Over Pressure signs for Marlin 336

[7br]

I am dinking with a Marlin 336 in .35 remington. This is my first experience with a lever gun.

I have a 220gr bullet that is taking up considerable space inside of the case. I have backed the charge to under minimum charge for a similiar weight jacketed bullet.

What over pressure signs should I be looking for in a Marlin?

[KCSO]

Well if the lever opens itself... Same as any other gun look at the primers first and measure case head expansion from a factory case and then compare to your hand loads 2 thou more than factory will be too much.

[MtGun44]

Sticky extraction and a popping open lever are real warning signs. I once made a
fairly embarrassing error in .45-70 with 2400 and the first one was a bit difficult
to extract. The second one popped the lever down about 1/2" and was very hard
to extract. I finally figured out to stop, pulled the ammo and had a significantly
hotter load than intended.

Bill

[Snapping Twig]

Marlins are very strong, BUT, they have a limit.

Typically the first sign of severe overpressure is the barrel separating from the receiver due to the threads.

Normal signs, sticky extraction, primer flow, etc. are not the same in a Marlin.

Suffice to say sticky extraction is a large warning.

As to lead vs jacket loading densities, IMO you can't go wrong as long as you work your way up in the traditional way and stay within SAAMI specs. Lead has less resistance and therefore less pressure for a given weight of bullet and powder than jacketed bullets. This is not to say it's a free pass, just that you should be able to use jacketed data - again working up as you go.

Ranch Dog has some good loading data, you should check it out.

Just one man's opinion - hope this helps.

[John Taylor]

With the Marlin 336 your probably safe if you stay under 45,000 PSI. If you are getting flat primers your already way over that. Any dragging on the lever when opening would be the first sign. Sticky extraction would come next. If the lever drops on it's own you are lucky it didn't break something.

[popper]

Factory loads give you flat primers!

[Gunnut 45/454]

7br
Get yourself the Lyman cast loading manual! And start there. Depending on the powder your using going under the start loads for jacketed bullets can cause problems in it's self. Example if your starting load for jacketed will be going 1700 fps it will be around 1900 ish with cast at close to the same pressure.:smile: Get yourself a chrony if you don't have one- this will help you stay in the safe zone.

[357Mag]

7BR -

Howdy !

I always thought the Lyman .35 Rem load data ( "J" word and lead ) was spot-on.

Especially good, was their IMR3031 data w/ 200s & 204s, which also included pressure info; if I recall.

I DK what you intend to use the loads/gun for ?

If you can make use of reuced loads, there's some dandy ones to be had; shooitng stuff like IMR4759; and such.

Make sure the lever closes completely, and does not " drop" back down w/ recoil.

With regards,
357Mag

[uscra112]

+1 to Bill's answer. The only time I've overloaded my 336 (also .35 Rem.) the sign was sticky extraction. The 336 doesn't have the camming action of a bolt gun, so stickiness shows up a little easier. IMHO if the lever pops down you're deep in no-go territory and need to get dialed back pronto. I never got that far.

The peak pressure difference between equal weigh j-warts and boolits isn't significant. Starting pressure yes, peak pressure no.

How deep are you seating, anyway? What is your powder?

[7br]

I am using H4895. The check is in probably about .2" below the neck shoulder junction.

[TXGunNut]

My 336 in 35 Rem doesn't seem to like upper end CB loads with the possible exception of the RD boolits.

[popper]

H4895 works ok with really reduced loads, check the Hodgdon site for data. Your seating is about where mine are in 30-30.