O no...I done it now, now what?

[runfiverun]

the ranch dog at 311 should work very well for everything you need done with that rifle.
lyman makes a little 120ish gr boolit [311359] it takes a gas check, mine makes 311+ and is slated for a few of my 30 cal rifles shortly.
it comes in a 4 cavity and makes boolits super fast, it's a heavy little bugger though.

[bikerbeans]

If your name isn't WILCO it is against forum rules to start a Poll.

BB

[Bodydoc447]

I have that model with a Nikon 2-7 Prostaff. Works great on hogs. I prefer a 170 gr bullet or boolit but have never had a 150 fail. I just like the slightly heavier bullet.

Doc

[MT Chambers]

I'd go with good peeps such as the Skinner sights, with a Fire sight up front, even without perfect vision you would be amazed at how well they work.

[freebullet]

Bikerbeans my poll skills pale in comparison to our master poll maker Wilco. I make no claim as champion of the poll.

My wife does have a sister gents, but they are polar opposites. Funny how that happens.

Thanks for the mold recommendations. Over the summer I'll have to get a light and heavy for it. I will play with the mp150 as soon as I find some brass.

I'm lined up with dies and a standard scope base. I'm going to pirate a cabelas lever scope off another gun that is not a lever. I have boolits made and powder on hand. If I can get brass I will be testing this out soon.

[Rick Hodges]

I have a scout scope setup on a Marlin Guide Gun. It is much quicker than a standard scope...mine is a 2.5X Leupold.....but: It does make the rifle front heavy and feels awkward until you get used to it. Take your pick it is easy to do either standard or scout set up on a Marlin. Mine also wears a Williams receiver sight and the scope is in Warne QR rings so it goes on and off in a flash. (yes it returns to zero too)

[rond]

Ask your wife what she wants on her gun.

[Kestrel4k]

Just a FYI but the rifle can have both a standard scope and a Skinner Lo-Pro aperture sight underneath.

As the scope setup is already utilizing low rings, the scope must be removed to use the aperture sight (which is as it should be), but the combined configuration is a viable option overall.

[freebullet]

The wife wants a scope aswell. She has astigmatism and has always struggled with open sighted rifles. I can't even see through those peeps anymore, it's just a blurry mess. The big open circle like the xs might get me by, but I'm partial to scopes anyway.

Nice lookin rifle there. I like the straight stock on yours better than the semipistol grip on ours. Real wood is a nice touch over the fake wood look laminate on this one.

The scope I'm going to mount seems large for the size of the gun, but it will at least get me started. I've got brass on the way also. I'm feeling quite impatient to shoot this, it's been way too long.

[Lonegun1894]

I prefer plain irons, but apertures come second. Having said that, I would much rather see you shooting a scoped levergun than sitting at home looking at it wishing you could. I prefer standard scopes on bolt-actions if a scope is needed, but haven't tried a lot of different scout scope set ups. The few I've tried just seemed a bit unbalanced.

[NavyVet1959]

The wife wants a scope aswell. She has astigmatism and has always struggled with open sighted rifles. I can't even see through those peeps anymore, it's just a blurry mess. The big open circle like the xs might get me by, but I'm partial to scopes anyway.

Actually, the smaller aperture works best for when you have bad eyesight. The large aperture is not much better than just regular sights... Well, slightly better since if it is close to your eye, you don't have to worry about the rear sight, you just have to put the front sight on your target. But with old eyes, if you have a large aperture on the rear sight, the front sight is likely to still be blurry.

[TXGunNut]

Nice rifle, Kestrel4k. Nice pics. Thanks for sharing. What magnification is the scope?

Stick to your guns on the scope, freebullet. Get a good scope so you and your wife can use your new treasure. A full-sized scope does look a little odd on a 336 but as you said, it's a start.

[ammohead]

Most gun shows have a good selection of used scopes. A K3 Weaver looks like it just belongs on a marlin lever IMHO.

[Kestrel4k]

Nice rifle, Kestrel4k. Nice pics. Thanks for sharing. What magnification is the scope?

Thanks, it's a Leupold Compact 2.5x, perfect for the .44 Mag.
My wife got a nice mule deer with it a few years back.

Also have the same exact setup for my Marlin 444T:

[freebullet]

I finally got to take this out for a shoot.

The base, dies, and brass arrived. I did some poking around here seeing if I could find any surprises. Low and behold I found 1 of my father's old scopes. It's an old Redfield wide field 3-9xsmall oval...lol...it has some really sweet glass that makes it look foggy in bright sun. The little 600yd sliding indicator in the reticle is partially melted. The windage no longer clicks. I removed it from a well used 270 where it wouldn't hold a zero anymore. It layed tucked away for years. I always thought I would send it off to iron sights or another scope rebuilder, and I still will someday. The scope is way too long for this lever. A little more looking netted me a pair of camo'd Warne qd rings I had forgotten about. So to say it currently looks interesting would be an understatement of sizable proportions. I didn't want to rush into a scope purchase without some thought and testing, up until a couple years ago I wouldn't have put a scope on this rifle.

With that ugly heavy mess mounted I made some ammo. This gun had about 19 rounds through it before I got it. We shot 80+ just in initial load work ups. We tried the mp312-159hp with red dot, 4227, and 7383. All boolits sized .309 and tl with 5050 because I already had them ready. The Rd rounds were naked base and the other were checked.

Red dot at 7gr somewhere around 1100fps. Proved to be a really pleasant and accurate pistol range/pest round. Of course I was out shot by my wife. She claimed best group of the day, but I did better at longer range.


Red dot loads at 2.480 oal with the boolit off the lands for easy feed and lever closure.

Her 6 shot group with the red dot loads at 30yds.

Next we shot the imr 4227 loads from 16.5-20gr. They were seated at 2.535 with good engraving on the boolit. I shot the best 50yd group at about 1.25" with the 18.5gr loads.

I like that one and will investigate it further. The next round of testing we will try at 100yds. The imr 7383 loads went from 26.5-27.5gr and all left powder in the bore with no pressure signs. I will continue upward carefully and see if I can get a clean burn before accuracy or pressure stops progress.

[lovedogs]

My lever guns all wear Williams aperture sights. Even with aging eyes and some vision problems I can install whichever aperture I can see well with and shoot pretty well. But I have used scopes on my lever guns, mostly for working up loads. With a scope it's possible to see so much better and tell which loads are the most accurate which is more difficult if only using irons. I have hunted a little using scopes just to see how well it worked. No question...scoped works better. But I still like the handiness of irons on a lever gun so that's the way they are now. Just as a comment...a few years ago one of my sons got an old Weaver 300 in a gun deal. It has the old post reticle. But the scope wasn't adjusting correctly so I sent it to the guy (can't remember the name) who fixes old Weavers. He installed a new erector assembly so it is now better than when it was new. It works beautifully. I don't think you can find a better set-up for short-range or woods hunting. I've seen several of these old 300's at gun shows so if you find one you may want to pick it up and send it in for repair. If you have vision problems or just want the best woods scope extant this is an excellent option.