Im going to build this Marlin 336 into a 24" barrel 25-35 Win. add a Leupold Alaskan 2.5X to it, refinish the stock and checker it, maybe custom stock it..Load 97 gr. GS Custom flat nose Hollow POints to 2650 to 2700 FPS and 117 gr. flat nose Hornadays to 2300 FPS and go to Texas and shoot whitetail,hogs, Javalina and feral pigs, and turkey, and use it for Mule Deer in a saddle scabbard..Been intending to do this for a number of years, finally getting around to it..

where at in texas?

JOhn,
Im from a ranching family in Texas so have several places to hunt..Lometa, Goldwaite, and Greenville (Klondike)..Also can hunt in the Big Bend south of Marathon where I used to ranch..My favorite place is a ranch between Lometa and Goldwaite owned by a good friend of mine. We do a cull hunt every year and I get my two whitetail bucks there..My son guides deer hunters on his bosses high fenced ranch, They are in the construction business together, and Ive been invited there but have not hunted it and don't intend to. I hunted on the Jack Atkinson ranch and Barney Edmonson ranches growing for many years, all relitives, but the elders died and the younsters sold out recently.

Eager to hear your field reports once that .25-35 begins to speak, Ray.

marathon i am familiar with, not the others

Hey Ray,
As a kid my father was farming outside of Pecos. We were good friends with the Hess family from there. Are you by chance related to them. I remember you mentioning your grandfathers rifle, a 38-40, and I believe you said his last name was Hess.

His name was John Larkin Hess, He was a cowboy as a very young man and drove cattle to Kansas on the last big trail drive, Became a Texas Ranger at a very early age, like most Rangers they were off and on depending who was governor of Texas and the need..I don't recall any relitives in Pecos although I spent a lot of time there as a kid, football, rodeo, and chasing girls, it was a metropolis compared to Marathon..Most of the Hess family were in Uvalde, Bracketville and El Paso.but they did lease ranches and farms all over Texas.

Keep tellin' ya Ray, we need that memoir ...

quote:

Originally posted by Bill/Oregon:
Keep tellin' ya Ray, we need that memoir ...

The term "raconteur" comes to mind

How is this project coming along Ray?

I have traded off some Winchester 94's and Marlin 336's in the past 10 years or so and never seem to hang onto them...now I am wishing I still had one. Not sure why...my Browning BLR in .308 could do whatever they could do plus some. Just a nostalgia thing maybe.

I'll be on the look out at the pawn shops for an older JM .30/30 or .32 to bring home. Can usually find them for less than $350 pretty common in my part of this state.

It sounds like a great project, Ray, but as Bill/Oregon says, a memoir would be an even better one.

Well my gunsmith messed up his shoulder, Lord knows when I,ll get my Marlin back in 25-35..but he is a friend and charges me about half as much as any other smith would...so patience is needed on my part.

I think id rather dig post holes than write a book!! its just not my thing..

Well Ray what you need is a good ghost writer. I have a friend in New Mexico that has written some books for other people.

At one time I owned over a dozen BLRs only one I have kept is one in 257 Roberts. If you could find a browning BLR in 257 Roberts that would make a good deer rifle.

Ive got a room full of deer rifles, the Marlin was just a project Ive swooned over for years as I grew up hunting deer and elk with a Mod. 94 SRC Winchester still love the caliber, and I have this skinny Leupold 2.5X Alaskan that seems to fit the scheme..a scoped 25-35..Good idea, who knows just one of those quirky ideas. I have a 250-3000 so Im repeating myself!

Ray,

You with a scoped lever action? Now I've heard everything!

Well, everybody should have had at least one!! and I have a couple without in 25-35 and 30-30...and the scope is a classic, gotta get credit for that.

Is it possible to mount a scope over an M94, incorporating a piece of steel to deflect the cases as they are ejected?

I doubt it, but they do make off set scope mounts for the 94s, and Win. has a mod 94 that has been redesigned to take a low monted scope and it kicks the empty out the side...