:

Image

The price for the rail and sights kit was $180.00, for a very nice upgrade and definite improvement over the OEM sights. I've installed their sight kits on a Mossberg shotgun and on my Gunsite Scout, and I've never been disappointed.
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Re: Marlin 336BL Initial Review

#24

Post by puma guy »

The Annoyed Man wrote:Here's a hurried video and some stills of what the XS Sight Systems lever rail with ghost ring rear and white post front sights. The rear sight comes with two sizes of apertures, with the larger one installed by default. It picks up very fast, and the front sight is MUCH easier to see, but I may decide to put the smaller aperture rear on it. We'll see.......



Here's a closeup of the rear sight, with the default larger of the two apertures that come with it mounted:

Image


Here's a closeup of the front sight, showing the white ramp. It is SO bright, that I wonder if the paint doesn't contain some kind of reflective element. But it stands out perfectly when viewed through the rear sight:

Image


And this is roughly what it will look like with the scope mounted. Those rings aren't actually attached to the rail yet. This is a Leupold 1.5-5x32mm Scout Scope, part of their VXR Firedot series. It just has a simple duplex reticle with an illuminated red dot in the center. I haven't decided whether to go with the rings that are on it, or a set of 1/4" higher Burris XTR rings I have:

Image

The price for the rail and sights kit was $180.00, for a very nice upgrade and definite improvement over the OEM sights. I've installed their sight kits on a Mossberg shotgun and on my Gunsite Scout, and I've never been disappointed.
Thanks for the update and video. Looking forward to a range report on the peep sight. Two questions about the scope. Is it extended eye relief and are the rings quick detachable?
Never mind the eye relief question, I looked it up on Leupold's website.
Edited:
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Re: Marlin 336BL Initial Review

#25

Post by The Annoyed Man »

puma guy wrote:Thanks for the update and video. Looking forward to a range report on the peep sight. Two questions about the scope. Is it extended eye relief and are the rings quick detachable?
Never mind the eye relief question, I looked it up on Leupold's website.
Edited:
Yeah, it's got eye-relief of 8" - 6.75" depending on 1.5x or 5x. Not as long as some, but more than twice what other variable power scopes have. It's not a great scope, but it's a decent one. My goal is to zero the rifle for maximum point blank range, which looks something like this, firing the Hornady LeverRevolution `60 grain FTX:

Code: Select all

Calculated Table
Range	 Drop	Drop		Windage	Windage	Velocity	Mach	Energy	Time	Lead	Lead
(yd)		(in)		(MOA)	(in)		(MOA)	(ft/s)	(none)	(ft•lbs)	(s)	(in)	(MOA)
  0		-1.5		***		0.0		***		2360.9	2.115	1979.9	0.000	0.0	***
 25		0.7		2.6		0.0		0.0		2295.5	2.056	1871.7	0.032	0.0	0.0
 50		2.4		4.6		0.0		0.0		2231.1	1.998	1768.1	0.065	0.0	0.0
 75		3.8		4.8		0.0		0.0		2167.7	1.942	1669.1	0.099	0.0	0.0
100		4.6		4.4		0.0		0.0		2105.3	1.886	1574.4	0.135	0.0	0.0
125		5.0		3.8		0.0		0.0		2043.9	1.831	1484.0	0.171	0.0	0.0
150		4.8		3.1		0.0		0.0		1983.7	1.777	1397.7	0.208	0.0	0.0
175		4.1		2.3		0.0		0.0		1924.5	1.724	1315.5	0.246	0.0	0.0
200		2.9		1.4		0.0		0.0		1866.4	1.672	1237.4	0.286	0.0	0.0
225		0.9		0.4		0.0		0.0		1809.5	1.621	1163.1	0.327	0.0	0.0
250		-1.6		-0.6		0.0		0.0		1753.8	1.571	1092.6	0.369	0.0	0.0
275		-4.9		-1.7		0.0		0.0		1699.4	1.522	1025.9	0.412	0.0	0.0
That keeps me plus or minus 5" out to 275 yards. That's about as far as I'm good for at 5x magnification, so, it works out OK.
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Re: Marlin 336BL Initial Review

#26

Post by The Annoyed Man »

I got the scope mounted, using two Burris XTR Quick Release rings, 1/2" high. It is about perfect.

Image

The view from the driver's seat:

Image

A short video:

“Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.”

― G. Michael Hopf, "Those Who Remain"

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Re: Marlin 336BL Initial Review

#27

Post by Deltaboy »

That is a good looking set up. :tiphat:
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