Two Missions, Two Paths, One Gun

marlin 336 has merit. it will do all you want it to do, but it does kick pretty hard, especially if your wife might grab it. It is a lot cheaper than the 44 mag. If you're doing an AR, I like the hunting potential for the 6.5 grendel a lot more than the 300 blackout. A lot more. I think I'm about to exit the blackout market. I think a grendel would do anything you would ask the creedmoor ar10 to do in a cheaper, lighter weight package.

I like the mini-30, but an AR is an objectively better gun in every way. And I don't really like the AR much.

lever guns..... I just love marlin lever guns, but if I'm being honest, they're comparatively heavy, don't scope particularly well, need actions jobs, are crippled by mag tube safe bullet design and near obsolete calibers, are kind of a pain to unload, and while they are not hard to load, you're not going to do it if you get in a mess of pigs. you're going to shoot it dry and say well, they was fun. Also, a 444 marlin sucks to shoot. Lots of recoil. now, I feel the same way about a bolt action 30-06

Legionnaire said:

I've been following the thread. Haven't seen anything to change my recommendation of a lever action in .44 mag/special. Pair it with a nice revolver and enjoy.

Click to expand...

^^^^^^What he said.
45 colt in lever action and revolver would also serve the purpose.

I think I’d go .44 Magnum for lever and revolver combo. More common ammo, and in a DA revolver or lever action the .44 Magnum has more case rim for the extractor to work with. Lever guns don’t have the best primary extraction to begin with, so helping the gun out with a more generous rim is a good idea.

I kept my Marlin 336 in the master for years and never had to use it but felt confident if I had to. I had it loaded with some Federal 125 grain HP's that seemed well suited for that role.

That said, I switched to an AR in 556/223. It's better suited for that defensive role and the ammo (in normal times) is a lot cheaper to stockpile. I had no intention to do anything else with the rifle as I've already got several suitable hunting rifles, but I'm going to by a 6.5 Grendel upper as well. I think that would make a super handy deer rig. My oldest is 10 and that could be about ideal for her if she (or her younger sisters later on) decide she wants to hunt with me. My dad got me a 30-06 when I was a kid and I got by okay but I think a gentler approach may work better with my own kids.

I see this thread is a year old and I didn’t read all the comments but any rifle for deer and self defense is going to have compromises. The compromise with a 336 is low mag capacity and very slow to reload for self defense, and somewhat limited range for hunting. An AR10’s compromise is that it’s a big bulky heavy thing and is overpowered for self defense.

I would suggest a 16-18” AR15 in 7.62x39 or 6.8 SPC with a low power optic.