336 Stock fitting?

[jason280]

I have a late 70's Marlin 336 in .35 Rem, and picked up a newer replacement stock (with rubber pad). Fitting around the tang and up to the rear of the receiver is pretty good, but the issue I am having is the tang screw is not lining up with the threads on the trigger guard plate. It almost seems as though the tang screw hole isn't drilled perfectly inline with the tang, or is this an issue with the way the stock was cut out for the receiver and tang area? Looking into the tang screw hole, the top portion is correctly in place...but it looks like the lower area needs to move forward 1/16-1/8" in order for the screw to engage the threads.

Any suggestions?

[stubshaft]

Just redrill the bottom of the tang screw hole in the buttstock. The recoil forces bear against the shoulder at the front of the stock and not the tang screw.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Yup...I've run across that and similar other problems before. 1/16th to 1/8th inch doesn't seem like much, but it's sufficient to make things not work. First thing to do is to make sure that the butt stock is completely seated on the receiver. You might give the butt a couple of smacks with a rubber or wooden mallet. If it still won't work, then determine where the misalignment is located--forward of the hole or to the rear of the hole. Having made that determination, remove the butt stock and use a round wood rasp to wallow out the hole in the direction of the misalignment. Once you have succeeded in getting the screw through the hole (actually more of a bolt) and threaded into the tang's threads try wiggling and wobbling it around to see if the oversized hole has caused the butt stock to be loose. If not, fine.

If it is loose, or should become loose in the future you can proceed two ways. (1) Coat the screw and the inside surfaces of the tangs (upper and lower) with carnauba wax or some other release agent and fill the void around the screw with Acraglas Gel. (2) You can fashion a long tubular bushing to go around the screw with the inside diameter closely matching the diameter of the screw and the hole rasped or drilled to closely fit the internal diameter of the hole in the stock. You can look at the pillars used in Mauser rifles to get the idea.

There is another way to go about this which is that if the hole in the stock needs to be moved forward for the screw to pass through and screw in properly you can shorten the legs on the front of the stock by whatever amount is needed to move the butt stock into alignment. This requires some careful work and although I could do and have done it, I'd recommend the first method for someone lacking sufficient woodworking skills and experience. Also, if the screw hole needs to be moved backward this method won't work.

DG

[LAGS]

I have had to redrill many stock screws and then like the previous post explained , Glass Bed the new location with the screw in place.
On some others that the screw holes were further off to be reused without being loose, I just drilled out the hole and glued a Dowel into the old hole.
Sometimes I found wood dowels that were the same kind of wood as the stock like Walnut.
Then I just redrilled the stock to the correct hole size and location.
JB Kwik Weld for bedding works good and is durable.
The color doesn't match the stock , but most areas you will use it are hidden anyway

[jason280]

What exactly are you bedding?

[2152hq]

First,,fit the butt stock to the frame so it is in full contact,,wood to metal,,all around the front area.
Don't pay any attention to where the tang bolt hole is. It's a pre-drilled hole on a pre-inletted stock.
The 60's & 70's era 336 rifles had their butt stocks individualy fitted to each frame with a final fit done by a near instant red heat to the tang and rear of the frame by induction. Then the stock shoved into position to burn itself in,,then pulled off the frame.
When cooled, the stock was placed back on the same frame in a jig, The stock pressed back in place and held there and the tang bolt hole was drilled.
Then w/o removing the assembly, the tang bolt was turned into place.
The tang bolts had a slight taper at the upper half of their length. That taper wedged slightly into the pilot hole that was drilled and securely held the stock and frame assembly as one.
From there they went to be sanded as one unit to get a perfect fit of wood to metal.

Once you have hand fitted your new replacement stock to the frame using the old method of using spotting color and you have as good a fit as you can get,,then you can go and look at the tang bolt screw hole they have supplied.

It's probably way out of wack by now. That's OK,,just drill it out with a common size and glue a dowel in place.

Then set your frame back in place and clamp in in tight,,front to back with one of those long bar clamps, pull it in tight.

Now set up a drill press with a point center on the table facing up. A simple center punch will do.
Place a drill bit in the chuck that is the correct size for the tang bolt hole you want to drill.

Line up the centerpoint on the table facing up,,with the point of the drillbit in the chuck facing down.
Take care to line them up point to point.

Now place the stock with frame in the drill press.

Set the centerpunch point into the bottomtang screw hole on the frame.
Now line up the drill bit with the tang screw hole in the top tang of the frame.
Since the drillbit and the centerpunch point are in allaignment,,drilling down through the stock as set up will run the drill exactly to the point of the centerpunch. Which is the center of the bottom tang screw hole.

Turn on the drill press. Slowly start to drill holding on to the stocked action with one hand.
Progress slowly and clear chips as needed.
You can either feel the point of the drill just touch the centerpunch point and stop there.
Or you can mark the drill for depth before starting and be able to backoff drilling when that depth is reached.

Any small extra amt to be cleared afterwards can easily be done by hand drill with the same bit.

If you don't want to do any of this,,then just whip up a batch of epoxy magic after gnawing out enough wood around the area till the action sits down far enough in the wood.
Use enough release compound on the metal and glue everything and clamp it up. Wait till morning to unhitch it all.

One's gunsmithing,,one ain't.

[jason280]

Sorry for the slow response, but thanks!!