Old 336's can shoot!

[Marlin Junky]

I decided to share some results from today's range session with the board.

The targets below were shot by a 336 "G" gun and RCBS 30-180FN which I don't have the BHN for but they weighed 199 grains with the check applied. Sorry I don't have the BHN but the alloy was probably clip-on WW metal mixed with soft lead. The boolits probably weren't heat treated because they were easily scratched with my thumbnail. Sorry for all the guessing but this ammo had been stored for many moons. The powder charge was 16.5 grains of WC820 for approximately 1700 fps. The chronograph was not set up today but this load has been chronographed extensively in the past. After the first target I moved my sights a tiny bit to the right.

The thing that amazes me the most is that these rounds were assembled in WW 32-40 cases and these are my fireforming loads. It's real tempting to mount a scope on this fine old rifle and really do some serious load development. The range was 100 yards and the sight were Williams FP with a .050" aperture in the back and up front, a Lyman 17A with the 2.6 aperture.

MJ

[DLCTEX]

I hope the newer ones can do as well since I just bought one in a deal with my sons in Florida who are helping to sell a gun collection for a friend who has fallen on hard times. Mine is in 30-30 and I won't have it in hand until Thanksgiving or Christmas. DALE

[Bass Ackward]

That's what surprised me. I remember the 60s gun attitudes quite well. Accuracy was a domain left to bolt actions.

That attitude permeated the gun industry and the shooting public so that the stereotypes remain yet today. And the old line then was if you got a good one, hold on to it.

I think the problem was of the sighting and mounting systems (limited options) for anything but bolts back then. Use of those systems forced a medical syndrome known as Turkey neck. So it forced the use of open sights. Even today, I must practice more with opens to be able to maintain POI compared to a scope. And inaccuracy can be as much shifting sight picture as the gun / load. And how much do most people really shoot?

The accuracy issue is the dilemma I face today. Just how accurate could my G be? Only a scope could answer that. And if I did that, I just may not need as many other guns as I now have either.

So the pressure builds to drill. :grin: Nice shooting by the way!

[JDL]

Very good shooting MJ! It's hard to beat target shooting with aperture sights and a scope, unless it was high magnification, probably wouldn't do much better. Do you know what the Lot # is on your 820?
JDL

[Marlin Junky]

Thanks for the compliments. Shooting goups like that aren't easy for me with iron sights at 100 yards and I think it's more difficult with a lever gun than a bolt gun just because of the former's design. Those are the best of 6 groups with the worst one shot after the elevation screw backed out to the point where I noticed the rear aperture rattling around! This type of shooting, IMHO, is the most fun and rewarding.

If I can find a good mold for my .35 "H" gun that drops fat enough bullets, I'm going to devote a lot of time to that one. The reason the .35 is collecting dust is because it takes a .360+" boolits and the only way I can make 'em that fat right now is to shim ("Beagle") the molds... which creates oval boolits. I'm also thinking about looking for a real nice old .35-336A so I don't feel bad about D&T'ing my "H" gun. I'd rather go out and buy an XLR but I think the .35's have a 12" twsit with barrels "designed for" lever-whatever ammo which could mean they are nuthin' like the way they were.

MJ

[Marlin Junky]

Do you know what the Lot # is on your 820?
JDL

I'll post the lot# of my WC820 tomorrow night.

MJ