Marauder Restyle Part Duex

[Sharps40]

After acquiring a 1967 RC with perfect bore but busted stock busted sight and surface rust on the outside......Marauder Time again.

A change up from the first project.....barrel will finish out the same 17"ish length so as not to be confused with a real Marauder but I'll place the barrel band close to the muzzle and the barrel sight to the rear of the band, just like the original Marauders.

Here we go....

Cut about 3" off the end of the barrel and then use a piloted face cutter to square the end of the barrel to the bore...

As you can see, a perfectly smooth and square face to start the crown from, plenty accurate, good as new on a bore with sharp, crisp undamaged rifling.

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Switch to the smaller 11 degree target crown cutter and make the recess to protect the rifling at the muzzle from the inevitable dings and dents, preserving the accuracy for a long time to come.

The finished crown. With good cutters, piloted and a steady hand and a bit of oil, no final polish needed. Smooth as a babies butt and it'll crap bullets with satisfying accuracy all day long.

I usually cut off the back of the mag tube....I'm goin full Marauder look this time, so off comes the unsightly and unneeded barrel band screw slot as I cut off the front end. This will allow me to restyle the gun, band forward, sight back and no ugly cut out showing midway between the barrel band and forend. Just a little detail, but its a good look/right look/workmanship to strive for.

 

[Sharps40]

How much to shorten the mag spring? I never shorten it initially more than the 3" I cut from the mag tube....leaves me a plenty stiff mag spring, and should finish up with a final capacity of 5 170g loads in the mag and 1 in the pipe for a true Six Shooter....more than sufficient to stack up 6 late evening does w/o reload on the food plot.

Measure, and, Clip.

The factory forend is too ugly long for the 20" barrel...so, off comes its snout for the new 17"ish barrel....leave about 1/8" or so of wood beyond the barrel band and square it up later during the refinish. Good walnut on this marlin forend, too bad the stock is broken...but I should be able to reuse the buttplate and hopefully, the undamaged bullseye in the belly of the stock.

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For reference, initial reassembly to check the look. Also, to the right, the parts removed from the snout to make a 336 into a world class fast Bush Stalker and deadly accurate 150m cornfield sniper...

A look at the barrel assembly, lacking a bit of fitting of the band and cross bolt and I'll add the front sight groove soon....

A nice look, just over half the forend is wood and the rest is blued steel...pretty. Now, when the straight grip stock gets here I'll convert the lower tang from pistol grip to straight configuration and coax that silly bent lever into proper straight shape. Marlin was smart in 63 and 64. They copied the Win 94 grip and lever shape for the Marauder! That's funny there, Winchester shape on a Marlin Lever. Maybe I can sneak a Win part into this conversion too, just like the last one!

 

[Sharps40]

Select a location for the front sight dovetail, behind the location of the barrel/tube band...just like the original Marauders.

Install a 3/8 dovetail cutter and approach with confidence or hire out the job but ya gotta level the jig to the action, clamp the jig and cut the barrel dovetail with a hacksaw and files. Off we go, its level or I ain't worth a damn.

No going back, I carved out as much metal as possible with the hacksaw, hardened jig makes the blade sing when I hit the bottom....keeps it from being too deep or too wide...its gonna be perfect and straight.

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Clean up the floor of the dovetail and the undercuts, jig in place with files....when they sing, ye've bottomed out.

Checking the fit and position with a try sight...see, dead nuts straight up and down...its perfect and I am Justin Wilson, Hoo Weee, that's Hot!

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The deer end...straight sight, good crown, deadly combo...

Pretty good this way too.

Looks fine from here too..

And there, close as I can make it w/o shortening up the wood any further, a Marauder styled front end....It'll fool ya but not a collector... length, etc, all close for the look but no way it'll pass the Serial number test or barrel length, etc....a Marauder Styled Carbine and ya can shoot it instead of collecting it. A much better place to be.

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[loadnplenty]

Ahh..... Another great thread to follow lol

 

[EMC45]

Great work. As usual.

 

[Sharps40]

Gotta loosen up the front band, just a touch. When moving these bands far back on the barrel, I open top and bottom to releave tension on the barrel and mag tube for better accuracy. For this set up, much less grinding is required to achieve the relief and so, I only open the lower loop. That will allow me to slide the mag tube in and out once I remove the cross bolt.

A dremil tool and a stone makes fast work of relieving the lower loop.

The front barrel band needs a cross slot, part in the barrel, part in the mag tube. Install the mag tube, tape it tight and secure to the rear. Install the barrel band where I want itshim between mag and barrel to secure the parts. Mark with a small drill bit, and either drill thru with 1/8 or 9-64 bit or hand file the grooves with round files by hand. Either way, hand fitting is required to finish the fit to get it snug when the barrel band screw is snugged down.

Roughin in the grooves for the cross bolt. Best fit is a slight interference fit when installed and pulling the band together tight to secure it all....

Of course, Marlin switched to a large dia screw here cause the little ones always strip out...this one is stripped out....I'll replace it with the next size up screw using a socket head instead of a slotted tip.

Make a new hole in the end to install the bolt that holds the mag tube cap in place in the end of the tube.

Test reassembled again, mag tube cap screw is neatly hidden under the barrel band for a cleaner look. A new larger diameter cross bolt to replace the lightweight factory crossbolt that stripped out like every other one on the old Marlins..... not bad, trim the screw, polish and blue, it'll be rock solid, clean and smooth looking and very functional.

That's it for tonight. Gotta order a stock for this dude now. Guess I might as well start inspecting guts and getting the rest of it cleaned up and ready for wood work and bluing.

 

[7pt62THOR]

Looks great!

 

[Sharps40]

Everything is in place for a test fire before going any further. But, that'll prolly mean some elmers on the broken stock and duct tape to secure it for a few shots. I want to be sure all the internals are working smooth and correctly before going any further with the pretties.

For now, contouring the front band to allow for either a wide or narrow barrel mounted sight.

This is a wide base barrel sight. I think it looks great. Fills the entire dovetail groove and sits nice over the barrel. A narrower base front sight would allow for some windage adjustment but I'm predicting the barrel is straight and I won't need to skew the sights off center by much if any.

Another shot of the business end of this sight.....not sure if it'll be this one or a green one or even a taller or shorter one but I think I like this look on the front. Now where did I put that Winchester 94 rear sight??.....

 

[speednut]

This is coming right along and it looks good.You don't think the barrel band screw will stick out to far and detract from the overall look?(The head, I assume you will cut the other end)

 

[Indirect Fire]

I have always envied folks that had the skill and patients for these kind of projects. Very cool.