A few years ago I met a lady who was selling a bunch of guns that had belonged to her brother. Most of them were very rusty, having been left in a gun safe that was in a non-heated/non-air conditioned garage for more than 3 years. I bought some from her and helped her sell the others. One of the guns was a fairly new Marlin 336 .. though you would not know it was new when you first saw it.

I stripped the gun completely and soaked it in penetrating oil for 3 or 4 days. Then I started sanding it with oiled sandpaper. Eventually I had to draw file some places to take out the pits. I used an electric sander at times but most of it was done by hand.

Once I got it cleaned off I decided to cut the barrel to 16 1/2" length.

I used a very fine hacksaw blade and cut slowly so I didn't have to remove a lot of metal on the muzzle to finish it.

I shortened the magazine to fit the barrel.

I wanted the gun to look old so I left a little oil on it and applied cold blueing.

The gun originally was a "Walmart special" made with a cheap laminated stock. I got a nice walnut stock from Mic MicPherson and fitted it. I thinned down the fat Marlin forend to more like with Winchester 94.

I put a blank in the rear sight dovetail.

Then I mounted and bore-sighted a scope.

When I had the gun apart I polished the internals and modified a few things to help it run smoothly.

On the range ---

When it was finished I gave it to my son-in-law for his birthday.

I like that, a lot! I keep my eye out for one of those $100 Marlin 336's to play with, but they are few and far between anymore. The older I get the more I appreciate the assistance of glass sighting systems, and that gives the Marlin a big edge over the Winchester. In the meantime, Grandpa's old '94 Winchester keeps the 30 WCF slot well filled in the battery.

I went in a new local shop the other day for the first time. The only thing of interest was a newish Win 94 in about that same condition. They were only asking $500 for it.

I picked up a youth model 336 of fairly recent manufacture a few years back. My plan was to make it a ‘Jeep’ gun. It had a short stock, a 16” barrel and a very matte finish about like a cheap 870. I got a set of skinner sights for it and a Weaver scout style rail. I ended up flipping the rear base around backwards and cutting it down so it would fit with the rail that uses the front two scope mount holes. I was going to get a Vortex 2-7 LER scope for it but ended up playing around with the peeps and a red dot and a 1-4x scope and never got around to getting the scout scope. Also ended up selling the Jeep. So now it just sits in the gun room like so many others…. Need to get it out and play with some cast bullets in it for some fun plinking.

--
https://facebook.com/M2bKydex/