I'm trying to help my brother out with a problem with his 336. I'm Hoping that one of you might be willing to help!

Here are the openers the barrel role stamp identifies the gun:

The Marlin Firearms Co.
New Haven, Conn U.S.A.
Est. 1870 Micro-Groove Barrel

It's chambered in 30-30 win.

The number on the Tang is: 70 132 XXX

He was in the process of sighting the gun in for our upcoming deer season. He bought the gun used a couple years ago it looked to be lightly abused, i.e. not kept REALLY CLEANED AND OILED and some finish wear, but to be fairly functional. He has had it out to the range a half dozen times this year and was working on tweaking his open sight settings. He started out firing Winchester 170grn Power Point Factory Ammunition (approx. 30 rounds) and then decided to see if the gun liked the 150grn Win Power Points any better(12 rounds). Today he decided to go back to the 170grn loading. He filled the magazine and fired 6 rounds. Upon firing the 6th and final round in the Magazine he went to eject the spent casing and Noticed that mid-downward stroke the lever "seemed to drag a little and feel kind of heavy". Upon ejecting the empty casing He realized that the lever was Stuck down and Bolt Jammed open. The loading gate seems to be sort of angled INTO the receiver at the front of the gate port and the front of the Gate seems to be jammed upward towards the ejection port. I'm not entirely sure from the pictures he sent but it king of looks like the follower is under the bottum edge of the loading gate forcing it upward. He tells me the WHOLE works seems to be pretty jammed up!!

My question is has anyone EVER seen this happen before and Could you lend us some information on how to free up this situation and get things back to HOW THEY SHOULD BE?? Any Ideas on what caused this situation?? Wear? Breakage? Something rattle loose over time?

He tellls me he was just cycling the action normally and HAS NOT TRIED TO FORCE ANYTHING SINCE IT JAMMED UP. So I'm hoping optimistically that he hasn't compounded his problems!

Any and all suggestions will be GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!!

Thanks in advance for your help!

If I can figure out how to post pictures I'll put up a couple of the 4 he sent me!

This is the fameous Marlin jam. First, remove the screw in the lever and pull the lever out the bottom. then grab the bolt sticking out the back of the action, push down the hammer and slide it out. remove the ejector from the inside of the action on the back side of the reciever. Now you can loosten the screw on the carrier and unbind the shell.

Well here goes nothing with the pictures.

Looks like the loading gate has jammed the cartridge lifter, which is forcing the loading gate up.
I would try to gently ush down of the cartridge lifter and see if the loading gate will o down and out into its roer position.

If I could not gently push dwon on the cartrudge lifter, then I would take the gun apart as Buckeyeshooter suggests.

A couple of things. When a Marlin is in this condition, the lever pivot screw is usually in a bind and can be tough as hell to remove. I find it easier to take the bottom plate of the receiver off instead. That entails removing the stock, hammer spring (the hammer is back so it's under a lot of pressure), the hammer pivot and the two screws holding the bottom plate to the upper receiver. You may not be comfortable taking that all apart and get it back together again, so that takes us back to just removing the lever pivot.

When you're done relieving the bind, tighten the loose screw that holds the loading gate in place. It's about one inch behind the load gate. That's what caused the log jam to begin with.

And put some oil on that gun when your done.
Damn it man. Treat a gun like that no wonder she gave you problems

quote:

Originally posted by kcstott:
And put some oil on that gun when your done.
Damn it man. Treat a gun like that no wonder she gave you problems

Yeah, even if the gun WAS neglected, some steel wool & kroil would clean up the appearance & a thorough cleaning of the action would probably make it work somewhat better.

Looks to me like it isn't being treated much better by the present owner.

This is not "the Marlin Jam".
What you have there is a loose loading gate screw that allowed the loading gate to get out of position. Remove the srew the rest of the way and push the loading gate into the acion and the shake it out the bolt opening.

From here You'll need to tear it down, to get the loading gate back in. Put a little PURPLE loctight on the screw threads.

Rusty

Well, Give us a report.

Did you get it fixed?

bbt

yep, not marlin jam. the loading gate screw is loose and now its tied up with the carrier. This is a good mess!!

What IS this 'Famous Marlin Jam?' And WHY have I NEVER heard of it? Owned and shot Marlins since I was a kid, never had ANY problems, or heard of anyone who had. You can bet I'll be checking that LG screw periodically from now on, though. My 336 is a .35 Remington, and about 50 years old. 1895 is Newfangled, with stupidly fat fore-end and crossbolt safety which was staked in Fire position by a previous owner, the very reason I bought it. Please elucidate on these 'common' Marlin problems as I SERIOUSLY have NEVER heard of them, so have a Fairly Desperate Need To KNOW.
Thanks,
KY Jim

Ky Jim, the marlin jam occurs when you short stroke a round on the carrier going up to the chamber. The next round in the tube 'pops' out and slides under the carrier and ties up the gun. It does not happen frequently in the field but more often when people use the gun in cowboy action shooting and modify the throw of the lever for a shorter arc. The easy way to make positive it never happens to you is to work the lever with authority.

Sounds like the same as the "Famous Browning Jam" for BPS's.

I do the spin cock as seen in terminator 2 when he's riding the motorcycle with the lever action shotgun, never get a shortstroke that way.

Red

oh, I've seen that when cleaning or unloading. No wonder I never heard of it. I guess we hillbillies know how to work a Lever gun PROPERLY. Happens with pumpguns, too. Thanks, I feel MUCH better.
KY Jim

KY Jim, I'm with ya brother---just shuck it hard and fast and all is good!