A chance to repair Granddads 336-A

[SPRINGFIELDM141972]

My grandfather passed away 20+ years ago and upon his death I was give his single shot H&R 12 gauge and my younger brother was given his Marlin. My grand father was a hard working farmer that expected every tool that he owned to be able to be worked as hard as him. I can not remember a time when both the shotgun and the rifle were not hanging in the back window of his farm truck. The shotgun had the forearm taped up and the rifle had the buttstock taped up. As I grew older I made the repairs to the shotgun forearm and put the gun up. I bring old girl out every now and then and take it squirrel hunting, clean it and put it back up. Due to family situations that sometimes occur I did not stay in touch with my younger brother much and we kind of drifted apart. This last Christmas season, I made it a point to go see my brother and mother. While there he asked if I still did any gunstock work. I stated that I had not done any in awhile but might consider it and asked what did he have in mind. He said "Grandpa's gun's buttstock had been broken by a cousin during deer season". He had gotten a replacement buttstock but couldn't find anyone to fit it for him.

Well, I have it on the bench now and I am pretty excited about getting the rifle back in operation. I'd like to detail the road to recovery here with a few progress pictures along the way.



My first reaction upon dis-assembly is: "Holy Cow! this thing has never been cleaned". I found enough brass cartridge shavings to fill the palm of my hand and the oil on the internals has transformed into Cosmoline. I'll run the parts through the UT cleaner using kerosene to break down the dried oils.

The stock wood seems to be a fair grade of wood but I do believe someone attempted to fit this wood already and has added to the workload by removing too much in the wrong places.

Regards,
Everett

[bedbugbilly]

Hey . . . your grandfather would be proud of you. Nothing like something that has been "passed down".

As far as "family relations" . . . . it happens in many families so don't feel alone. I have a very similar situation with a brother. Sometimes those things just happen.

Your fixing this rifle of you grandfather's may be the best thing for you to "work out some things" as you work on it . . . it might prove to be a good "fence mender". Sounds to me like when you get done with it, the older Marlin will be in tip top shape - well cleaned and a new stock ready to go for many more years.

Good luck with your project . . . it will be interesting to follow through your pictures and words!

[SPRINGFIELDM141972]

The butt stock is fitted and glassed. The tang will required some filing to bring it down to the top of the wrist. I couldn't do much about it, as the wrist just didn't have the girth to accommodate the distance between the tang and the bottom strap's deep curvature.

I've started cutting the plates for my bluing tanks. I had to leave my old ones behind when I moved from Alaska. Just like any of my projects, one project turns into ten.

Progress is progress...

[richhodg66]

I have that same rifle, long barrel, two-thirds mag and perch belly forend I bought off a gun show table about 20 years ago. Killed a nice buck and doe with it one year, but haven't hunted with in a while. I need to di git out and work with it now that I'm more heavily into casting.

I love those old pre-Micro Groove Marlins, you have a fine rifle there,and it's nice that it has so much sentimental value to you.

[SPRINGFIELDM141972]

A couple of pictures of the stock fitted.

[Walter Laich]

nice job
can't wait to see your progress

[SPRINGFIELDM141972]

I got my bluing tank burners today.

[SPRINGFIELDM141972]

The onside checkering on the pistol grip.

[SPRINGFIELDM141972]

The checkering is completed. Now, on to the metal work.

[Petrol & Powder]

That's coming along nicely. Good Work!

[taco650]

Looks like you checkered the for end too. Did it get re-finished as well?

[SPRINGFIELDM141972]

taco650,

Yes I did. I spent two hours steaming out dents of the forearm. Then laid out the pattern. Both pieces will have the finish knocked down with steel wool and a final coat of oil rubbed in before final stack up.

[Shawlerbrook]

Very nice and thanks for sharing this labor of love. Can't wait to see the finished product.

[fixit]

I've done a small share of stock work myself...and always appreciate seeing nice work come together!

[taco650]

What caliber is this rifle?

[SPRINGFIELDM141972]

30 wcf.

[Artful]

Well, darn I can see the before but none of the after pictures, but sounds like your doing a fine job getting the old girl back up to snuff. One thing you might consider is paperwork - I got into this after a friend got a K31 with the previous owners name under the buttplate. You might want to put the lineage of the firearm on some paper and spray with something like hair spray or other clear coating and place it under each of the weapons that were passed down.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Now that is worth doing, but a pen made for marking DVDs will write indelibly on most kinds of plastic sheeting. It might someday be as significant as L. Lebrun who carried my French 1873 ordnance revolver, whom I imagine being the original for the evil Sous-officier Lejaune in PC Wren's "Beau Geste". They changed the name to Markov in the movie, when the French were nearly allies and the Russians were nearly enemies.

The restoration looks nicely done, and a lot of internally filthy rifles are filthy with stuff that prevents rust. I agree with glassing of the tangs. This isn't going to be a totally original Marlin whatever you do, and I think glassing there is always worth doing.

[SPRINGFIELDM141972]

Well, darn I can see the before but none of the after pictures, but sounds like your doing a fine job getting the old girl back up to snuff. One thing you might consider is paperwork - I got into this after a friend got a K31 with the previous owners name under the buttplate. You might want to put the lineage of the firearm on some paper and spray with something like hair spray or other clear coating and place it under each of the weapons that were passed down.

The photos are not showing right now because photo bucket is offline for maintenance. They should so back up sooner or later.

I actually did. This rifle was given to my granddad by my father on a Christmas or one of his birthdays. ( my father doesn't remember for sure). Then it was to my brother as stated before. I have a slip of paper under the butt plate with the linage as know.

[andremajic]

Looks nice. I'll be watching for updates.

Andy