Marlin 39a feeding issues centered on the mag tube.

[Mooseriver]

I have just bought a never fired 1996 Marlin 39a. The gun fires fine and other than the problem mentioned in the title, has been performing beautifully. I was finding that every 6 to 8 rounds the lever would stick or no rounds were making it out of the mag tube.

Upon taking the gun apart and inspecting the whole affair, it seems that rounds are getting stuck either part way out of the tube but before it they hit the cartridge cutoff, which is the source of the lever jamming halfway through the motion, or the rounds are catching on a lip roughly half an inch into the magazine tube from the receiver end, roughly where the receiver and mag tube meet. There is a gap there roughly an 1/8 of a inch wide. (it's hard to tell when I can only feel it out with pair of tweezers) I have to completely remove the mag rod and relieve all pressure on the rounds to get them to come free.

I have cleaned the entire gun thoroughly with special care given to the above mentioned areas, and run Winchester Wild Cats, Remington Golden Bullets, and CCI hollow points through it with the same results for each.

Any ideas of solutions I could try before I give up and send it off to Marlin for fixing? I'd prefer to spend as little money as possible as I am a starving college student and would rather like to eat this month.

 

[RaceM]

Sounds like the mag tube isn't fully seated in the receiver hole. Only thing to do is remove the retaining pin, cut/file a new notch for it in the tube so it seats fully and replace the pin. If you're handy with tools it's not a big job, take maybe an hour. Only caution is to not overdo the new notch (make too wide or deep).

 

[dfariswheel]

This is a common problem when someone disassembles the tube and fails to get it seated properly.

As above, push out the tiny pin in the magazine tube ferrule.
Rotate the tube as you push it in. This will usually seat the tube.
Use a narrow punch to put a mark on the tube where the new pin groove needs to be.
Pull the tube out and file a new groove using a triangular file.
Then re-seat the tube and install the pin, being careful to get it through the new groove.
The new groove doesn't need to be too deep.

Also, you have the option here of doing a nice alteration to the Marlin.
If you rotate the tube so the loading port is on the right side instead of on the bottom, you can load faster and easier by laying the cartridges in the trough formed by the barrel and the magazine and sliding them down the groove and into the loading port.

 

[Mac's Precision]

"sliding them down the groove and into the loading port."

^^^^ That's a good idear right there! You get the cookie for today. Consider that little tidbit of technology ohfishalllllly stolen!

 

[Mooseriver]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I took it apart and the mag tube was indeed not seated properly. I looks like the previous owner fiddled with it and didn't get it back in properly and forced the retaining pin back in too far back, which was causing the mag rod to stick. I got it seated properly and put the pin back through the original groove and everything thing seems to be working great.

 

[roadchoad]

Never fired, but he pulled the mag tube?

 

[Mooseriver]

Everything else was absolutely pristine and since then there hasn't been even a hint of a problem, so god knows why he pulled it. Either that or it came from the factory like that, but that seems unlikely.

 

[Mgnum Reg]

Thanks so much dfariswheel. I have had my Marlin 39a for many years now and had not shot it for over 30 years. When I did take it out to shoot it, It was jamming up. Took it to a gun smith and he said its not worth fixing, So I found these posts and that was what was wrong with mine.

 

[gpb]

Mgnum Reg wrote post #8 concerning Marlin 39A

"Took it to a gun smith and he said its not worth fixing"

Did he happen to offer you $20 to take that piece of junk off of your hands?

 

[Carl N. Brown]

If you rotate the tube so the loading port is on the right side instead of on the bottom, you can load faster and easier by laying the cartridges in the trough formed by the barrel and the magazine and sliding them down the groove and into the loading port.

I tried that with a Marlin 60 of mine and it was very convenient. A leftie might want to put the port on the left side. The ambidextrous may never come to a decision.