It is easier to hold a Rifle level with a pistol grip level, m94's are rare & expensive so I'd go with a m336. Around here the going price for a used 336 is in the $225-250 range. Be sure the 1 you buy is set up for a sling as the earlierly Marlins are not. Buy 3 boxes of 170 Federal from Walmart, go to the pistol range and practice quickly shooting 3 shot groups at a pie plates at 50 yds with open sites. You'll have fun.

Thanks Guys,
I just put on hold at the local gun shop a 1948 (1st year production according to Marlin) Marlin 336 in 30-30.
Cant wait to pick it up.
Thanks again for all your help.
W.

quote:

Originally posted by woodsie:
Thanks Guys,
I just put on hold at the local gun shop a 1948 (1st year production according to Marlin) Marlin 336 in 30-30.
Cant wait to pick it up.
Thanks again for all your help.
W.

Assuming condition is okay, sounds to me as if you made a good choice. Yes, that's when the M336 officially replaced the M36... Major easily seen difference was the shift from a flat bolt to a round bolt.

My dad and I both killed our first black-tailed deer with a M36 in .30-30...mine at about 65 yards, his at about 85 yards, both on the same day with the same rifle...and both of us sitting on our butts in the same 1944 Jeep with the windshield folded down.

'Course, we were on 55 sections of private property then...35,000+ acre ranch in central California, so we didn't have to worry about intruders/observors in those days. We sometimes counted more than 100 bucks per evening on that ranch, as it hadn't been hunted for over 40 years when we started eating venison from it.

Anyway, I think pretty much all factory rifles were better crafted in those days, so yours should be a dandy.

Have a blast on your hunt!

Thanks,
I was so supprised how good the conditions was of this gun.
Cant wait to pic it up.
Thanks,
W.

of course you know that your rifle des not have micro-groove rifling or a cross-bolt safety.

many consider those to be plusses.

If you are going to scope it, please use a steel weaver or redfiled of correct-ish vintage in blued weaver rings. that's what I did and I love it.

Now that you've swallowed the hook for this used lever gun addiction, please let me give you a taste of a new drug to get high on...will also be a great excuse to give the frau to justify your hanging around gun shows...

One of the really great old scope combos for the Marlin 36 and early 336 rifles was a Weaver 330 scope, in a set of Stith "Streamline" mounts.

The Weaver 330 was made in El Paso, TX of course. It was nominally 3-X, and had a 3/4" steel tube with no "bell" on the objective end. Just about any kind of reticule was available, including post, post and crosshair, standard crosshairs, or dot amongst others. Eye relief was 3"-to-4".

The Stith Streamline mounts (front and rear, Not 1-piece) required no drilling and tapping of the rifle outside of what it came with from the factory...and the 36s and the early 336s came with NO scope mount holes (scope mounting holes WERE available from the factory as "special order" and finally came standard on all 336's sometime circa 1954).

Didn't matter with the Stith Streamline mount....the rear base used the same holes on the left side of the action which the factory had intended for a receiver sight. The front base used the dovetail of the rifle barrel which the factory cut for the rear open sight. The front ring encircled the whole front end of the scope, and various rings were available for specific scopes to make that enclosure of the front of the scope(s) possible.

Together, the 330 scope and Stith mounts mounted the scope so low that the scope tube almost touched the top of the receiver full length. That worked great with the drop of the lever action stocks of the day, as it put the line of sight through the scope at almost exactly the same height as when using the factory iron sights.

The combo also had no part of the scope significantly any wider than the action-body, which kept the rifle very sleek and slim for easy scabbard carry and easy hand carry, as well as purely delightful handling. With the scope mounted that low, you could throw the gun to the shoulder and you were just automatically looking through the scope with a good cheek-to-stock weld. Just the thing for an instinctive snap shot at a running deer...or lion.

Stith Streamline mounts are still pretty common at gun shows, usually dirt cheap as the folks who have them for sale are mostly older guys who just can't get used to paying or charging today's prices. Lots of folks don't even know what they are, so you often will find one mount part (say, the front ring assembly) at one gun show, and the other half at another gun show.

The Weaver 330 scopes are harder to come by, but they show up too, and actually there are two varieties of those 3/4" Weavers intended for high powered rifles...the 330 (3-X ) and the 440 (4-X). There are others too, of course, such as the J-series (the J-4 4X, for example) but they were really intended for .22s or as very cheap scopes for those who couldn't afford a good high power rifle-intended one. I always found the 330 the better of the two for my use though I can't really put my finger on exactly why. I guess it might be because the 440 had less field of view.

Anyway you can have a lifetime of fun looking for such genuine old add-ons which were widely popular "in the day". In the meantime a Weaver K-3 in modern mounts will get you by until you can find the "real McCoy".

Woodsie

I did not see anyone advise you on ammo, so i will. Usually mountain lions are treed or shot at very close range, and they do not have heavy bones or body size. I would go with a 150gr Rem core-lokt, if it shoots well. I would also try out Hornady's 150gr load. Those lighter bullets should shock the cats nervous system more than a 170 grainer, yet it should still exit, but that wont really matter as range will be at spitting distance, let us know how the hunt turns out.

quote:

Originally posted by Gerrypeters375:
z1r

This quite old man (79) really liked your love note to the 30-30. Like you, I carried a 30-30 and hunted deer for years with it (when I was very young) (I never felt undergunned and if the deer didn't drop or collapse w3ithin a short distance - it was my fault of poor shooting - Plain fact as you and I both know.

My father carried a Savage 99 in 30-30 in the earliest days of the construction of the Panama Canal. ( He was there before a spade of dirt was turned over and used the rifle in the jungle when engineering surveys were needed to check on the French surveys) It was his Savage 99 (octagonal barrel,blade front sight)that I carried when I shot a fair number of deer in my teens and early 20s. Hail to the 30-30!

A 99 in .30-30 is on my wish list. Great story Gerry! Yeah, I would never be without a .30-30. One day, if I get time, I'll make myself a Mauser repeater in .30-30.

Norton, I agree the .35 rem is definitely under rated.

I went and shot my lever gun today, and WOW, what a shooter. What a pleasure to shoot.
Now I just gotta practice with open sights.
Thanks again,
W.

quote:

Originally posted by Norton:

Just a fun gun to shoot inside 100 yds. I refuse to scope it....just not that kind of gun.

That's how I feel about my Model 94 30-30. Capable, and fun as all get out.

Michelle

don't be afraid of a good receiver sight. awfully tough to beat, and period-correct.

quote:

Originally posted by delloro:
don't be afraid of a good receiver sight. awfully tough to beat, and period-correct.

For most hunting, delloro is right.

If you decide to use a receiver sight for hunting lion with dogs though, let me suggest you get a sight with the biggest aperture you can find.

What you certainly DON'T WANT, is to look through your aperture at 15 yards or so and see nothing but hair. Too small an aperture can give you exactly that problem. You need to be able to instantly tell exactly what part of the lion you are looking at, and where the part you want to hit is.

If you muff the shot and wound the lion, your guide is going to be rightously pissed. A wounded lion is very likely to fall/jump from the tree or ledge to the ground, and the dogs will instantly pile on it....at least the "green" younger dogs will.

No guide wants a $3,000 dog torn up or killed by a lion...worse yet, 2 or 3 dogs.

Thanks guys,
Well, my 1948 gun turned out to be a 1961 model.
Apparently, the gentleman at Marlin thought I said E(1948) when instead of V(1961). i decided to double check when someone above mention miicrogrooved barrell. Got me thinking since my barrell has that marking.
Oh well, no real big deal. I still love this beuaty. Going to shoot it again tommorrow.
Thanks again,
W.

I screw out the apeture in a williams foolproof and then use the large apeture as a ghost ring. Very qick to align and at dog hunting distance plenty accurate enough for Mr. cat!

I'm not pumping Marlin, but these are the ones I've had experience with.

Marlin 336C 30-30
Marlin 1895 45-70
Marlin 1894ss 44 Mag (my favorite)

My vote would be for the 1894 in 44 mag. You get 10 rounds in the magazine and manageable recoil for follow-up shots. You didn't say where you would be hunting but here in Oregon they stopped letting us use dogs to hunt Cougar. This has removed a fear association with dogs and man so naturally Cougar incidents are on the rise. When you go after predators keep in mind just who's hunting who, you've entered their food chain.

I've topped mine with a 3x9x40 VX2 (helps me with the focal planes at low light).
I shoot 250gr Nosler Partion HG sighted 2" high at 100 yds making it 2" low at 150 yds. A rainbow to be sure!

Unfortunetly, I cannot rave about it's accuracy. The 1:38" twist (questionably slow) makes the 250gr bullets group 2-3" at 100yds. Handloading 250gr WFN Beartooths (shorter length for weight) is on the to do list.
Hope this helps

Woodsie

I didn't open the second page of posts so naturally I'm a day late and a dollar short. I sold my 336C for my 1894ss a couple of years back. This wasn't easy because I absolutely loved the 30-30. Your choice of sights is always personal so good luck with the quest. I liked a ghost ring, tried a friends peep on his 94 and liked that as well, but settled on optics for low light apps. I shoot with both eyes open and upclose shots on 3x are no sweat. Again, it's all personal choice.