Tag Archives: Marlin 336

Ruger makes it official on the Marlin 336 Reboot

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First introduced when Henry Truman was president, the 336 was a staple of Marlin’s catalog, most commonly chambered in .30-30 Winchester or .35 Remington. Sold through a variety of store brands in the 1970s such as the Glenfield Model 30, the simple lever gun was a go-to for sportsmen across generations.

The 336 is a classic as it is…

However, when the Marlin collapsed under the house of cards that was the old Remington Outdoors back in 2020, the 336 fell out of production for the first time in 72 years.

Then came Ruger, who purchased the brand and its assets as part of Remington’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy sale. After moving production from Remington’s shuttered plant in Huntsville, Alabama to a new line set up by Ruger in Mayodan, North Carolina, the Marlin Model 1895 in .45-70 returned to the market in December 2021.

Now, Ruger President and CEO Chris Killoy has kept his past promises to keep rolling out those Marlin favorites to the riflemaker’s huge fanbase.

“The legendary Model 336 helped to build Marlin Firearms into the iconic American brand that it is today,” said Killoy this week. “We have worked for many months on every detail to ensure that Ruger’s reintroduction of this iconic rifle lives up to its stellar reputation.”

I first ran across the new “Mar-ger” 336 in .30-30 at SHOT Show earlier this year some two months before it was “officially” released.

Chambered in .30-30 Win., the Model 336 Classic sports American black walnut furniture with checkering on both the stock and forend. The stock’s black pistol grip cap is inset with a Marlin Horse and Rider medallion and the forend is attached using a barrel band.

I had hoped the new 336 would be more affordable than the $1,479 Model 1895– after all, the “JM” marked 336 of old could be had in big box stores for $299 (with a Simmons scope included!) as recently as the 1990s.

Well, spoiler alert, it is $1,239.

Oof.

Why the Marlin 336 makes the perfect first deer gun

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As a 13-year-old boy, growing up in the South, deer hunting was in my blood from early childhood. I had often helped dress and clean animals that had been harvested by my uncles and grandpa during our long (Sept-Feb) annual whitetail season and clamored for the opportunity to go along with the rest of the ‘tribe.’

While I had cut my teeth on rabbit, squirrel, and dove in my lower elementary years, learning how to work a bolt-action .22LR and a crack-barrel 20-gauge stoked with low-brass shells with equal proficiency, the larger bambi-getters eluded me.

That was, until my first deer gun.

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Read the rest in my column at Marlin Forum

The Marlin 336 Lever Action Rifles: Side ejection perfection

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Just after the Civil War, the most advanced rifles known to man were lever action carbines with tubular magazines. These ‘cowboy guns’ ruled the West for generations, proving the go to deer gun for 150 years.  And perhaps no other modern lever action rifle has stood the test
of time better than the Marlin 336.

From its inception, the lever-action rifle just made sense. By pulling a cocking handle downward from the trigger guard, this action could
both extract a spent shell casing from the breech of the rifle, while at the same time pulling a new round from a tubular magazine under the
barrel. Pushing the same handle back up, would eject the spent casing, chamber a new round, and cock the hammer, making the gun ready
to fire. One simple motion performing five tasks—that’s still mechanically impressive.

Henry and Winchester hit the market hard with these lever-guns in the 1860s. Then the Marlin Firearms Company of New Haven,
Connecticut came on the scene with their Model 1881 a generation later. By the 1900s, Savage had replaced Henry while John Browning’s
Winchester Models were every bit as popular as anything Marlin could make. These Browning Winchesters in particular, namely the Model
1886, 1892, 1894, and 1895, were the bee’s knees for nearly a half century. Nevertheless, by the 1930s an inescapable design flaw on all
of these guns was coming into sharp focus—they couldn’t take a scope.

And that’s when Marlin took the lead from behind, capitalizing on this hard to anticipate bonus courtesy of a clever new design with some
benevolent side effects.

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Read the rest in my column at Guns.com

The Marlin 444

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Marlin has long been the king of lever action rifles, and without a doubt the .444 Marlin has been one of the most popular heavy rounds of the last half century. Now as the round is fast coming up on its 60th birthday, let’s put some perspective into the big .444 slugger.

Why the need

Large game hunters in North America in the late 19th century discovered the venerable .45-70 Government round. The .45-70 was adopted by the US Army in 1873 and used in all of the late Indian Wars as well as the Spanish American War by the military, but its greatest calling was in large animal hunting. The .45-70 helped bring the buffalo to near extinction, and line up innumerable bear, cougar, wolves, and elk and mule deer from Texas to Alaska and back. However, the big round needed a big gun, typically a single shot drop hinge action long barreled rifle that weighed at least 9-pounds.

The Marlin 336 rifle, introduced in 1948 was a game changer. With its solid, flat top receiver and side ejection, the 336 could mount optics and its microgroove rifling worked better with a jacketed bullets. Offered mainly in .30-.30, the 336 was a great brush gun for whitetails, but couldn’t be counted on to take large dangerous game. What was needed was a modern heavy round that was short enough to use the 336’s lever action. That’s what led to the development of the .444 in 1964….

Read the rest in my column at the Marlin Forums