1949 Marlin 336 Refinish

[Sharps40]

I test fired the 1949 Marlin 3030 today after replacing the worn locking bolt and mateing it to the replacement bolt inserted by the prior owner.

All the headspace is gone. There are no high primers and no movement of the bolt once locked in. The gun is still fitted very tight and a single round did not ignite on the first pull since I did not have the lever completly closed. I don't intend to do any more polishing of the locking bolt mateing surfaces, just let it wear in to final fit thru cycling in front of the TV and doing some more shooting.

I see why folks like the Wild West no flop triggers, this model does not have the two piece trigger and sear, its crisp and clean with no take up. I still think it would be prudent to upgrade the tang with the late model trigger blocking safety, I have the parts in hand to do just that.

Accuracy wise, I stuck on a try sight. As you can see its not quite tall enough to be on Zero at 25 yards but the potential accuracy of this 62 year old gal will make the work to slap her cute worth the effort and time. A total of 13 rounds were fired. Three each of my 180g RN handloads to see if it was at least on the paper. A pretty nice starter group for my old eyes.

The next group fired was five each of the Winchester Fusion 150g HP factory loads. More promising performance from inexpensive off the Wall Mart shelf ammo.

The final group fired was five each of the Hornady 160g Lever Evolution ammo. Expensive but it would seem, most accurate of the ammo chosen for todays test.

In all, the action remains tight requiring just a bit of zing to open and close. Sort of like when you hurridly lever in a second round for follow up. But, not so much force you'd think there was something wrong with the ol gal. Like I said, it'll wear in to perfection here quite soon.

All in all, glad I picked this one up. When done its going to make someone a really nice old school hunter and shooter. Who says an Old Girl can't Get Er Done?

 

[Sharps40]

Some folks have expressed concern over my initial thoughts about adding the later model Marlin trigger blocking safety to the trigger plate. I went over the guts of the gun tonight, that combined with recent shooting and I have to say everything is in fine as froghairs condition inside. No reason to change to the late model trigger block on the trigger plate. With the test firing and fitting of the new locking bolt, it locks up tight with little or no headspace. The gun has passed all the safety checks and I can't get the hammer to fall without pulling the trigger. So, some glass bedding to do to tighten up the forend and bed the replacement stock and then its off to polish and blue.

 

[Sharps40]

Tonight I managed to plug the third of four holes previously drilled in the left side panel of this rifle. The four holes were for a side mount scope base, which is long lost. In any event, the two rearmost holes were stripped out and oversize/crooked. The third hole was capped with a cone of steel silver soldered in place and filed flush. It looks fine. The fourth hole is right over the extractor cut and the walls quite thin, plus soldering it shut is bound to have silver solder get into the action and thats a hard job to clean out. I'll probably just leave it alone. It won't look bad once blued and we'll just call it an inspection port.

Besides, I hate silver soldering. Hot, slow, and its hard to get the individual parts tinned up and then clamped and held till the solder flows. Its particulary difficult for me where there is a big part like an action and a small part like a plug. Seems I always have the small part too warm. But it went okay this time if a bit slow and the new plug looks fine. I suspect they're be a tiny line of silver around this plug, unlike the first two which are screwed in and set with locking agent.

 

[Sharps40]

Fortunatly the forend is a nice piece of dense walnut. In the photos, the first coat of Truoil is on the sanded (220g) wood to start sealing it up. The factory inletting has a fine coat of finish from some earlier time and it is in great shape, sealing the wood inside and not looking like its in need of any additional topcoating.

Typical of any forend thats over 60 years old, it shrank a bit over the years and is a bit loose when installed. As you can see, a bit of epoxy bedding at the junction between the action and back of the forend fills up about 1/16" of shrinkage. When reinstalled, the forend will fit as good as new and stay that way for many years. For bedding small parts like this, where there is not a lot of stress, almost any thick epoxy will do. Acraglass gel is tops, but microbed and even JBWeld will work perfectly as a skined in place shim. Use what you have, just use release agent on the metal. I've gotten away from the paint on release agents that come with the bedding kits. About all I use any more is good old Rig +p grease. Everything that could get glued to the wood gets a thin coat, including screw holes and screws and it always breaks free in the morning! Perfect bedding and release every time.

 

[Sharps40]

The replacement stock is going to be a pretty good match for the original forend. Both have hints of green and gold and red in the wood. Both are plenty dark with no stain.

The forend is on its third coat of Trueoil Each coat is knocked back with 0000 steel wool before the next layer is rubbed on. I rub the Truoil by hand, hard, till it gets get ouch hot and nearly dry, then let is set 3 to 5 hours, steel wool and the next coat. About 5 to 6 layers does the trick. The last steps are rub out with 0000 steel wool to just remove the gloss and bring it back to a satin finish by handrubbing with Brownells fff compound. Nice satiny finish, level and smooth.

The buttstock has been sanded and twice wet sanded to remove the whiskers. Leave the buttplate on during sanding, it keeps the sharp edges sharp and not rounde over...plus the butplate, spacer and wood all come out the exact same size. I only wet sand onece or twice on a nearly perfect sized stock, don't want it to get too small. To assure all the whiskers get removed before finishing, I freeze them with a coat of Truoil rubbed in. Once dry a final very light sanding and then 5 to 6 good coats of Truoil and hand rubbing to finish it all out.

 

[TrentA]

Sharps40,

If you want I'm pretty sure Steve Parsons can repair that split butt stock and brace it internally. He did a couple of pistols for me and I looked at one of his stock repairs on a high end scattergun. It looked very good and saved a really nice looking buttstock for a cost savings also.

another shameless plug for Steve, He's a good guy and does Awesome Work

 

[Sharps40]

Thanks, I'm sure he's great. But this is about do it yourself instead of hire another.

 

[Sharps40]

Forend is about done. A sixth coat tomorrow and it should be ready for final leveling and hand rub. The stock is about midway, third coat of Truoil drying in the wood. Perhaps tomorrow night it will be ready for leveling and final rub as well. Then, a fit check on the gun (just to see how good it looks) then wrapped up and stashed someplace dent free till all the metal work is completed.

 

[Sharps40]

While a gunstock finish, just applied, may be as shiny as a sporting gals advertisement of opportunities for love, it won't be quite perfect. Not in looks and especially not in feel.

The finish, whether wiped or sprayed on should have been leveled and cleared of dust/pins w/steel wool between coats. The final treatment is typically leveling to create smoothness of touch. (Touch a handrubbed finish and one that is not hand rubbed at the end, you won't be satisfied with the unrubbed finish no matter how glossy!) After leveling, the polish brings up whatever shine you desire on the now silky smooth surface.

Knock off the gloss with 0000 steel wool or wet sand with 800g paper. I use the wool, less messy. Using a buffing compound, I like Brownells fff, really give the dulled finish a work out. You can feel the surface smoothing and as the compound dries on the rag it really starts to polish. FFF can produce a low luster to factory glossy shine. If you want to get back to mirror bright, follow up with fffff compound.

Its hard to see in the photo but the left side has the gloss knocked off w/0000 steel wool and the right side is just buffed to low luster. Subtile difference in looks, major difference in how warm the wood feels to the touch.

 

[Sharps40]

Gloss on the stock is untouched True Oil. It needs leveled and rubbed. Shiny and nice for sure, but you see the pores in the wood as shadows and the gloss can actually hide figure and subtle colors. These stocks have some nice greens and golds in them that I don't want to hide, so low luster is the word. Plus, gloss shows every ding, scratch and mark, low luster is much easier to care for in the long run...Look at a Browning rifle, gorgous shiny under all the scratches and marks.