Marlin lever 30-30 problems

Brambles

Brambles

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West Kootenays B.C.
Here's a little problem I encountered with a buddy's gun.
Its an older marlin 336 30-30.

The story goes like this. The gun in question had always been in his family and he claims it always shot decent. Since he hadn't hunted in many years I told him I would clean it for him and then we would take it to the range and
sight it in. He had a 4x scope on it. The day we take it to the range and shoot it the damn thing was all over the paper throwing shots everywhere high, low, left, right not even a pattern. With each shot there could be a couple feet difference in impact.

I changed scopes to one I knew shot well and made sure all the screws were tight. Same problem.

This thing is horrible, you couldn't even keep it on the paper.

Any ideas that I could try to fix this rifle, if indeed it did use to shoot well then it couldn't be too serious probably something I am just overlooking

Brambles
 
Assuming that the scope mounts are tight, and that the rest of the rifle is in good mechanical repair (ie: barrel not obviously loose in receiver etc)

How many loads did you try? Maybe it didn't like that brand?

Did you examin the barrel crown? What condition is the rifling in at the muzzel? Could be damaged from over zealous cleaning or getting banged around in the bush.

Fix would be to re-crown or over-bore the first inch or two.
 
I've had my 336CS (30-30) for over 18 years now, and I still consider it to be quite the accurate rifle. Can't really comment on what the problem could be on your buddy's rifle, but have you tried shooting it with irons (with the scope off)? Might be able to at least isolate the problem to either the scope/ring combo or the actual rifle/ammo. The only mod I've done to mine is to install a Lyman's receiver sight with rear aperture, so I don't have any experience with scoping one...

hsld.
 
Is the stock tight and everything? Last time i had a rifle throw lead around THAT bad it turned out the stock was a little loose.
 
I've got several Marlins and never encountered anything like this. My 30-30s tend to prefer 170gr over 150 but nothing shoots worse than like 4" with irons.

I too would try some groups without a scope. Other than that like others have said I'd go to the crown/carefull bore inspection and look for possible pressure points on the forestock. Good luck with it....

Oh, another idea make sure the front bag is in the same spot on the forestock for every shot. This though won't account for improvements that your needing here.
 
I had one of those. Gun looked good so I bought it privately. Put on a Leupold M8 4X and then a Redfield
2 3/4 X. 10" at 100 yards. 4 different types of ammo 170 and 150 including hand loads. All bad. Sold it on consignment through a gun shop after discussing the problem - cheap. Bought another 336 and it's fine. 2" and better with the Redfield in Leupold QR mounts and Winchester Silvertip 170's.
 
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