Marlin 356 Win at the range over the weekend...

[O.S.O.K.]

Well, I'd worked up a good load for my Marlin 336 that's chambered for the 356 Winchester (started as a 35 Rem) - 40 grains of W748 under a 250 grain Seaco gc boolit - ww and tin alloy with LLA. Gave 2" groups - but they strung vertically.

So, after reading a post on leverguns.com about fixing this (removing pressure points), I found that my Marlin indeed had a very bad pressure point at the end of the mag tube. The cross screw that holds on the barrel band was also contacting the mag tube... well fixed both of those and the barrel is now free of constrictions.

Went to the range this past weekend and tried that load again - got the same group size but the point of impact had shifted down and the group "rounded out" instead of stringing vertically.

So, I was very pleased. I rezeroed the scope and shot a few more groups to confirm everything was working correctly - it was.

While I thought that maybe the group size would drop some, I'm more than happy with a 250 grain boolit going 2000 fps and landing within 1" of where I'm aiming. :)

[pietro]

FWIW, I've found that my Marlins give about the same level of accuracy with a scope as they do when peeped.

The .356 is a nice cartridge, though - my BB94 would regularly spit out 1 1/4" @ 100 yds if I did my part - with factory ammo.

.

[gon2shoot]

Yep, them Marlins will shoot when ya get the stress off of them.

[O.S.O.K.]

There is one situation that I find myself in often when deer hunting that just requires a scope. Early morning and late afternoon - the scope allows me to hunt a good 45 minutes longer on each end - and that's when the bucks seem to come out...