Hi Guys:

About 6 months ago I won a Savage rifle at our SCI banquet. I decided to trade up a bit to a new Marlin 308 MXLR lever action.

Anyway, today was the first day I was able to mount a scope on it and take it to the range. The accuracy was great, hovering around 3/4 to 1 inch groups.

But I noticed after every shot the lever would pop loose about 1/4 in after the shot. One or two shots out of 20 had hard extraction. It seems to be a hot load. I didn't have my Chrony with me to check the velocity.

My question is, is the lever supposed to move down a bit after the shot? It ejects and the loads the next round slick as ice, and the lever closes as normal after the new round is loaded.

Should I send the rifle back to Marlin if this is a problem? I own two other lever actions, one a marlin 22 and a old 44 mag, neither rifle does with this is doing.

Need some advice from the lever action experts.

Regards... Jim P.

Open the lever and note that there is a small "pawl," plunger located in the bottom of the loop. That engages a recess in the trigger plate, bottom metal if you will, and have had the same thing happen on a mere 30-30 as well.
Usually occurs on older version of the 336 action, but of course is new and that spring that applies pressure to the plunger would need replaced, There is a small pin which holds it in place and using a small tip punch, it can be drifted out(careful not to loose the pin or spring) and this will permit the plunger to fall out as well as the spring. Home rememdy would be to stretch the spring a bit and replace and see if that solves the problem. Otherwise, contact Marlin and tell their service folks of the problem and they will probably ask you to send in the rifle. If you do not want to do that, switch over to the Parts department and order a new spring. If that does not work, off to the factory. The plunger I am referring to is usually not blued, silver in color and has a tapered nose on it w/ a flat side to engage in the recess. Hope this works out for you.

Hi Dsiteman:

Thanks for the info, I will play around with it today.

Regards... Jim P.

And/or, especially bench testing, you may be banging the lever under recoil. Try a firmer hold.