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The 336 Club

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Excellent news re the bolt, Greyling.

I can't comment on the 30A v 336A equivalence (or not), but do have an opinion about A's and C's. Please take it with a grain of salt; there are stock officiandos amongst us with better knowledge than mine that may tell you differently.

My opinion is that a stock made for a C won't fit one made for an A. Well, wait, back up: the stock may fit, but I don't think the fore end will; not without a fair amount of custom fitting, if at all.

If you check the early pages of this thread (and others linked to it), I spent a LOT of time investigating the differences between A, C and W before buying my 336. My original intention (see below) was to buy a used gun, then put a synthetic stock on it. (I had dreams of a cowboy assault rifle.)

After a lot of research, I realized that the fore end of a 336C is one of the only lever guns that Marlin makes with a fore end like that. Almost all the others - 336, 1894 and 1895 - are like the A fore ends, which are also like W. (I'd still like to hear Marlin's reasoning behind that. I'll bet a 5-spot it's not random.)

I reasoned that, therefore, there must be more rifles with "A-type" fore ends than "C-type" fore ends, and since I wanted a synthetic stock, I'd buy an A (or W). Well, I couldn't find a used one of any flavor (over months of looking, then impatience set in) so I bought a new 336A.

So others may be able to tell you differently, but I don't think furniture made for an A will easily work on a C.
_________________

More broadly, it's about time we talk about stocks in here for a while anyway. We've talked a fair amount about sights, scopes, sighting, actions and action smoothing, and ammo.

But as I recall, we haven't spent much time with stocks.

When I first got my 336, and really even before I got it, I planned to replace the wood furniture with something synthetic. I was especially fond of the stocks designed by an Aussie company, Wild Dog. They also have a US group.

After reading a fair amount about them, both on their site and independent reviews and comments (some on THR), I really came to like their stocks. My sense was, even though Ramlines seem good, these seem better. (More pricey, too, but I'm willing to pay for quality.)

Only one big issue: they don't make one for a 336. There were apparently plans to produce one. (That's based on both direct communication with the company, and assertions in at least one THR thread.) There are even pics of a camo prototype floating about, including in at least one Rifle Country thread. Very cool stock, complete with fold-down ammo storage in the side. Never handled one, but wanted one.

Seems that they never went into production, at least not yet. I visit their site on occasion looking ... haven't seen anything.

I'm betting that, given the sheer number of 336 out there, some of which are getting older <ahem> and may need furniture replacements to keep up with the still fine actions, that a Wild Dog would sell well. I hope they produce one eventually.

But for now, at least, I've fallen in love with wood furniture again. Three years ago, I bought my first long gun in years: a Rem 870P 12 ga with a synthetic stock. (In fact, researching that gun was what brought me to THR in the first place; I joined after reading some threads in Shotguns that were extremely well-written and informative, and seemed a great bunch of folks. So I joined, then months later, bought the shotgun.)

As I've no doubt mentioned earlier in this thread, last winter, after buying my 336 and 39A (in that order) I decided (or admitted again) that I'm a rifle guy more than a shotgun guy, both for hunting and SD (along with revolvers). So, I sold the 870, and have added the 1894C. Still hoping eventually to add a 1895 in some .40-ish cal (leaning towards .45-70, but am also considering the possibility of 1894 in .44 mag (with matching revolver).

But, I digress: the topic is stocks. So, the point of the story is, after buying three Marlins with wood, I've now become fond again of wood. In terms of both looks and feeling, not to mention a bit of extra weight for recoil absorption and handling stability, the wood just strikes me as desirable. May be less durable than synthetic, but birch (on my 336A) and walnut (39 and 1894C) are pretty darned solid. With reasonable care, I'm not concerned about them breaking.

So, I don't think I'll be replacing my wood anytime soon. But it's nice to know that synthetic stocks do exist, and that they're evolving with time, so that someday - should this particular 336 need some new furniture - whether in my hands or the hands of who ever owns it next - there'll be options.
______________

Wow. That turned out long. :uhoh:

Writing is just too much fun,
especially on a rainy, Sunday afternoon.

It feels like fall got here early this year.
We are several degrees below normal for the last few days, and into next week.
And it's raining earlier than normal. Got me thinking about being in the woods with a .30-30. :)

Nem
 
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My Marlin 336 is chambered in, the now discontinued, .356 Winchester. The standard bullet weight for this cartridge is 220 grains.
 
thanks for all the info nemo, but what I really want to know is if you can take the forend cap off the 336A, buy a ramline stock and the barrel band for a 336c from marlin and put it all together. or can somebody spot a flaw with that plan?
 
OK, let me see if I've got this right.

there's an "A", a "W", and a "C".

The "A" is the standard every day forestock. Made of birch. There's a steel end cap on the front. it's kinda fat and sorta flat on the bottom. I believe they called it a "Semi- Beavertail" in some of the older literature.

The "W" has the same size and shape, but it's made of a nicer grade of walnut and it has checkering. The steel end cap has sling swivels.

The "C" is different. It's barely wider than the rifle and rounded on the bottom. No end cap. There's a steel band around the front. This stock is as small and minimal as possible.

Is that about right?
 
Greyling, I can't answer your question confidently, but I'm sure others can.

Frank, I must have missed that Boyd's link before. Hadn't seen it. Nice resource. Now bookmarked.

As for A, C, W, unless things have changed at Marlin since last I looked, here's my understanding:

C uses black walnut for furniture, A and W use birch (which is less patterned than walnut, and thus less "beautiful" - remember, that's in the eyes of the beholder - but harder). C includes a recoil pad, A and W don't.

C has barrel band fore end, A and W have fore end caps (like nearly all other Marlin lever guns).

All three have sling swivels studs, even if slightly different position.

In handling a bunch of new ones (doesn't apply to older ones), I honestly didn't notice any difference in size/shape of A, C v W stocks and fore ends. Not saying they're not there, just that I didn't notice them.

Honestly, to this day I'm not sure of the differences between A and W. The latter comes with a cheap camo sling and is the one you get from Walmart. (Some have joked that the W stands for Walmart.) A is advertised on the Marlin pages as coming with a factory mounted scope (mine did not; didn't want it anyway) but with no sling.

Oh, and the W has a gold plated trigger. (Whoop de do.)

In a survey of average prices, C is most expensive, W is the least, with A intermediate.

What'd I miss?
 
Here's a closer look at the small, narrow stock.

Yes, it's a beater.

Yes, that's spray-in bedliner on that stock.

Yes, the whole rifle is spray painted flat black with Krylon.

Yes, I like it that way!

336carbine002.jpg
 
ok, I took my rifle apart and think I can buy a band and make my A work as a C as far as applying a synthetic stock goes, IF the synthetic is long enough to cover the notch in the barrel where the lug the barrel band screws into lives. if somebody with a barrel band could take out their convenient blue ruler (fast frank) and measure the legnth of a forend that goes on a 336c to see if my notch could be covered that would be awesome. if it won't cover it, where does one get spray on bedliner? that is pretty cool.
 
please say it is at least 10.1 inches or 26cm from the lip of the receiver that holds the back of the receiver to the tip of the forend.
 
Frank, in current production models, A, C and W are all virtually the same length according to Marlin web pages.

All have 20" barrels.

Overall length of A and W are 38.25"; C is 38.5". (Again: Marlin stats).

C may indeed represent "carbine", but they're all pretty much the same length.

Of course, RC is not produced any longer, and I have no personal experience with that one.
 
basically I want the legnth of the wood that shows on the gun. it looks like maybe the forend is a half inch too short or hide the dovetail in the under barrel that the lug for the cap attachment fits in, unless your short rifle has a shorter forend than normal. thanks so much for everybody willing to take a peek at their rifles.
 
so lets talk action/ trigger jobs. I'm spoiled that way. anybody ever done one themselves? link to a how to maybe? or do I just pay the gunsmith (cringe)
 
Grey,

I can see you haven't done your assigned reading of the earlier parts of the thread yet. :( :p.

Back up to post 777, then follow it for several pages.

That's a good start.

:)

Nem
 
777, great. that's the problem with a big thread, I'm sure the answer is in here somewhere, but 42 pages and counting, whew.
 
what's the best sized scope on a 336? the 3x9x40 looks a little big/top heavy. would a more compact scope fit the gun better?
 
We're talking about the big trade off here.

Big rifle scopes are like that for a reason. They just plain old work better than a small scope, assuming all things (Like glass quality)are equal.

The thing that seems to matter the most to ME is how the scope works with the rifle.

A target scope with big magnification just wouldn't do on a rifle that's going to be expected to make a snap shot at a running deer.

And a small fixed power wouldn't offer the flexibility and light gathering of a full sized variable.

My Bushnell that's on my 336 goes down to 3.5 power,according to the markings.

I think it's less than that.

I can easily deal with it "Two eyes open" when it's turned down like that.

This makes for a super quick rifle and it's in keeping with the rifle's purpose.

Being able to turn it up to ten power is useful, too.

For precision work or at the range, it makes my tired old eyes happy. I can shoot some pretty nice groups with it turned up like that.

There's a setting in there somewhere that's just right for pretty much anything I might want to do with that rifle.

Don't be too quick to dismiss a full sized scope just because of it's appearance.

While appearance counts, you really didn't buy that rifle to look at, did you?
 
I was no so much worried about appearance as I was added weight making the gun unwieldy. top heavy and the like. I don't really want to put a 20oz pentax lightseeker on a 30/30 to hunt hogs. who wants to haul that around.
 
And therein lies the Big Trade Off.

Trying to find a scope that does what you want without looking and feeling like the Hubble Telescope on top of your rifle.

The biggest problem with this is limited availability of scopes to handle.

looking at them on the internet is useless.

And when you DO find a scope that looks like a contender, holding it in your hands and looking at it won't tell you much, either.

That scope needs to be attached to a rifle before you can really tell anything about it, and the lighting in a store is so different from what you see in the early morning hours of a hunt that what you see sighting in on the shoe department means nothing.

I spent six months trying to figure out what scope to put on my .22.
 
Speaking of scopes and sighting in, guess what I did this weekend.

50yardsightin_071006.gif

The top one was sighting in my Remington 7600 (.243 Winchester) and the bottom one was sighting in my Marlin 336 (.30-30 Win).

Shots were taken at 50 yards with the rifles resting on a fence crossbar so I guess you could say it was semi-rest because the rail wasn't especially steady. I guess I'm saying that I'm surprised I got the groups I did with the poor support I was using :D
 
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