My first lever action

Nice i have a 336 love that rifle enjoy

i have the same gun. i bought it brand new in 1977. the finish started going bad in just over 2 years. i sanded off all of the original junk, what ever it was, and refinished it with 4 coats of polyurethane, that finish is still on the gun and still looks great. the only thing i have done to it (besides cleaning) in all these years was i had a trigger job done to it within the first year (they NEED it BAD!) and last year i replaced the main (hammer) spring because i was getting light primer strikes which would fail to ignite the primers. she has well over 4000 rounds through it, which really is not a lot. i went through a stage where i did not shoot much for about 5 years. i have several other rifles, but there is just something about that gun i just love. it is not mt only lever gun either. but it is my favorite rifle to shoot.

It's nothing special...

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Of course it is. It's a 30-30 lever gun!

Is yours the nosecap 3/4 magazine tube Glenfield 30A? (I think that's the right number). It has always been one of my favorite configurations.

My only advice is on ammo. There has been a lot of hype (aka good marketing) on Hornady's Leverevolution ammo and components. There is substance to this. I have a stockpile of Sixties era Sears branded Federal 170 gr FN bullets and my Marlin "Texan" shoots those just fine. Shoots Remington core-lokt 150s just fine. I load a plinker for the kids using 11 grs of Trail Boss and the Hornady 86gr short jacket .308 and it shoots that just fine (like a heavy .22lr). But the Leverevolution factory ammo or components makke for a 200 yard deer rifle. I don't like a scope on a lever gun so I won't shoot at a deer past 150 yards, but it will hit a 200 yard kill zone over and over.

Enjoy a great rifle.

Sounds like you got a great buy! As others have said it's basically a vintage Marlin 336 minus a few cosmetic enhancements and maybe a slightly lower grade of wood but otherwise functionally the same. I think they were sold at K-Mart and other chains in the '70s. I got a Glenfield Model 60 in '71 and also a Marlin 336C. Still have both.

Welcome to the club. Great find.

The best part about the Model 30 is that it has a half magazine instead of the full length. The 30A has the full length tube with the band that connects it to the barrel at the end. The 30 is a smidgen lighter and looks way cooler. The neatest 30's are the Marlin 30TK and the Glenfield 30GT, which both have straight stocks instead of pistol grips.

you guys have opened up a can of FUN! get some ammo and go shoot!
Those things are great fun, low report & low recoil, women & kids love em too !
Congrats !
I put a scope on mine to dial in some hanloads(2" @ 100) then I took off the scope and put on a set of peep sights.
So it shoots 4" @ 100 with peeps, a fast handling woods gun without the extra weight.

.30-30 is a great rifle round for plinking and general target mayhem. It's got enough kick to make you grin but not so much that it'll turn your shoulder to quivering mush after 20 rounds.

To hold the cost down you most certainly want to get into reloading pretty quickly. .30-30 ammo is one of the cheaper options but it's still nearly a buck a round, at least up this way.

On the other hand I can buy Berry's plated JFN bullets, which are tube magazine friendly, for $18/100. So that cuts my reloading cost to something under 30 cents a round even with full powder charges. So $6/20 instead of something like $17/20 for factory ammo.

Best of all it's still a great round for a lot of hunting if you're into that. And with the right sights you can easily extend your target shooting out to 300 yards despite what a lot of the range pundits will tell you.

If you're so inclined the Glenfield/Marlin receiver is scope mount friendly. But a lot of us cringe at the thought of putting a scope on a lever gun. Someday I suppose but so far I'm still able to muddle through with my eyeballs with stock sights. Although my preference is for a peep rear sight. The small aperature sharpens up my vision a little and puts off the eventual day that I need to put scopes on all my guns.

Oh, I've got one of the older Glenfields as well. It's one of the ones with the cheaper birch or similar light coloured wood and the stamped in "checkering". It's pretty seedy looking but I take heart in the fact that I've got solid Marlin metal between the bits of cheap looking wood.

I guess you posted the pictures while I was typing. That's a MIGHTY fine looking pair you got Jbabbler.

I don't know how you shoot your rifles normally but a lever is best enjoyed from a free standing position with two or three steel plates. There's just nothing like rattling off a string of back and forth hits on the steel plates with rapid cycling between each shot.

In fact the only non-semiautomatic style of action which I think lends itself well to faster follow up shots than the lever is a pump action. And with a "dirty side out" leather butt plate cover such as used by so many Cowboy Action shooters the ability to hold the rifle in position during cycling of the lever improves enough that it may well turn into a wash compared to a pump.

Oh yeah.... you are in for some GOOD times....

If you like the 336 you got to try a 39 the 22 version.Beware though they are higher than the 30-30s. I also have 2 336s but mine are 35 rem and 1 44mag and one 444 . Yea they could be addictive.

There's still a 336 Club here on the site. They are six years and thousands of posts deep into the thread. If you are really liking it, the folks at Marlinowners.com can help you out with pretty much any question you have.

For a 120-year old design, you can bring it up to the modern era quite well

Lever guns are FUN! ! ! !

Currently have a Marlin Mdl 30AW that really likes the rem 170-Gr Core-Lokt rounds the best. Haven't trtied the Hornday "leverevolution" ammo.

Jbabbler said:

I saw a Henry Golden Boy and a Silver Boy today. They were quite proud of them though. I really want one in 22.

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It's sort of like getting a new car. Before you got a particular model you didn't see them out on the road at all. Once you have one they seem to be EVERYWHERE ! ! ! !

Some folks bad mouth the Henry guns for their use of some form of zinc alloy for the reciever. But there's pleanty of stories of these guns shooting smoothly and accurately over many years and many thousands of rounds of ammo. Based on all that I bought my first Henry a couple of years ago. Between me shooting it and the kids at my club's Jr .22 night it's seen easily up around 2000 to 3000 rounds. And it's still smooth as silk and accurate as I can possibly hold it and see over the plain iron sights and it hasn't even been stripped down to clean it yet.