Anytime I see a lever action rifle I start to daydream. My thoughts turn to Wild West shootouts. Bison hunts from horseback. Saloons full of loose women getting tight on whiskey. I start planning out hand-tooled saddle scabbards that match the obligatory chaps, hat and cowboy boots. Needless to say, in casa de Finn this plan goes over like a Milli Vanilli Grammy Award. Apparently no one wants dad wandering around dressed like the Duke. Undeterred, I began my quest for a lever action rifle. In the great tradition of Ernest Hemingway, I traded my chaps for Marlin fishing . . .
At the risk of offending purists, I narrowed my search to a lever-action gun with a semi pistol grip, flat top receiver and side eject. The Winchester 1894 or anything made by Henry were out. I eventually settled on a Marlin 336. And then I encountered an interesting concept: the Cowboy Assault Rifle (CAR). Uh-huh. A lever action with modern “tacticool” accessories. A potent combat weapon that maintains it’s “ladies and gentlemen of the jury, does this look like an ‘assault rifle to you?’ non-street cred. So I traded a dust-collecting shotgun for a Marlin 336 in 30-30.
A Little History….
Marlin’s been manufacturing the 336 since 1948. In all time U.S. sales of high-powered rifles, the 336 is second only to the Winchester ’94. Chambered in 30-30, Marlin’s potent Brady to Welker-esque combo has put venison on many a table across the country. It did so via a wide variety of calibers, including 219 Zipper, .32 Special and .44 Magnum. These days you can buy a Marlin lever-action rifle in any caliber you like—as long as it’s 30-30 Winchester or .35 Remington.
In the 1950’s, Marlin built its 336 lever guns with their proprietary “Micro-Groove” barrels. The technique ditches a small number of deep rifling grooves (a.k.a. Ballard rifling) for a larger number shallow rifling grooves. The idea: modern jacketed bullets would perform get into the micro-grooves better than they would with Ballard rifling (designed for non-jacketed lead bullets).
First Impressions
The Marlin 336 boasts classic smooth lines with just enough aggressive overtones to let you know it means business. Classic and deadly. Like Ben. I’m a major league tree hugger (re: his Weatherby PA-08 review). The warm tones of the Marlin’s walnut stock had me in full embrace mode. It’s a no frills, all smooth stock and forearm weapon, with just enough sheen to let you know this lady’s got class.
I’m not a fan of the action’s blued finish. fingerprints on the bluing drive me crazy. I have to resist the urge to wipe the gun off after every time I reload it. Thanks to my OCD, I avoid blued firearms like a Red Sox fan avoids Yankee Stadium. On the aesthetic level, the Marlin’s bluing is beauteous. The receiver shines like a freshly Windexed mirror; the barrel bluing is deep, rich and flawless.
The Marlin is surprisingly light and nimble. It weighs considerably less than my old shotgun or Mosin and only a tenth of a pound more than your typical fully loaded “m4gery.” It snaps to the shoulder naturally; the 20-inch barrel gives the piece near-perfect balance. A proper cheek weld is no sweat.
Once you get this baby lined up on target, you notice that the Marlin’s sights, for lack of a better word, suck. The front post is all black and hooded; seeing it through the elevation adjustable rear notch sight is a challenge equal to spotting a bear in thick brush. The rear notch is also all black, of course. Aiming the lever gun at anything darker than my pasty Irish skin (not that I recommend violating Rule 1), you’re hard pressed to even see the Marlin’s front sight.
Tacticool that. And you know I will. But first . . .
At the range
Fellow TTAG writer Ben Shotzberger and I headed to the range on a fine snowy Saturday to see if the Marlin could shoot as well as she looks. We got to Clarks Brothers, our favorite little range in the boonies, and picked up some Winchester 170 gr and Remington 150 gr semi jacketed soft points. For initial testing, we’d be firing at 50 yards (saving 100-yard shooting for the CAR conversion). Besides, neither of us felt like trudging through the snow to check a target at 100 yards.
Like any “proper” lever action gun, you load the shells through a gate on the side of the receiver. You press in and forward, forcing the shells into the tubular magazine that is located under the barrel. One of the major upsides of this system: you can top off your rounds without having to take the rifle out of battery. After loading the Marlin with six rounds you’re ready to boogie.
We took our time with the first shots, trying to get a feel for the rifle and how it liked the ammo. Felt recoil was pretty mild, but that muzzle has some jump (I’ll tell you what). Accuracy with the Winchester 170 gr was acceptable, but nothing spectacular. As you can see in the photo, the 170 gr bullets were kind of all over the place and mostly to the left, much like our friend “hizzoner” Michael Bloomber.
The Remington 150 gr ammo was a different story. Despite the always evident flyers, the Marlin loved this round. With stock sights, this particular load produced some decent groups. With good optics I’m sure they would only get tighter.
Next we tried out some “rapid” fire with both load outs. We fired a total of 13 rounds at the target with all but one getting on paper. Not the fastest or most impressive shooting, but everything was definitely minute of bad guy. Getting back on target in between shots was the biggest detriment to speed. Muzzle jump wasn’t the main issue. The stock sights were to target acquisition what Christine Aguilera is to lyric memorization. Perhaps something like this would be more attractive [Note to Mrs. Finn: both the previous sentence and the following video were inserted by TTAG's editor-in-chief.]
Unlike the young lady’s trigger finger in the video above, my Marlin functioned flawlessly, with one hiccup. At one point it seemed that the final round just wouldn’t go into the magazine. Upon closer inspection one of us (i.e. not me) was a tad too delicate with the loading procedure. When the appropriate (i.e. not Ben) level of force was applied, the round went in just fine.
After that, every round chambered, fired and extracted. The Marlin’s lever action was ergonomically superb, as smooth as Bruce Willis’ head. The trigger was absolutely phenomenal. Stock triggers on all the high end AR’s and bolt actions I’ve shot don’t even come close . The Marlin’s got absolutely no trigger slack. It breaks so cleanly it could be the spokesperson for Clorox.
Conclusions
The Marlin 336 is popular and iconic— and for good reason. Its maneuvaerability, light weight and ease of use has earned it a place near and dear to hunters’ hearts for over half a century. The rifle’s elegant simplicity and reliability, coupled with hard hitting 30-30 cartridges, make it a very potent threat to both wild game or anyone bearing you ill will.
Accurcy with open sights is better than par and while 6 rounds isn’t 30, if you need more than that then you should probably consider moving out of Kandahar. This rifle is Marlin’s bread ‘n butter and my new favorite gun. Now it’s time to accessorize.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Caliber: 30-30
Barrel Length: 20”
Overall Length: 38.5”
Weight: 7 lbs
Finish: Blued
Capacity: 6
Price: Between $300 to $400 new depending on where you buy
RATINGS (out of five)
Style * * * *
*
This rifle oozes classic style that would make any cowboy (or girl) ready to saddle up.
Ergonomics * * *
Lightweight, comfortable and quick to the shoulder making it a real pleasure to shoot. The sights are horrible.
Reliability * * * * *
Ate everything we fed it with un-failing dependability and ease.
Customizable * * * * *
Stocks, sights and scopes are readily available. Start adding picatinny railed scout mounts and then you enter into a whole new level of tactical accessories.
Overall Rating * * * *
*
The stars say it all. This is a great weapon.
Had mine since ’77. Loved it since they day I got. Never had a bit of trouble out of it. Never a better brush gun if you ask me. Enjoyed your story…
I set up my 336 /.30-30 with a square post/white line front sight. Then opened and squared the rear sight notch for a fast clear sight picture. To make the most of the rifles’ accuracy potential, I mounted a 2.5x Leupold Compact scope in Weaver quick detachable low ring mounts on a Weaver base. This is the lowest and lightest scope/ mount combination available, adding just over 10 ounces of additonal weight. With the scope removed the modified open sights are clearly visable through the grooved Weaver scope base.
The rifle scope is sighted in to place Winchester 170 grain Power Point ammo 3 inches above the duplex crosshair at 100 yards. So sighted the commonly available WW Power Points give the little carbine a 200 yard point blank range, striking just 3.5″ below the crosshair at that distance.
I have owned about 6 of these over the years, going back to when they called it something else and had a really fat foreend…Problems with the factory sights?
Not really-put in some range time with the open sights and invest a few boxes of 150 grain ammo and you will find how good they really are. They are meant for offhand shooting at game, and are very quick to pick up and re-aquire. FWIW, the .35 Rem version is a tad more accurate than the .30-30, but the ammo costs about 3x as much and is harder to find. You can generally find 20 or so of them used in a 50 mile radius of wherever you are, and they are not collectable like the W. brand so they are still cheap.
A great rifle.
mark
A complete bolt action rifle hunter, I bought one of these over 12 years ago as a kind of, semi-, almost, Assault Rifle. I figured having it around, or even in a courtroom, would cause fewer side-looks from people who might be deciding my fate. As a result, I added nothing tacti-cool to it. I did put some money into gunsmithing, though.
The stock was entirely too long out of the box and I found that made my second and subsequent shots slower than from my bolt actions – kind of destroying the ideal… I had Sandy Garrett (Northern Virginia Gun Works) reduce the Length of Pull to a more standard 13.5″ with one of the Pachmayr Sporting Clay recoil pads – a hard insert in the pad material at the heel prevents the snagging that’s common when mounting other pads. The trigger is a crisp, 3.5 pounds, though I don’t recall if Sandy fixed it or it came out of the box that way. (Normally, I’d say Sandy had done it, but the rifle really appears to have been destined to be a commemorative with fantastic wood, and who knows what Marlin does to such triggers…)
Unlike you, I left the sights alone, though I’ve been tempted to install a Williams or Lyman side-mounted receiver sight, just to see if I can improve on the 3-inch, 100-yard, groupings the factory open sights allow with the Remington 150 gr loads I chose as well. I was okay with the rear sights, and I like the hooded front sights for protection for my pseudo-AR, but I can never get used to the front sight bead profile – a good sight should be flat at the top, and not gold. Still, though, the sights are pretty robust and work fine at 100 yards, and the whole package points instinctively like a fine shotgun out to 25 yards or so without sights, so it’s better than a pistol in almost all cases. I’m still thinking about a receiver-mounted red dot, as that position won’t change the superb balance as much as the forward mount, and also won’t require a search for a rail.
The thuty-thuty’s pretty much gone out of style now, with everyone needing a 300 magnum to hunt whitetails. I’ll note that in my years of deer hunting the vast majority of my kills have been within 100 yards, and only one over 400 yards, and I wouldn’t take that shot today – there was too much luck involved. It’s only style that changed on hunting rifles, not need.
I will second that Jaywalker, All this tacticon crap, hasn’t changed anything except cosmetics of the rifle. Old-timers had it right long time ago. It was simple and effective, And cost alot less.
Just bought me one……….. used with Bushnell 3X9 for $275.00….
Please email me your info on the Marlin Cowboy Assault Rifle. Looking to have N VA gunworks do my marlin up. Grizzly has good package for these over 1k to mod it.
My dad had one of the 336′s long before I did, but I first shot one at least 40 yrs ago. The one I own is a 336C, the delux model, with black walnut stock/fore end, and fancy detaling (not that that makes it shoot better) circa 1976. At 50 yards if you can miss a small pie plate you are blind. I have many Wins. and at 100 yds or less my antique 1894 sporting rifle is the most accurate of them all (I only shoot offhand). The 336 Marlin is very close. It is much easier to break down and clean, and if I had to wander off into the wild and fend or myself, this is the rifle I’d take. Stout, on the money, and all business – definitley not a diva.
I’m thinking of ordering a new marlin 336ss for hunting, following all the good reviews and comments the rifle has, but being new to this I’m a little confused about ammunition. Comments about ammunition makes it sound as though .30-30 and .35 are readily inter-changeable. What is involved in changing ammo from .30-30 to .35 or vice versa? Are changes in the rifle required or possible when calibrated for one and changing to the other? Can 336 ammunition be used in handguns as I understand is possible / desirable for other firearms? Fasinating reading and enjoying comments and experiences being related.
30-30 and .35 Whelen are not interchangeable and 30-30 can’t be used in pistols. You can get a Marlin model 1894 this rifle shoots a .357 magnum handgun cartridge and therefore you could have a pistol and a rifle that shared the same ammo. A review of that rifle can also be found in our gun reviews section. Good luck with whatever you choose and have fun with it!
Remove the front site hood and carefully drill a hole in the top to increase the light available to illuminate the post. Start small and go up in size slowly to prevent bending it.
@Peter, The Marlin 336 comes in 30-30 and the 336 comes in 35 remington …And then there are many different caliber Marlin lever action rifles that shoot handgun rounds…go to the Marlin Firearms page and you will see what they have to offer..but this article and comments are referring to the 336 30-30 and 336 35 remington two separate rifles. I have a 1974 Marlin 336 in 35 remington…and I am in love with it. It looks like it’s brand new and shoots that way too
Thank you very much for the article. I just bought a 336 a few hours ago at a gun show in Slinger, WI. I just cannot stop playing with it and I am really looking forward to shooting it soon.
I have found that the hornady lever Revolution is the best ammo for the 30-30 and the .35 remington. i have the 336 in the .35 and my dads is a 30-30. We both use hornady and the balistics are amazing. I have not had a chance to shoot a deer with mine since rifle season was over when i got it, but i have seen my dad kill 2 deer with his and the hornady has done the job. I did however shoot a bowling pin at 100 yards standing off hand and it damn near exploaded. Im very excited to see what it does to a deer and pig this year.
If you weren’t already impressed by the 336, check this out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT92PEgnIb0
Far more accurate than people commonly think
So nice to see a current active thread on this classic gun. You would think this is all old news but theres people just like me who just got there first one and love it. I got the texan model shorter barrel around 18″ 30/30, and a straight handle stock kinda like the current make Henry golden boys. The stock was thrashed and warn, so i refinished it. The engravings were already worn down so i sanded them down to barely visible, i painted it flat back and then put semi gloss polyurethane finish on it. Later i sanded it with 600 grit and switched to a satin finish poly. I didnt know what satin meant i thought it was opposite of gloss which was the only other option. It turns out its this silvery fine micro glitter effect. It turned my too shiny black into a dark dark gun metal grey. Now it looks pretty cool, the metalic look is like a fancy bowling ball, and makes some grain effect too. My inexperience with wood finishing resulted in a cool look. 200 cash out the door with a synthetic gel padded sling at gunshow. And he gave me 20 rds for 10$. Had it on my shoulder and other boothes kept asking about it, one guy asked to buy it off me, another chased me down 15 feet to ask me the caliber. I was surprized how accurate it was my first six shots were dead on clay at 50 yards, then clay at 100yds, then a 12gauge shot gun spent case stood up on a log at 50yds. I couldnt believe i hit the shotgun case. One try on my first loading on that sixth bullet. I am a fan.
Oops, forgot to mention i shot from a bench rest and bag. Im no sniper or anything, But i had been shooting a mauser to sight in a scope most the day and then i brought out my new toy. Iron sights much were much simpler than a scope so it was aim, click, boom, and holy sh*#% dead on clay crushing.
I agree, it is nice to see a new post on the old classic 30-30 and its all positive too! I own a 1974 Glenfield 30a that belonged to my Granddad it carries with it tremedous sentimental value and have aken two minnesota deer with it both of them went in the freezer one shot each, one fell to a 170 Remington core lokt and the other to a 160 Hornady leverevolution but im going back to the Remingtons just because it just dont seem right to shoot pointed bullets from that little rifle. For thick minnesota woods and shots under 100 yards it just cant be beat.
Thanks to MR. Finn for an up beat post on an American classic.
Was wanting info on a marlin 336rc 30 30 as far as mfgr year and whether a scope can be mounted on it. It does not have any mounting holes in the top. Thank You.
Jimy T.
You should be able to have it drilled and tapped, there is also several picatiny rail kits available some mount to the rear sight, i just bolted on one from utg, works great. If not then check out the different sights they have out, night sights fiber optic, target sights, lots of cool new tech stuff for this old gun.
If I drill and tap this marlin 336 will it bring down the value? According to the serial # it was made in 1950. Not that I am necessarily wanting it for investment purposes but I dont want to ruin an antique. Thank you for your response.
it is normal. no worries