Marlin 336 Light Strike/Firing Pin Issue

[Chedderbob]

Father-in-law had a J.C. Higgens Mod. 45 (marlin 336 with sears markings) sitting in the bottom of his closet for over a decade.... in pieces. The problem seemed to be that the lever and baseplate were bent. When he took the stock off (no idea why he did) it somehow warped the gun... if that makes sense.

He figured out I love guns, and asked if I could help. So far I have seem to have gotten everything back into place, the gun cycled like a dream. We took it out to test fire it, chambered a round, and click... nothing. Waited a few seconds, ejected the round, and tried again... same thing. The primer had EXTREMELY light striking marks on it, like the firing pin just barely nudged it.

With the bolt removed, the firing pin is moving freely, and the hammer seems to have enough whollop to do the job, for some reason the firing pin just isnt making it to the primer of the bullet. The gun is inoperable.

I'm stumped... any ideas?

 

[rcmodel]

As part of it's safety system, that gun has a two-piece firing pin.
It is designed to prevent firing with the bolt un-locked, or only partially locked.

The pin in the bolt is struck by a shorter one but only when the locking block is in position to align it with the front firing pin section.

It might be if the bottom tang were bent, the lever is hitting it too soon, not raising the locking block all the way, and the firing pin is not receiving a full force blow by the short rear pin.

It is not uncommon to find either of the two pins to become peened on the end from dry-firing.
If either the back of the firing pin or the front of the shorter rear pin show signs of peening, you will need to replace them with new parts.

rc