new to me old marlin

[propwashp47]

I have been looking at a coupe of old marlins @1 is a 1971 Zane Grey Marlin 30-30, 22" Octagon is this good match for a ranch dog 165 cast boolit?I am not sure if it is a micro groove or not.#2 is a Marlin 336LTD 30-30 Limited Edition. I am guessing this one is a micro grove. I all so wood like to shoot the ranch dog in this one too . I also have a Winchester 30-30 ae that I want to shoot cast with. I have heard that the Winchesters throats wont feed the ranch dog booolits.I saw that NOE has push thru sizers that will let you nose size your boolits. wood this let me use a ranch dog boolits in my Winchester>. I wood like to use the same boolit in all 3 good luck with that. thanks for any insite you have on this. happy casting in 2016 PROPWASHP47

[6pt-sika]

I had a 336 Zane Grey for awhile and I shot a bunch of the the RD 311-165GC bullets in it at silhouette . The gun with that bullet cast from wheelweights air cooled checked and sized in a .312" die and pushed with 20-22 grains of XMP5744 shot nicely in that rifle as well as a bunch of other Marlin 30-30's I had at the time .

[propwashp47]

thanks sounds like a good place to start

[fordwannabe]

Both are micro-groove. Micro-groove started in the 1950's.

[6pt-sika]

An interesting thing about the 336ZG they had planned to make 10,000 of them but it turned out they only made either something like 6,500 or 7,500 give or take a couple hundred . Anyway they bought from an outside vendor the octagon barrels for these guns . I think they bought like 10,300 of the barrels . Anyway the 336ZG was made one year 1972 if my memory serves anyway the following year they made the 336 Octagon same barrel etc . When you add of the exact number of 336ZG's and the number of 336 Octagons it pretty much adds up to 10,000 and a few extra . Leads one to believe the 336 Octagon came about to use up the left over octagon barrels from the 336ZG production .

[propwashp47]

thanks. good info

[pietro]

.

Marlin marked/stamped every micro-groove barrel "Microgroove"; the Marlin barrels with Ballard-type rifling were unmarked.

Marlin introduced the microgroove rifling in the mid 1950's, but nonetheless have made several different models since then, than had Ballard-type rifling.

If all else fails, anyone can simply count the number of grooves in the bore.


.

[flint45]

It's micro groove more then likly but don't let it bother you they shoot just fine. just size .002 over slug barrel and measure and check for tight spots that to me has been the problem all my Marlins with good bores and micro groove shoot fine the 1894 .44 mag that I have has two tight spots under the rear dovetail and roll mark throws cast way off no matter what I do its still a fun gun to shoot at steel plates Ijust don't like shooting it at paper. yes its been fire laped got a little better have to use gas checks to be at it's best.

[Pereira]

An interesting thing about the 336ZG they had planned to make 10,000 of them but it turned out they only made either something like 6,500 or 7,500 give or take a couple hundred . Anyway they bought from an outside vendor the octagon barrels for these guns . I think they bought like 10,300 of the barrels . Anyway the 336ZG was made one year 1972 if my memory serves anyway the following year they made the 336 Octagon same barrel etc . When you add of the exact number of 336ZG's and the number of 336 Octagons it pretty much adds up to 10,000 and a few extra . Leads one to believe the 336 Octagon came about to use up the left over octagon barrels from the 336ZG production .

Some good info there, 6pt.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Both are micro-groove. Micro-groove started in the 1950's.

It did indeed. The patent covers the rounded edge to the grooves, and the number of them, but not the shallowness, which had been used by others in the past. It does, however, include a drawing in which the rifling is only .0015in. deep. Personally I doubt if it had much point except to facilitate Marlin's use of button rifling in its early days. Other people make accurate rifles. But it does get the shooter a dependable barrel at a good price.



Even that, if it was used in early production, would be moderate compared with the Sako-actioned 322 in .222 Remington. The latter , with .001in. grooves, was phenomenally accurate when new, but eroded excessively quickly and was discontinued. The .30-30 should work well with hard bullets, and probably lasts better.

In any case Marlin increased the depth of their Micro-Groove rifling on centrefires in 1968, apparently with the aim of having surer results with cast bullets. The round-bolt new 1895, all .44 Magnums and the Zane Grey commemorative never had the old version. I believe the date 1971 puts it before the modern reintroduction of Ballard-type (i.e. ordinary) rifling. Assuming the bore isn't badly worn, you have an excellent, pre-silly safety rifle.