New Marlin 336

[RU shooter]

I just got a new to me 1971 vintage 336 ,30/30:) My first one believe it or not since everyone in the eastern woods carried a 30/30 at one time or another! Anyways I have a question on the micro groove what works best with that shallow rifling I assume fairly hard alloy and 2 thou. over? I have a good lee 160 RN I'm planning on trying that drops .311x.302 with WW
I've tried searching for loads and found 10 grs of Unique seems to work well for most and plan on trying that one first ,Anyone have a load with a little more power?BTW whats the twist rate on these.

Thanks,Tim

[NickSS]

I personally use the Lyman 311041 bullet with gas check and cast from air cooled WW. I size it in a 312 sizing die. This works well in all three Marlins as well as 4 other 30-30s I own. I started using the fat bullet years ago when I found that my Marlin did not like 309 sized bullets. They leaded and were not very accurate. Upping the bullet diameter to 312 solved all my problems.

[JDL]

I believe the twist is 10". Air cooled WWs works fine in both my 336s, one from 1963, and the newer 1977. While the '77 has .300/.308 barrel and shoots most designs well , the '63 version is a little oversized and I get better results using a one diameter boolit. The LBT 165 LFN works very well in this one as do the Loverin styles. All my boolits are run through a .311" sizer to lube and apply the gas checks. The Unique load will work for starters but, for hunting you may want to up the velocity somewhat. I use 35 grains of H-414 and get about 1950 fps but, 3031, 4895, H-335, and about any medium speed powder will work.
JDL

[Char-Gar]

I have several Marlin 30-30s with MG barrels that shoot cast very, very well. Marlin MG barrels tend to run larger in the groove and land diamters than the nominal .308 X .300. One of mine runs .310 X .306. Many of the standard molds don't do well due to being undersized on either the base or the nose. These MG barrels are all over the place dimension wise so it is impossible to know what yours is with measuring it.

The good news is that SAECO 305 is a great bullet for the Marlin 30-30 MG barrels. SAECO sells this as a 31/303 British mold but it is nothing more than a fat 30-30 bullet and gives the extra size on the base and nose to work well in even the largest MG barrels.

I have not found the bullet need to be harder for the MG barrels than barrels with traditional rifling. But, I use #2 alloy for almost all of my rifle bullets.

With a bullet that fits, you can shoot cast bullets from a MG barrel at full snort factory speeds with the same level of accuracy.

Good luck!

[RU shooter]

Thanks all, My Unique loads shot quite well at 50 yds,But a .311 boolit may be a hiar too big as it was a very snug fit in a fired case neck . I sized some to .310 and loaded with 28 gr of my Euro 4895 powder(did real well at 30 gr in my 32)so well see what it does at a higher vel.

Tim