Pitted barrel?

[Trailblazer]

I bought a rough Marlin 336A 30-30 a few years ago. It is 1949 production and has standard rifling. I haven't spent a lot of time with it but I haven't had much success with it. The story was it had been put away in a gun case bloody and the blood really ate up the steel wherever it was handled. The bore is good except for two areas, one near the muzzle and one about 1/3 of the way from the muzzle. These aren't little pits. There are areas of rifling and bore that are missing. They look like gerrymandered congressional districts. I am guessing about 3/8'" to 1/2" long and up to 1/4 of the bore circumference. I am about to give it up as I have tried different bullets, diameters, hardnesses and two different lubes. The only thing that seemed close to working was the little Lyman 311316.

What do you think? Anybody had much success with this type of pitting? A friend has a 20" microgroove barrel that I can have cheap but the 336A has a 24" barrel and the forend and all that hardware won't interchange.

[GrizzLeeBear]

Just a thought, maybe have it rebored to 32 Win. special? Don't know what that would cost?

[R.M.]

How about a sleeve??????
Just a thought.

R.M.

[Lloyd Smale]

thats a dirty crime. Ive got one just like it that was dads and there a beautiful gun. I wouldnt want to change the barrel lenght on it either. You might want to get ahold of dave clements and see what hed recomend. Id dearly love to find another in 35 rem. Hell send it to Ben Forkin with a credit card and it would make one beautiful 50 alakan.

I bought a rough Marlin 336A 30-30 a few years ago. It is 1949 production and has standard rifling. I haven't spent a lot of time with it but I haven't had much success with it. The story was it had been put away in a gun case bloody and the blood really ate up the steel wherever it was handled. The bore is good except for two areas, one near the muzzle and one about 1/3 of the way from the muzzle. These aren't little pits. There are areas of rifling and bore that are missing. They look like gerrymandered congressional districts. I am guessing about 3/8'" to 1/2" long and up to 1/4 of the bore circumference. I am about to give it up as I have tried different bullets, diameters, hardnesses and two different lubes. The only thing that seemed close to working was the little Lyman 311316.

What do you think? Anybody had much success with this type of pitting? A friend has a 20" microgroove barrel that I can have cheap but the 336A has a 24" barrel and the forend and all that hardware won't interchange.

[EMC45]

I have 2 Mosins in the same condition. Light still reflects down the bore, but I am hesitant to shoot lead.

[jonk]

Yeah, you shoot Pb in too rough a bore, it just leads up something awful. I find that light frosting and lead are fine, but you get into pits and it's goodbye.

[Sky C.]

FWIW-

Marlin will rebarrel the gun for about $130 range.


Best regards-

Sky C.

[montana_charlie]

These aren't little pits. There are areas of rifling and bore that are missing.

What do you think? Anybody had much success with this type of pitting?

You said it yourself...that isn't 'pitting'. Shooting anything through there, other than birdshot, is a waste of lead.

Rebore it, sleeve it, or get a new barrel...if the rest of the gun is worth saving.

CM

[Swagerman]

You talk about the bore being bad, what does the outside look like...is it worth rebarreling or sleaving, only you can decide.

Gunsmith can run a tab up on you that would make you wish you'd bought a new one.

Plenty of the these fine old rifles can be seen at gunshows, you just have to be picky in looking one over real good...especially the bore rifling.

Jim

[PPpastordon]

An old "re-make" for such .30-30's was to bore them out to a .35-30. This cartridge can be found in some older copies of Cartridges of the World and, I believe, Handbook for Shooters and Reloaders by Parker "P.O." Ackley. IIRC, it was about the same in ballistics as a .35 Remington.
Just another 2 cents.

[Trailblazer]

I guess I will rebarrel it. The old barrel is deeply pitted on the outside so it is not a candidate for a rebore. The receiver has some pitting but most of it will clean up. I wouldn't mind having a 32 WS or even a 7-30 Waters to go with my Contender. I thought there was a chance it would shoot but it doesn't seem to want to so it will become something else.

[Shiloh]

FWIW-

Marlin will rebarrel the gun for about $130 range.


Best regards-

Sky C.

FWIW, Thats what I would do.

Get it fitted with a new barrel and it'll run fine with a variety of boolits. Fine accuracy will be obtainable.

Shiloh