I have been on a kick to see what can be done to optimize the Marlin .336 action, and have been looking at various sites and asking about what others have done. One of the best conversions I have read about is re-barreling the 336 to .250 Savage. I would like a light, fast handling carbine in a cartridge suitable for deer and varmints out to 250 yards. The .250 would be ideal. The conversion is a simple re-barrel job, and the taper and length of the cartridge are just about right to function well in a lever action. I hand load, so I could develop the loads that seemed to work best, but since the 336 handles the .307 and .356, even a factory round should not present a pressure problem. Has anyone on this board seen such a conversion? Another good candidate would be a 6.5 MS. The case is longer, but I would be interested in the lighter bullets so OAL would not be a problem. It is a great little round and would be suitable for varmints and deer.

How about a 25 Souper on a 307 case? The 25 Souper is basically a 25 x 308.......the 307 case gets you a rim......

I suspect the best you can hope for and not get in trouble would be a 25-35 Improved and thats a pretty neat cartridge....The Marlin and the Win. 94 were just not designed for the pressures that your talking about...

A Savage 99 might be a better solution...it comes in a varity of cartridges that suit you including the .250

You have a tubular magazine here which would mean a very limited selection of bullets. You would have to use flat points and the only flat point 25 cal I can think of is made for the 25-20. Theres nothing lighter and faster handling than a Savage 99 in my opinion and it has a rotary mag (also a clip model) so can use any bullet type made.

Factory loads are out, no one makes a flat point load in 250 Sav.

Factory .250 Savage is not loaded all that hot, sami 47,000. After all the marlin will handle .307, .356, and .375 @ 52,000, with no problem,the 7mm Waters is 45,000, and the .30-30 is 42,000. I have already read of one such conversion that shot factory ammo with no problems. As far as the pointy bullet problem, there are several solutions. A "plug" in the magazine to limit the rifle to a "2" shooter, Adapting a Remington spiral mag. tube,or yet another alternative, cutting the chamber .030 short in the neck to prevent factory ammo from chambering and stamp the barrel .250 Marlin. Wow!.250 Marlin sounds kind of neat.

Yep, buy a 99.

Rob

The 336 did NOT handle the 307 and 356 well. That is why they were short lived in this rifle. I remember reading about the problems at the time and Marlin opted to drop the cartridges rather than redesign the action like Winchester had already done. Besides the 99 the Browning BLR is another option.

The .250 Savage has a water capacity of 45.54 grs.

The 25/35AI has a water capacity of 45.72 grs.

If both cartridges had the same taper,due to the size difference,the 25/35AI would only have about 89.5 percent as much back thrust at the same pressures.

The 25/35AI has much less taper,so back thrust would be reduced even farther.

Ackley Vol.1 page 331 list a load for a 75gr.bullet at 3600 fps.

Looks to me as if the 25/35AI would be the better round to consider.

WC

Chuck,
Don't you think if the Marlin company thought they could make that gun in 250, 308, 243 etc. they would have done it....Cartridges like the 250 Savage are for bolt guns and will also adapt to the much stronger levers like like the Sav. 99, Browning BLR and Win. M-88...

It is not a viable chambering for the Marlin Lever action rifle, neither was the 307 and 375 and adapting a spiral magazine to a Marlin would be a feat unto itself...

The 25/35 developed 34,000 PSI BTW and shot a 117 gr. RN Hornady at about 2500 FPS...Case design had less backthrust than the original 25-35 as it was striaght walled and had something to hang on to...

Of course if you want to build one then by all means do so, as the above is only my opinnion.