A few notes about different models
PapaDog said:
Has anyone bought the 336CC which has the camo stock?
Papa, I'd never even heard of that until now.
Just did a google, and found
this page on gunshopfinder about the 336CC. How cool.
Anybody know if they're still in production, maybe as a special order?
Had I known it existed, I'd have been tempted to buy it since I sort of like the idea of a camo stock.
I was originally thinking about replacing a wood stock with synthetic,
perhaps even one of
Wild Dog's synthetic camo stocks.
(I thought that a Wild Dog model for the Marlin 336 was due out soon; for a while they even had an image of the prototype on their web site, but it's gone now. Hmmm. Maybe they decided not to do it at least for now.
It was reportedly going to fit models with barrel bands only, though, so it wouldn't have worked for me.)
But since buying my A, I confess I've become pretty fond of the wood furniture, and am thinking I'll keep it stock (so to speak ) for at least a while. The advantage of a synth would be weight reduction, but I am finding that I like the way this rifle soaks up the already low recoil of the .30-30.)
Speaking of A (fore end cap) v. C & W (barrel bands), a club member asked me by PM yesterday about why I chose an A instead of C or W, and in particular whether barrel bands made any significant difference v. fore end caps. My [slightly edited] response is below in case any one else if facing a similar decision.
___________________
You'll find most of my reasoning in choosing the A in
this thread on C v. W and
this one on A v. C.
The short version: I learned that on a short carbine like a 336, barrel bands probably don't make much difference. On a target rifle, they may. Some writers assert that they do, some say no. But most feel that on a hunting rifle with a range of only 150 yds (200 tops), it probably isn't relevant.
Yet, I have to admit, I chose the A for three reasons.
1) It had a birch stock, which although not as aesthetic in the minds of some, is harder and probably more durable than the walnut stock on the C. Durability is more important to me than beauty.
2) After a lot of reading on the Marlin site, I noticed that the large majority of Marlin lever guns now employ the front end cap rather than barrel bands. There's only about three or four Marlins that now use barrel bands: 336C, 336W and the 1894C. All the rest - including the big bores and the new XLR line - employ fore end caps. That suggested to me that perhaps Marlin knows something we don't.
3) My 39A (which I bought a week before I got my 336A) has fore end cap, and for aesthetic reasons I just wanted consistency in appearance.
So, in the end, I'm not sure it really matters that much in terms of functionality. I think I'd just go with wood choice, and which ever one feels intuitively best for you.
I don't think you can go wrong in any case.
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