Marlin 39A upgrade.

[W.R.Buchanan]

I haven't been on the .22 forum since I've been here, but I have a bunch of .22's.

One of my favorites is my Marlin 39A, I got it for $300 about a year and a half ago.

It was made in 1991 and is in pretty nice shape, and it had been shot very little.

I have been working on it refining it like I do with all my Marlin Rifles.

Really I just buy Marlin rifles so I can work on them.

Anyway I spent a considerable amount of time working the action and smoothing it out.
The .22 action works almost exactly the same way as the larger caliber guns do except for a few minor differences. Still I've got 6-8 hours in this one, and it runs pretty smooth.

I installed a Brownells spring kit, and de-burred everything. Today I installed a Lyman 66LA that I bought off Ebay last year. I also broke all the sharp edges on the lever and reblued it.

The sight was a big deal, and will help shooting at the .22 silhouettes.

One of the things I did that I had to back out of, was in dealing with the rebounding hammer. The rebounding hammer on this gun goes "boing" everytime you pull the trigger and it drives me nuts! Guns are not supposed to have an audible "boing" everytime you pull the trigger! I just should not be so!

I wisely bought an extra hammer spring strut, and modified it by removing the rebound side. This worked perfectly except for one minor problem.

The half cock part of the rebounding hammer is a step not a slot. As a result you can lower the hammer to half cock and pull the trigger which just slides off the step which fires the gun. Not a real safe safety!

So I put the original part back in the gun and left it. I have been looking for an early pre-safety hammer and trigger kind of half heartedly so I wouldn't have to modify the existing parts. I may just mod the existing parts and be done with it.

The last thing to do with this gun is to refinish the stocks and cut down the fore-end.

These guns have had way too generous forends for ever ! I will remove a considerable amount of wood from the fore-end to make the shape more pleasing, and then refinish it with a nice oil finish replacing the Marshield goo they put on the stocks from the factory.

These stocks should come out rather nice as the pistol grip has some interesting figure in it, and it looks like there may be some hiding in the fore end as well. We'll see.

More to come.

Randy

[richhodg66]

I love my 39A just as it is. I had wanted one forever, but wouldn't buy one with the safety and wouldn't pay what most were asking. Found this nice one in alocal shop and dropped $400 on it. I've been very pleased with it and I think I'll just leave the open sights on it, I have other .22s to hunt squirrels with, this one is mainly for busting golf balls on the range berm and it sure is fun for doing that!

[richhodg66]

That's some very pretty figure on that stock, by the way. Mine is nice, but much plainer.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Rich: Surprisingly most all of the Marlin stocks that look pretty plain reveal some interesting figure when you remove the goo that the factory puts on.

I have an 1894 Cowboy that had the most mundane wood on it I thought I had ever seen, in fact to call it "fence post grade" would have been an insult to fence posts everywhere!.

I literally scraped the factory finish off it, sanded it, added some stain and then many coats of Tru-oil and it revealed lots of grain structure and a bunch of fiddleback that was obscured by the paint. Night and day difference.

I have found that the simple act of refinishing the wood on most guns makes them much more interesting. It's something I do to all the Marlins I buy just cuz it's easy and it is something I can do to increase the value of the gun.

I also rework the actions to make them smoother which is also a simple process.

These guns are all generic guns, IE they are made to a price point and don't get alot of hand work put into them. Putting that hand work into the gun makes it what it would be if the factory didn't have to make a profit.

For a while Marlin was offering 1894 Cowboy Competition rifles for sale. They already had the actions slicked up and a little more pleasing wood. They were around $900 when the basic gun was around $550.

They sold everyone they made. I wish they'd do it again, and so do alot of other people..

I put the before pics up so people could see the difference after the wood is refinished with oil as opposed to the paint they use at the factory.

It will be dramatically different.

Here's a pic of the 1894 Cowboy stock after redoing.

Randy

[W.R.Buchanan]

One other thing I did to this gun yesterday was to file on the brass bead a little. It is surprising how bright they get when you do that.

You have to be careful as on mine the entire front sight was brass and most all of it was painted black. I had a small overrun with the file and had to get out the Magic marker to fix it.

A popsicle stick with some fine sand paper glued to it would be the proper touch up tool for that job.

I also removed the sight hood as it was obscurring the FS. It is much easier to see now.

I keep all of my Sight parts in a plastic divider box so I can find them when I need them.

Randy

[6.5 mike]

A Ladys fine emery board works very well to dress up brass sights. You can keep it in the range box & not have to worry bout rust. They also work for odd shaped areas as you can cut them to any shape needed.

[Ben]

Randy,

That is nice, VERY NICE ! !

Ben

[W.R.Buchanan]

Ben: These stocks should come out pretty !

I'm going with French Red stain from Brownells on these and resisting the urge to use other colors too, just one color this time.

Might do some "Sharpie" grain enhancement on the fore-end after I get it reshaped.

6.5: one just hit the bathroom floor, and has been relocated to the range bag!

Randy

[W.R.Buchanan]

Shot .22 Silhouette today at the range with the Marlin and then shot the second round with my Browning .22 Auto.

Shot 24 with the Marlin and the Peep sight is a definate improvement. Still need to do a formal sight in on paper to get the thing right.

I have a few small issues to deal with on that gun, like removing the open sight from the barrel which keeps popping up in the way.

I got alot of light primer strikes and misfires with the gun which are directly related to the lighter mainspring and the rebounding hammer feature. I have to fix this. Either put back the original spring or modify the hammer so the half cock knotch works as a safety, and get rid of the rebounding feature.

Didn't shoot as well (14/40) with the Browning but I did hit 4 pigs in 15 seconds, and 4 Rams in 15 seconds. They really are the ultimate plinker. I really didn't care about score with that gun, I was having too much fun!

Randy

[mainiac]

I just put a peep on one of my 39,s...The peep is about .200 or so high,using the stock front sight,and this gives a 50 yard zero. Most of the guns i peep,need a taller front sight then factory,,so this is puzzling to me. I need to buy a shorter front sight,cause i dont like the peep that high from the receiver.

The peep is the answer for failing-tired eyes,,,no doubt!!!!

[joatmon]

I need to get mine to stop jamming then give the wood a going over like that!
Aaron

[W.R.Buchanan]

Mine is higher than .200 See pic . I'd say the aperature is actually about .4 above the top of the receiver. I don't see getting it much lower with the existing front sight, and the front sight isn't going to get much lower either.

I am using the stock front sight, which is not very tall, with the hood removed.

This allows more light around the front sight amd makes it easier to pic it up in failing light.

I really want an XS style front sight with the white line on the back.

IMHO they are the best front sights in the business.

I like the Lyman for the rear, but for the cost, the adjustability is just not that usable a feature. Once the gun is sighted in 1" high at 50 yds it will be dead on at 75yds and 3" low at 100. The only change I would make would be to add the 3" on the sight for 100 yd shots, then back down to the mechanical stop

I paid $125 off Ebay for that one, and for the amount it will get tweaked I could just as easily use and XS or Skinner Rear,,, sight it in once and be done with it.

Randy

[GOPHER SLAYER]

I bought this rear sight for a Marlin many years ago at the Pomona gun show. I paid fifteen bucks for it and I really like it. I have never seen another like it.

[W.R.Buchanan]

I see your gun does not have the rebounding hammer? But it has the crossbolt safety.

Did it come that way? Does your half cock knotch work?

What are the first two digits of the serial number?

Randy

[Bret4207]

I have a very, very old 39 with a very poor barrel. Someday I want to reline it and refurbish the rifle. I believe it's one of the higher grade rifles based on pictures in the Brophy book. It holds like a rifle ought to and is far, far slimmer than the current 39's. Lovely rifle.

[Jon K]

Mine is higher than .200 See pic . I'd say the aperature is actually about .4 above the top of the receiver. I don't see getting it much lower with the existing front sight, and the front sight isn't going to get much lower either.

I am using the stock front sight, which is not very tall, with the hood removed.

This allows more light around the front sight amd makes it easier to pic it up in failing light.

I really want an XS style front sight with the white line on the back.

IMHO they are the best front sights in the business.

I like the Lyman for the rear, but for the cost, the adjustability is just not that usable a feature. Once the gun is sighted in 1" high at 50 yds it will be dead on at 75yds and 3" low at 100. The only change I would make would be to add the 3" on the sight for 100 yd shots, then back down to the mechanical stop

I paid $125 off Ebay for that one, and for the amount it will get tweaked I could just as easily use and XS or Skinner Rear,,, sight it in once and be done with it.

Randy

You can remove the front sight and use a Williams low profile ramp, or just cut a dovetail in the barrel.

Jon

[Got-R-Did]

W.R. Buchanon, if you ever wish to take on a stock refinishing project, I would love to see what you could do with my 39D's wood. She's not fencepost material, but she sure is plain.
Your's is stunning!
Got-R-Did

[94Doug]

The guy that lived next to me put a million rounds through his. Really. I have the Marlin ad to prove it.

Doug

[uscra112]

Since when did the 39 have a rebounding hammer? None of mine do.

Phil

[W.R.Buchanan]

Phil: mine was made in 1991 and it has a rebounding hammer. The hammer strut has two points on it and the top one shoves the hammer down and the lower one retracts the hammer.

I bought an new hammer spring strut and ground off the rebound side and the gun worked perfectly except for one small thing. The half cock step on the hammer is a step not a notch. so when the gun is on half cock the trigger sear is not trapped, as a result when you pull the trigger the hammer drops.

I put the stock strut back in and will live with it until I have time to change it.

To fix this I either have to find a earlier hammer or modify mine so it traps the trigger sear for half cock.

Got r Did: I haven't done the stock on the 39A yet the other picture is of my 1894 Cowboys stock which before refinish was an insult to "fence post grade " wood.

The ones on the 39 should come out pretty spectacular as there is alot of grain visable thru the paint.

I just have to make time to do the job, as I am currently burried in work.

Randy

[rollmyown]

Is the new made Lyman sight equivalent quality, ie steel?

Do you need to D&T the receiver of a modern 39 A (09 manufactured)?

Nice job BTW

[W.R.Buchanan]

Rollo: no the new Lyman sights are not made of steel, that's why they are only $80. I don't know if the new receivers are DT'd but I "think" they are.

Randy

[rollmyown]

Thanks, I'll keep a lookout online for a steel sight. Any idea of a fair price? Do the new ones have the same mounting pattern? Do you know what year they went from steel to cheese?

Cheers

Rob

[W.R.Buchanan]

Rob: The good Lyman 66LA's go for anywhere from $75 to 150 on ebay depending on condition. **** from $75 (unless nobody is watching) to $150 for a NIB piece.

Mine was $125 and was in fairly good condition and cleaned up to near new.

All have the same mounting pattern. Make sure you are looking for a 66LA, which is the Marlin sight. There are other 66 model sights like for Winchesters and others. They aren't the same!

I don't know when they switched to aluminum, but if you're not sure what they are offering just ask them. Usually the new ones have a buy it now price attached to them of around $75-80. You won't see many decent steel ones that cheap.

Patience is the key here as you will get out bid many times before you actually win one. The best way is to snipe the bid and put your sniped price well above where you'd like to be. That way unless you get into a bidding war you'll get the part. This is especially true of a NIB piece. You can always sell it for what you've got in it.

When you sell the gun, take the sight off it and replace the open sight on the barrel. You won't get any more for the gun with the Lyman sight on it and you can resell the sight for an extra $100-150.

Randy

[rollmyown]

Thanks for the good advice Randy.

Hopefully this one will be a keeper. I know not everyone is willing to pay double for a quality made product but lots of us are. It sure is a shame they don't make 'em new in steel anymore.

I miss those good old days.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Rollo: I talked to the head guys and Woman from Lyman at the SHOT Show about producing limited runs of the most popular verisons of their aperature sights out of steel.

fell on deaf ears!

They told me that nobody uses peep sights and that everybody wants scopes.

I told them about Ebay prices, they said I should go to ebay.

I was completely insulted and I let them know about it! Fell on deaf ears.

They just don't care.

This is what happens when companies get too big!

Randy

[rollmyown]

I Totally agree that to a degree they would sell like hotcakes.

I'd gladly part with $200.00 for a quality new made set in steel.

You're dead right, ease of manufacture and profit are all that is important the the big boys. Shame about that. :-(

I may have to settle for alloy for now with a view to picking up some steel ones down the track.

[W.R.Buchanan]

The funny thing is it wouldn't be that much more expensive to Mfg the whole sight out of Steel. The material is cheaper and the difference in machine time is negligable.

There is only 3 parts made from aluminum on the new sights. The base, the slide and the little part that holds the aperature.

The cost savings on making these parts from aluminum is not even a factor. Someone just made the change to look good..

What they didn't realize is by doing this they put themselves into direct competition with Williams which has always made their sights from aluminum.

Formerly they had NO competition. Sounds like good management decision making to me.

Randy

[W.R.Buchanan]

I did manage to go shoot mine last Saturday at our clubs Monthly Short Range Silhouette shoot. I got there late so I had to shoot the "scoped rifle targets" which are about 20% smaller than the opensight targets.

I was not really interested in the game that day and only managed to hit 8-10 out of 40. My main objective was to refine the zero on the gun with the Lyman sight, and to finally get rid of all the bogus and mismatched ammo I had.

We have a hanging target for each range that guys can shoot at to zero their guns so I just loaded a tube full of shorts LR's HP's Minimags etc and blazed away. I was shooting 15-20 rounds in the alotted 2 minute relay time normally reserved for firing 5 record shots.

This gun feeds anything with a flick of the wrist!

My big record for the day was hitting the 25 yd chicken swinger 12 times in a row in about 30 seconds, and there were people watching!

I could hit small pieces of clay pidgeon at 50 and 75 yds really well however when we got to 100 yds the bullet drop was completely unpredictable due to the mixed ammo. I have to get up there one day during the week and shoot a target at all the different ranges to fine tune the elevation with one type of ammo and then shoot that type of ammo from there on out. I hope it likes CCI ammo.

Anyway that's what I did last Saturday morning with my Marlin 39AS.

Randy

[uscra112]

CCI MiniMags. Just using the MiniMags will make a big difference, they are more uniform than any other bulk ammo I've evaluated, (for weight variance, mainly). Our club runs two .22 rimfire silhouette matches a year, and I'm never here for either of them, but testing on paper to optimize my garden-defense (chuck) rifles tells me that MiniMags are the ticket.

[W.R.Buchanan]

uscra: since you are not there, maybe you can show up here. Our shoot runs the third Saturday of every month, and typically we have about 20 shooters.

It is not only rimfire, it is also Centerfire with lead boolits on the 200 yd course.

Hope to see you soon, and I know it's long drive, but you'll have a really good time!

Randy

[W.R.Buchanan]

well guys, Today I achieved a milestone in my shoot career. Today I became "King of the Pigs!"

I attained this status by knocking down all 10 Pigs in our monthly silhouette shoot.

I was vicious! Shot 27/40 best I've done in many years.

With my Lyman sight zeroed at 75 yds I am 1" high at 50yds Had the hardest time on chickens at 25 yds as the gun shot about 3" high and I had to aim low to hit the little boogers.

At 100 yds I raised the sight 3MOA or one thread up with the QD slide release, or one complete revolution of the elevation knob from the mechanical stop.

Hit 8 rams at 100 yds. 7 Turkeys at 75 yds, but only 3 chickens at 25 yds. Don't know what happened there?

The gun worked very nicely and I am about ready to refinish the stocks since this one is definately a keeper.

I am also going to mod the trigger and hammer so the half cock knotch works correctly and then I can dump the rebounding hammer strut. The gun FTF several times but fired after recocking the hammer. This is directly attributable to the lighter mainspring and the rebounding hammer feature. it doesn't hit the firing pin very hard due to having to overcome the rebound portion of the hammer travel, but will be fine with the rebound feature deleted.

It was good day shooting.

Randy

[rollmyown]

I've had two of my Marlins away to the smith for some TLC. Had my 45 cowboy and 39A slicked and some woeful feed and extraction issues looked at on the 39A.

I'm hopeful that the .22 will function like they used to in days gone by. They should be back next week. I hope to be reporting good news.

If it functions as good as it looks, I'll be a happy camper.

Congrats Randy!

[RACWIN375]

I did my stock when I bought in 1982 BUT I like big scopes the for-stock is factory

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n152/RAC420/7-9-12Ruger10-22033.jpg

Rick

[W.R.Buchanan]

Yes Rick my Fore-end is the large bulky one. It will get cut down more like yours. Never figured out why they made them so big. They did it on alot of the 336's also.

Your Fore-end looks more like the ones on my 1894's and 1895 Cowboy.

Funny thing about your scope choice, the gun is actually accurate to be able to make use of such a scope. So many aren't.

These guns are $679 MSRP right now. I think they may be worth it. Good thing there are used ones! I paid $325 for mine and I couldn't get my wallet out fast enough!

Randy