marlin 336 219 zipper build

[WyomingWhitetail]

so a while back i bought a factory marlin barrel in 219 zipper so that i could rebuild an old marlin 30-30 i had. The 30-30 was given to my dad and was pretty beat up and the barrel was way loose. The 219 barrel fits almost perfect. it lacks about an 1/8 of a turn when screwed in hand tight so by the time i get it torqued it ought to be almost perfect, then as long as the head-space is good. this gun has some screws with severely messed up heads that are stuck pretty hard so i might have to throw it in the mill and machine them out to get it cleaned up. Im planning on re-blueing everything smoothing up the action real nice and buying or building a nice wood stock for it. Im going to use open sights of some sort whether its the factory buck-horn ones or a aftermarket tang peep or something else im not sure yet. Ill use this gun mainly for plinking and varmits. Im making brass out of 30-30 first resizing to 25-35 then to 219. I haven't got my 219 dies yet but i ran 50 through the 25-35 and i think it will work, it dimpled them a little on then neck but i think it will fire form out. Im hoping to get to work on this and my mauser project quite a bit from now till summer and hopefully get them both operational.

 

[Scorch]

Oh man! This sounds like fun! I have a Marlin 336 project in the wings, too (turning a 1950s-vintage Marlin 336 into a cast bullet silhouette rifle ). Fancy wood will really pretty it up when you're done, factory wood is just plain ugly :barf:. Keep the pictures coming!

 

[WyomingWhitetail]

well the factory wood is all cracked and stuff and i have an metal curved butt plate off of something that i think would look good on a nice piece of walnut, might throw an ugly stock on so i can shoot it while i build a nice one.

 

[WyomingWhitetail]

well piddled around with this some today. The first main thing on the agenda was to get a couple of screws out. The hammer screw and the lever screw were both severely messed up and stuck. got one out by using a little heat and grinding the slot deeper the other one got drilled out and the remainder of the bolt chiseled out. Im hoping i can get the barrel put on next time and get it put together and operational so i can shoot it this summer. Then i will probably tear it all down and make it purdy. Im thinking of maybe even trying a little nickle plating.

 

[WhiskeyTango]

That looks like a hell of a fun project! Have you ever nitre blued? Some small parts on that thing would look awesome nitre blued, maybe even the lever. Definitely keep the pics coming!

 

[LSU12ga]

If you are rebluing I recommend Laurel Mountain forge's rust blue. I used it on a couple of projects and it worked really well.

The bluing is really deep and on there very solid.

 

[WyomingWhitetail]

hmm the nitre blueing looks really cool and would really accent nickle plated receiver. Not sure just what ill do as far as finish is concerned yet i have a lot of draw filing and sanding to get this old action cleaned up but that will wait till after summer cause im going to shoot the crap out of it this summer.

 

[badlander]

Very interesting thread. Can't wait to the finished project!

 

[WyomingWhitetail]

well i made some progress on this thing today. I got the barrel screwed in and its headspaced. Doesn't look like much but it took quite a bit of file work to get the barrel to index right. Then i sandblasted the reciever as it had a thick layer of this black carbony scale all over it. I just ordered new screws for it as a lot of the old ones were all messed up. I need to cut the clearance groove on the bottom of the barrel a little bigger to fit the mag tube.then i need to fit the forearm end cap and forearm to the new barrel. This barrel is a lot heavier then the old 30-30 barrel so it takes a little fitting. It don't look very pretty but its getting close to being able to shoot it. And for once i don't think i broke any of Bob's stuff, i swear that guy has to be the nicest man ive ever met. Now for a couple of pics.

 

[ndking1126]

Subscibing, that's a pretty cool project!

 

[WyomingWhitetail]

well we epoxied the crap out of the old stock and got it kinda sorta put back on enough to shoot to shoot it. I shot 100 rounds though it and it seemed to operate just fine and is a really fun little gun to shoot. I really need to get new sights as the ones on it are all mis matched so in order to get it sighted in i had to build a custom elevator that was like 3 times taller than the real one. I need to get a new stock for it so i can get it all inlayed solid and get new sights on it then i can do some serious shooting and see just how good it does. I need to find round nose bullets too so i can try the tube because i was having to shoot 55gr SP in reformed winchester 30-30 brass with 24.5 grains of 3031 and a CCI large rifle primer. After sights and a stock ill be doing more load devolopment to try and get it to group as good as i can.

 

[FrankenMauser]

If they'll feed for you, some of the "Hornet" round nose and "Bee" hollow point or flat nose bullets should work well.

 

[WyomingWhitetail]

Yea I think most people are using the bee flat noses but nobody local carries them so i have to order them. Thanks fir the links I hadn't looked at midway yet

 

[publius]

I've been waiting for you to get started on some of these builds. My opinions- Don't just put it together to shoot for a while until you decide to finish it right, go ahead and do it. I'm completely opposed to any nickel or hard chrome finish. You should be able to find some free cherry wood pretty easily up there in WY. Make some nice cherry stocks(no checkering) and use Dfarriswheel's finish method. Hot or rust blue barrel,magazine,lever,hammer, trigger, and buttplate. Color case receiver. Fire blue all screws, loading gate, barrel band. Aperature sights. This is going to be fun.

 

[WyomingWhitetail]

yea i think eventually im going to finish this thing but right now it will be shooter. this reciever is a 1949 model and has had a rough life so it is going to take a lot of draw fileing and sanding to ever get it to look nice again. While eventually i might do that i want to focus on getting my mauser project done(it im going nice and slow trying to rush anything and making sure that it comes out nice.) Im going to a gun auction and a gun show this weekend so maybe ill be able to find a set of sights and a stock for it so i can see how it really shoots.

 

[Scorch]

Check around at local gun shops and gun shows. Used wood for 36s and 336s is not hard to come by, but premium wood will dress it up quite nicely for a modest investment.
For semi-finished- http://www.gunville.com/productsList.aspx?catID=37&Page=10
For used- http://www.gun-parts.com/marlinstocks/