Misfiring Marlin

[Texas by God]

My Marlin 36G (336) was requiring two strikes of the hammer on my CB reloads to get them to fire. I'd assumed I hadn't bottomed out the primers when I seated them, although they looked fine. Then I had a couple of factory Rem and S&B do the same. I've stripped and degreased the bolt; everything looks normal to me. Do I just need a new hammer spring, maybe?
I've never had a Marlin centerfire lever action that didn't work so what say you?

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[Char-Gar]

My Marlin 36G (336) was requiring two strikes of the hammer on my CB reloads to get them to fire. I'd assumed I hadn't bottomed out the primers when I seated them, although they looked fine. Then I had a couple of factory Rem and S&B do the same. I've stripped and degreased the bolt; everything looks normal to me. Do I just need a new hammer spring, maybe?
I've never had a Marlin centerfire lever action that didn't work so what say you?

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The mainspring rolled snake eyes. Could be somebody jacked with it, or a weak spring to start with.

[Dan Cash]

I think you are not getting the breach lock raised far enough to engage the "Marlin Safety" firing pin extension, especially with the cast loads. Be sure that your bullet is not pushing into the rifling on chambering and check that the bullet is not too large for the chamber. since this has also occurred with factory ammo, check the shoulder in your chamber for dirt or debris that might hold the bolt slightly out of battery and try giving the lever a good solid squeeze before attempting to fire. Unless someone has tinkered with the hammer spring, I doubt that it is weak.

[mac60]

I'd say you need a new spring. I had the same problem with mine and wound up eventually replacing the spring. In the interim I used Winchester primers which gave me 100% reliability - I understand the cups are softer than CCI, Rem or Fed.

[1Hawkeye]

Tex,have you tested it since you cleaned it? One of the guys I was shooting a match with yesterday was having the same problem. The primers were just getting tapped. Something was binding the firing pin in his 1895 .45-70. Can you try it with a primed case to see if it still happens it might save you from having to order a new spring.

[pietro]

.

First, pull the buttstock and determine if the rear of the MS holder is seated in the slot in the underside of the upper tang.

If it isn't, reseat it.

If it's OK, then pull the bolt and look for a metal chip or other debris in the firing pin channel, atop either section of the 2-piece FP.

If all's OK, then check that the bolt locking lug can be fully seated/locked.

Check that the ejector spring is OK, and not allowing the bolt to completely close/lock up.

If all else fails, send me the gun...…….. ;) . :D


.

[john.k]

My 1895 also has the same problem.......if the spring was any stronger,I couldnt cock the hammer with my thumb.........In my opinion ,the hammer is too light........and everything has been cleaned and regreased.

[John Taylor]

Have seen a few with bent levers, not pushing the locking lug all the way up.

[Texas by God]

Well, I reassembled the clean bolt with some oil, then loaded a mixed tube of ammo including the reload. They all fired and so did the next 8 of the reload and some S&B 150fp- 3 shots in 1"@100 yds- eek. Maybe it did have a gremlin turd in the fp channel? Oh yeah the mainspring Looked fine.
Pietro, I better keep it here under observation......

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[Remmy4477]

An interesting safety feature on the marlin 1895, 336 and 1894.
If you have a round in the chamber but are not ready to fire and you let the hammer all the way down, not on the second notch but all the way down, then you pull back the hammer and pull the trigger, nothing happens other than the hammer falling but nothing going boom.
You must reset the firing pin. Pull the lever down about 1/3rd the way and back in the firing position, this resets the firing pin.
Me and a friend of mine discovered this on his 1895cb, he'd lever a round and set the hammer down to readjust his glasses or position then he'd pull the hammer back and same thing, click but no boom.
At first he thought it was either a lite primer strike or a dirty action or even a bad primer but it happened quite a few times. He investigated and found this little safety feature.
We tried the same thing on my 1895cb and my 1894 and had the same results, no boom till the firing pin was reset.
Might be this is causing the malfunction?

Easy to see what I mean without it loaded. Lever the action, and you will see the back side of the firing pin where the hammer strikes it, sticking right out like a sore thumb. Lower the hammer all the way down then pull the hammer back to firing position. Now look at the fireing pin, it will be flush with the bolt, It will not fire that way.
Lever the action about 1/3rd of the way and the pin will pop out to its firing position.
Kind of a neat safety design, but if your unaware of it it could be frustrating trying to figure out why it did not fire that last round.

Hopefully this helps!

[Dan Cash]

Oh my!

[Texas by God]

I'll try that exercise, Remmy. Thanks.

[Geezer in NH]

Remy that was my Dad's problem with his 336. :goodpost:

[Texas by God]

Well, now this one fires like every other Marlin I've ever shot- every time no reset needed. I cocked it, let it down on a live shell, then recocked the hammer & fired it several times. Maybe the newer ones have a reset- this one is circa 1965. I remember my brother's Contender had that feature. It proved aggravating while Prairie Doggin'.

[Remmy4477]

Yea 1965. Before the lawyers got involved!

[Texas by God]

That's good to know info. This one has a wonderful trigger I'd hate to mess with unless absolutely necessary.

[MostlyLeverGuns]

Never ran into that firing pin reset mentioned by Remmy4477. I have more than dozen Marlin's -336's, 36's, 1895's, 444, and 1894's, 3 have crossbolt safeties. Haven't found a need to do a 'firing pin reset'. I have purposefully lowered the hammer completely to 'take up the slack' in the two piece firing pin then returned the hammer to quarter cock. Can't say I have noticed a real difference in accuracy or reliability, but it makes me happy.

[MyFlatline]

Never ran into that firing pin reset mentioned by Remmy4477. I have more than dozen Marlin's -336's, 36's, 1895's, 444, and 1894's, 3 have crossbolt safeties. Haven't found a need to do a 'firing pin reset'. I have purposefully lowered the hammer completely to 'take up the slack' in the two piece firing pin then returned the hammer to quarter cock. Can't say I have noticed a real difference in accuracy or reliability, but it makes me happy.

Me either, but I am happy also.

[Gtek]

Firing pin reset? I am really confused now. When the lever is seated against lower tang the sear block should be lifted and disengaged and the locking block lifting the aft firing pin to be aligned with pin bore. When lever is slightly lowered the sear block should engage and aft firing pin nose will drop from bore alignment. These are the two safety features that were designed into platform to prevent out of battery discharge. Sticky (or stuck) extraction, John Wayne, Chuck Connors moves or bad from day one bending lever open can disturb correct engagement of locking block, causing misalignment of aft pin and increasing head space. First is to check lever contact to trigger safety block tang, pad area should make full seating contact with lower receiver tang. Next I would remove and strip bolt, inspect lower forward nose of aft pin for heavy contact. Reinstall bolt with only ejector in receiver for bolt control and close to battery. Take a small magnet (pen type with magnet on end), cock hammer, aft pin with no spring, slide in and out of bore (flat side up) checking for freedom of movement. The bolt and locking block engagement angles are seven degrees, several thousandths less of engagement causes increased head space and these numbers are not linear due to angle. .010" head space tolerance with abundant Marlin chambers it does not take much to create excessive rapidly causing weak strikes. Not a whole lot in there, but if not right they don't play well.

[Petander]

An interesting safety feature on the marlin 1895, 336 and 1894.
If you have a round in the chamber but are not ready to fire and you let the hammer all the way down, not on the second notch but all the way down, then you pull back the hammer and pull the trigger, nothing happens other than the hammer falling but nothing going boom.
You must reset the firing pin. Pull the lever down about 1/3rd the way and back in the firing position, this resets the firing pin.
Me and a friend of mine discovered this on his 1895cb, he'd lever a round and set the hammer down to readjust his glasses or position then he'd pull the hammer back and same thing, click but no boom.
At first he thought it was either a lite primer strike or a dirty action or even a bad primer but it happened quite a few times. He investigated and found this little safety feature.
We tried the same thing on my 1895cb and my 1894 and had the same results, no boom till the firing pin was reset.

Thank you very much for the heads up.



EDIT: No,my SBL works the normal way,no "reset". I only looked at the mechanism,didn't fire until today.

What I wrote below about new SBL is wrong.

----_----_------_--------

My previous 1895 ,a 90's model, did not have this but the new 1895 SBL has it - and I didn't know!

Could have cost a moose.

[Dan Cash]

Petander, ...My previous 1895 ,a 90's model, did not have this but the new 1895 SBL has it - and I didn't know!.................

Your new 1895 does not have it either, nor does any other Marlin. See what Gtek wrote. That is a full and perfect description of the Marlin locking system.

[Baltimoreed]

Just curious, do these big brothers of my .45lc 1894 Cowboy have the two piece firing pins? I replaced my 2 pc pins for the one piece which reduces the HUGE factory mainspring needed, makes for a much easier cycling of the action. Wouldn’t do anything to your lever safety, i lightened the spring on mine but it’s a cas competition gun not a hunter. Didn’t need to do anything else to slick it up.

[Petander]

Petander, ...My previous 1895 ,a 90's model, did not have this but the new 1895 SBL has it - and I didn't know!.................

Your new 1895 does not have it either, nor does any other Marlin. See what Gtek wrote. That is a full and perfect description of the Marlin locking system.

You are absolutely correct,I got sort of confused here by reading and looking at the mechanism. I don't test fire my guns in bedroom at night. :)

I have completely dissassembled my earlier Marlins but memory being what it is...

Anyway, my SBL says bang just fine after letting the hammer rest, safety off,fully down. No "reset" of any kind needed.

Thank you for the correction. I was thinking too complicated.