Earlier this year I picked up my first Marlin 336 30-30. It is celibrating it's 50th birthday this year and is not a safe queen. It is just a working stiff like I was all my life. lol As I would have expected the action is butter smooth. The bore looks fine and as it turns out from some cold weather open range time ,does fine killing clays on a berm at 110 yds. I am shooting 170 grain Oregon Trail RNFP gas checked over R-7. Alum. checks seem to work as good as brass on these .Most all my brass is the short Hornady but seems to work just fine. Most important to me is there is NO LEADING, Didn't mean to shout there but dogone it I have been fighting bore leading till I was about to give up on cast. I was so excited with how they shot that I just recieved an order of another 1000 bullets . I'll be working up loads in some other powders come green up in the spring. Now don't laugh too hard at that cheap scope on a lever gun. My 72 yr. old eyes think it is nice. lo l Wish all a warm winter.
Thanks for the post, reloader. Glad to hear that you and the Ole 336 are having fun together. Not sure if I welcomed you to the forum - so, Welcome aboard. I'll have to check out the Oregan Trail Bullets. I have a 1981 Marlin 336T. Always looking for ways to save a few pennies. Curious about your load and what kind of velocities you're getting with the cast bullets. I've loaded up some Hornady 160 gr. Flex Tip as a hunting load but my typical fodder is the Sierra 125 gr. FNHP. It shoots well and would work nicely for coyotes.
Sorry Greyhawk but no Chrono here. I consulted the 4th edition Cast Bullet Handbook to start my R-7 load at 20 grains. It seems to work well and will stay there till warm up. The book shows 1632 vel. I'm just using the WLR primers. I have 3031, unique, Trail Boss, H335 and 5744 on hand I could play with in the spring. If the R-7 is tight enough on paper in the spring, I won't fix what isn't broke. I also have a quanity of 150 grain plated (.308)RNFP from Berry's that I got for a H&R 30-30 Handi that leads up at the mention of cast. They are pretty but will see in the spring how straight a line they travel.. Thanks again for the responses .
New here but i love the 336as marlin 30-30. It was my first gun i ever owned. Got it when i was 14 and 13 years later it is still shootin like new. In fact i just put me a leupold vx-1 on her and was poppin soda cans at 65 yards with ease. Goin to actual shootin range this weekend to dial it in
