336 only shooting leverevolution

[Bulliwig]

You all were right and i apologize.
Took a chance and drove to another range which allows big bore rifle shooting to 50m (mainly to sight in my .45-70 double rifle) and took my marlin with me. And look what it did!
Sorry, the pics are turned 90 degrees, but i can‘t turn them the right way.

The last picture shows three shots with hornadys factory lvr ammo. So it‘s my eyes not working with the beautiful skinner sight i think…
I think i have to scope or sell this beautiful rifle…

[Wilderness]

You all were right and i apologize.
Took a chance and drove to another range which allows big bore rifle shooting to 50m (mainly to sight in my .45-70 double rifle) and took my marlin with me. And look what it did!
Sorry, the pics are turned 90 degrees, but i can‘t turn them the right way.

The last picture shows three shots with hornadys factory lvr ammo. So it‘s my eyes not working with the beautiful skinner sight i think…
I think i have to scope or sell this beautiful rifle…

BW - much better.

What is your point of aim on this target? When my eyes were better and I was shooting an ivory bead front sight I used to favour a 12 o'clock hold on this target at 50 meters - curve of the top of the bead edged up to the curve of the bullseye. More recently I have taken to cutting out a 2" circle of white paper and pasting it into the 10 ring. Then aim into the top of the white as explained previously. You may find that doing the same thing with a 4" white patch at 100 m works also.

If you can keep shooting on the 50 m range, you should be ready to take on cast bullets. If you are limited to the 100 m range, a Lyman 17A front sight with ring element may improve matters (or a scope).

As before, I would suggest being systematic, starting with a load that is likely to work, and then adjusting outwards/upwards from there, one factor at a time. With #311041 in hard alloy (10% or 11% non-lead, maybe 18 BHN) my (non-microgroove) rifle shoots really well with 17 gns or 18 gn 2207/H4198. This load level also does well for other shooters who DO have Microgroove barrels, and another shooter swears by 16 gns. In my 336A, 18 gns give 1500 fps. Our 2207/H4198 powder is very close in burning speed to your N130, though we know nothing of how uniform N130 might be at the lower pressure.

A popular bullet here for Microgroove barrels is a commercially cast (powder coated) 180 gn .303 bullet, nominally .312" but of course with bigger nose for .303. This bullet can be used for the faster loads used on LAS Ram targets (2206H/H4895 and 2208/Varget).

Do you need to kill anything with your Marlin, or is it for paper only? Or shoot Lever Action Silhouette? This will dictate how far you push the velocity.

Another load that is very accurate is the .32-20 bullet (#311008 is 115 gns) with 5 gns of Unique or equivalent shotgun powder. Velocity is about 1050 fps, so no transonic issues at longer range, and indeed it shoots well out to and including 200 meters. The 50 meter groups are each side of 1", and at worst less than 2".

Edit & Caution: These subsonic loads are with soft alloy and conventional bullet lube. Jacketed or plated (Berry) bullets can and have stuck in barrels with subsonic loads. Harder alloys and powder coating are unknowns.

Vertical POI with these .30-30 lever actions is sensitive to velocity (2" POI shift at 50 m for 100 fps velocity change), and velocity is sensitive to case volume/weight. For this reason I suggest not mixing headstamps. If you want to be completely pedantic, you might weigh your cases and mark the heavies and lights for foulers.

If your interest is in the finer details of cast bullet shooting, putting a scope on a lever action is no crime either. It will separate the human problem from the ammunition problem, and will deal with the 100 m issue. If you use the Weaver bases and rings you can take the scope off when you want to show off the rifle, and it will be on zero again when you put it back on.

Final point - what is the aperture size in your rear sight? Smaller aperture = increased depth of field = clearer front sight. Merrit makes adjustable apertures, but you would need to know the thread size of your sight.

[Sixgun Symphony]

Oh, and those full power .30-30 loads, especially LeverEvolution, may beat you up shooting from the bench with a curved buttplate - a sand bag or pillow between the rifle and your shoulder may help with the flinch. Longer term, a lace-on leather pad can take some of the bite out of the buttplate.

The curved buttplates are meant to rest on the upper arm between bicep and shoulder. One raises their elbow up to get proper sight picture with the cheek rested on the stock. They do NOT go into the shoulder like the wide/flat butts that y'all are used to.

[Sixgun Symphony]

So it‘s my eyes not working with the beautiful skinner sight i think…
I think i have to scope or sell this beautiful rifle…

A new prescription for eye glasses from the optometrist might fix that problem.