I was at the local sports store comparing some lever actions for my son. I was looking at the rio grande and marlin 336 , and I will be honest I wasnt really impressed with either one. First off with Rio it had a goofy safety on the lever that made it have to have hand pressure on lever to fire. It might not be a deal breaker but was diffrent, also rail system and fatter wood on the forearm was turn off. But the action was smooth right out of box. Next was the 336. My dad has had one for years and it was awesome but these new ones fall way short. At first glance was the bbq paint looking finish that they had , like come on I seen sks's with a nicer finsh. The wood , I did like the slimmer forend and laminate wood what I didnt like was the sharp checkering and gaps between between stock and metal . The wood wasnt bad but could have been better. But came the action. In one word "yuck". I have never felt a lever action like this , It was chore to get the action to open and part way threw the cyce feels like its catching or binding on something. I asked to see another and it was worse. Now after this long winded rant I am still no closer in deciding.Might just get him a bolt action cause I dont see nothing worth buying.
Rio grande vs 336
- Thread starter DPruden
- Start date
Tarrantula
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- Parts unknown
If you aren't set on blued/wood look, I like the look of the Mossberg 464 Marinecote levers...heard good things as well. No personal experience, just my $.02, and what I have heard and read. Reasonable price also ($500 at Cabelas).
Yeah I haven't seen one in person, but they do look nice. I like the idea of the marinecote for winter and BC. Kind of apprehensive about purchasing my first brand new rifle on the web as well though, any idea if BPS in Calgary has them? Been a long time since I've been there.
All marlins also have a lever safety where you have to keep the lever closed to fire the gun. Almost every lever since the winchester 1866 has had that. Maybe the Rossi spring is too strong, but that is fixable.
I'm guessing from your description you had a 336W in your hands. This is their cheapened low-cost version with less fit and finish. The newer 2014 marlins have gotten better than the 2010-2013 Remington guns that had qa/QC issues, but are still not up to early JM guns yet.
You should seek out a 336C before condemning all marlins. I bought a 2014 stainless model this year and after a small bit of deburringnand tweaking, it's smoother than most of my JM guns. This might sound bad, but i always smooth out new-to-me marlins, even JM guns. Factory fitting never met my standards even way back.
I'm guessing from your description you had a 336W in your hands. This is their cheapened low-cost version with less fit and finish. The newer 2014 marlins have gotten better than the 2010-2013 Remington guns that had qa/QC issues, but are still not up to early JM guns yet.
You should seek out a 336C before condemning all marlins. I bought a 2014 stainless model this year and after a small bit of deburringnand tweaking, it's smoother than most of my JM guns. This might sound bad, but i always smooth out new-to-me marlins, even JM guns. Factory fitting never met my standards even way back.
smokeater40
CGN Regular
- Location
- Southern, Ontario
All levers I have seen have the lever squeeze safety. Check the EE for use Winchesters, I have bought 3 in the last month from JDC, check it out they are beautiful and Gord is great to work with.
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The rossi lever safety wasnt a deal breaker it was just diffrent feeling than my 92 and the marlin , those ones ,when it was up it stayed there but for my son it might not be a bad thing to have to squeeze to fire. I might look at the other marlin models but the problem i have is internals of a rifle should be finished the same . Cheap out finishing on the externals sure but not the inside .
And you'd be WRONG about internal quality being equal. The 336W models are not the same animal as the 336C or 336SS or other pricier variants. The W models originally were made to put cheap product into Walmart (hence the W), but they are now sold everywhere as a cheaper option to a "real" 336.
The machining marks are not even polished off the actions, they are simply sand-blasted and hot-dip blued. The internals are not de-burred and very little, if any, finishing is applied to the parts.
The 336W are a heck of a buy if you look at the rifle as a "kit gun" that costs $200 less than the better models. With a file, a small amount of know-how and some 40 grit wet/dry paper, they can be tuned up real nice. Some guys will even just sit in front of the TV and cycle it like 2000 times to wear the parts in - which also works, but not as well as actually fitting the parts.
The spring on the 336 or Rio Grande is a small coil spring that bears on both the little "tit" that sticks out of the lower tang behind the trigger and the trigger itself to provide trigger reset. See parts 74, 75 and 76 in this diagram. The spring is adjusted by tweaking it up a little to lighten the lever safety tension.
The machining marks are not even polished off the actions, they are simply sand-blasted and hot-dip blued. The internals are not de-burred and very little, if any, finishing is applied to the parts.
The 336W are a heck of a buy if you look at the rifle as a "kit gun" that costs $200 less than the better models. With a file, a small amount of know-how and some 40 grit wet/dry paper, they can be tuned up real nice. Some guys will even just sit in front of the TV and cycle it like 2000 times to wear the parts in - which also works, but not as well as actually fitting the parts.
The spring on the 336 or Rio Grande is a small coil spring that bears on both the little "tit" that sticks out of the lower tang behind the trigger and the trigger itself to provide trigger reset. See parts 74, 75 and 76 in this diagram. The spring is adjusted by tweaking it up a little to lighten the lever safety tension.
Yah I see your point .I cycled my action on my rossi 92 for hours and now it's great. It was kinda a let down after taking a 30 year old one of my dads to let the son shoot it. And it was a thing of beauty. Then looking at a new one "mind you thats the only model they had to look at " and it kinda fell short. But if he wants it I will get it for him or if wants the more expensive model he can make up the diffrence in cost from his part time job.Me and him both agreed the rio grande is just kinda to ugly in design.
The Rio Grande would be half again better looking if they ditched the factory recoil pad and put on just a hard buttplate or a nicer Pachmayr decelerator. The scope mount they ship with, which looks to be a full-length M1913 pica tinny rail, is also ugly on a lever gun. It would be so much better if they shipped with something like a Weaver Grand Slam turn-in base with redfield-style rings or even no base at all, and just drill and tap it like any other 336 action.
The wood is no big deal - if the rest of the gun was well fitted, the wood could be slimmed or refinished. It's not real walnut (some kind of native South American hardwood), but seems to be serviceable.
That said, for what dealers want for a Rio Grande up here, for a very small amount of extra money, you can have a real Marlin (Marlington or Remiln?) which will tune up with a similar amount of work as required for the Rossi, but will look aesthetically better when finished. The reason Rossi 92's are so popular is because they are way cheaper than other 92 clones. No so with their Marlin clone.
The wood is no big deal - if the rest of the gun was well fitted, the wood could be slimmed or refinished. It's not real walnut (some kind of native South American hardwood), but seems to be serviceable.
That said, for what dealers want for a Rio Grande up here, for a very small amount of extra money, you can have a real Marlin (Marlington or Remiln?) which will tune up with a similar amount of work as required for the Rossi, but will look aesthetically better when finished. The reason Rossi 92's are so popular is because they are way cheaper than other 92 clones. No so with their Marlin clone.
How many you had apart? I've pulled at least 5 W's down and triple that in C's. There is a marked difference - not the least of which is that the C's are polished, the W's are sand-blasted
How many you had apart? I've pulled at least 5 W's down and triple that in C's. There is a marked difference - not the least of which is that the C's are polished, the W's are sand-blasted
No idea of total, but in the past couple of years, around 35-40.
Yes, the external finish of the "W's" are blasted not polished like the "C's", (for a while there they were both blasted) but you were commenting on the Internal Quality, not the final finished product.
The receiver mfg process that Marlin used in New Haven was the same start to finish. 336, 1895, 1894 blued or stainless. It was the Barrel and Furniture that denoted the Model # it would become.
The latest mfg guns are done in the same manner but more crudely across the entire line up. If you've found one that has a more refined internal metal finish than another, Model # has nothing to do with it.
Also, the "W" was added back when Marlin dropped the Glenfield line, not because it was made for Walmart. The 336W was originally the 336AW, which was the carbine (barrel band) version of the 336AS / 30AS. There have been designations for company specific models (TK, SDT, ZG) but W was not one of them.
Cheers,
On all the W's I've had apart, the finger lever was not polished where it hinged in the lower receiver plate (tang), not up at the actuator tip. It was blasted. On the new Remlins, the interior parts look to be either investment cast or MIM and aren't really polished except where the locking block is fitted to the bolt. The receiver interior is as it left the milling machines, and is blued over that finish. On some of the W's since 2010, portions of the receiver interior are also blasted. On some of the C guns, an attempt is made to polish and de-burr the front of the cartridge lifter, I've not seen that on any W yet. On ALL the newer remlin hammers, they seem to have left a casting flash line down the middle of the hammer. On some C's, it's been sanded off the striking face, but not all of them. None of them have really been cleaned up by the sear cams.
All in all, they all need work - granted. But the W's need just a hair more in my experience, in particular at the finger lever hinge and where the finger lever plunger cams closed over the tang pin that retains the lever closed. That's in addition to the standard de-burring, polishing the face of the cartridge lifter, removal of casting seams from the hammer, shortening the finger lever plunger spring, etc.
Interesting about the W. I've heard the Walmart story from a number of sources, including the warranty depot at Gravel some time back. I don't recall the W models being around as far back as the demise of the Glenfield models - which in general were better finished than any W I've ever seen...?
Not the best source, but a quick Wikipedia search reveals:
All in all, they all need work - granted. But the W's need just a hair more in my experience, in particular at the finger lever hinge and where the finger lever plunger cams closed over the tang pin that retains the lever closed. That's in addition to the standard de-burring, polishing the face of the cartridge lifter, removal of casting seams from the hammer, shortening the finger lever plunger spring, etc.
Interesting about the W. I've heard the Walmart story from a number of sources, including the warranty depot at Gravel some time back. I don't recall the W models being around as far back as the demise of the Glenfield models - which in general were better finished than any W I've ever seen...?
Not the best source, but a quick Wikipedia search reveals:
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Actually the decision was made for me lol. I was over at my dads and I was telling him about my dilemma. Suddenly he went quiet and went to the backroom and came back with his marlin and proceeded to tell me that when we took it out he was seeing if he would like it or not and had plans to give it to my son when we go on our hunting trip. Love my old man but he has to communicate little better lol.So my son has a beautiful 336 that he will have for a lifetime and I save my money win win lol.
