Old School Cool: Part 4 – Marlin 336 Field Test: 30-30, 35 Rem, 50 Alaskan

Old School Cool – Part 1
Old School Cool – Part 2
Old School Cool – Part 3

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Three classic Marlin 336 builds put meat on the ground and smiles on faces. From a rescued 30-30 to a do-everything 35 Rem and a thumper 50 Alaskan, here is how old school still wins.

The Marlin 336 is a great iteration of the traditional or old-school lever action. The solid top provides for side ejection and allows for easy optic mounting. The 336 evolved from the 36, which was a flat bolt style, rather than today’s round breech bolt. It is available in calibers; no other lever action of similar size was available in. Namely, the 35 Remington, 450 Marlin, 444 Marlin, and 45-70, but many other calibers have also been chambered. Probably the #1 chambering is 30-30 Winchester. 

I have straight grip and pistol grip versions; some folks seem to feel the straight grip versions recoil more. I cannot verify that feeling, and I’ve got 336 Marlins in 30-30, 35rem., 444 Marlin, 45-70, and a custom 50 Alaskan. The 30-30 and 444, both straight-grip rifles. All but the 45-70 are old school guns, and only the 35rem. retains its factory configuration. The 444 will get more in-depth coverage in a later Old School Cool article. For now, we will cover the 30-30, 35rem. and the 50 Alaskan

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I don’t know what this Marlin looked like when it left the factory; it came to me as a poorly customized rifle. The barrel and magazine tube had been cut to 17 inches. Then joined together by the barrel band very sloppily. The notches were not square, and battering on the barrel and mag tube could be seen from the barrel band screw. The front sight had been mounted off the top, dead center, and was not tall enough to allow zeroing of the rifle. I decided to use an old Redfield sourdough barrel band front sight base as a replacement. I then took a hammer and gently peened the upset steel on the barrel groove back to its original shape. Using a properly sized steel rod, I inserted it into the mag tube and peened its notch back to shape.

I was now able to zero the rifle with the front sight and an XS extended rail utilizing their peep sight for the rear. Since I had the XS rail, I decided to mount a scope on it in a Scout configuration. A Burris 2.5x scout scope was used, and the rifle provides great performance. Despite the short barrel, the Marlin gets 2200fps with 150gr. Hornady FP bullets. Sighted 2” high at 100yd. gets me a 150yd. zero, and only 4” low at 200. More than adequate trajectory for the little rifle. 

Its short length makes for a handy rifle, and one that is easy to use from inside a truck, UTV, or while traipsing through brush. The 30-30 has never been regarded as a heavy recoiling caliber, yet the bullets penetrate well, given the moderate velocity. One of the ranches I get to spend time on has a large quantity of coyotes and feral hogs, which is why I’m there. The size of the ranch is large enough that driving it is the preferred method of covering ground.  The serial number places it as a 1972 old school rifle, in the classic Texan straight grip configuration. 

If you want a traditional-looking lever action in .35 Rem. Marlin has been your only choice. Currently, Henry Rifles is offering a traditional-looking lever action in .35 Rem, which is very Marlin-esque in overall appearance. The 35 Remington pales in comparison to the 30-30 Winchester as far as popularity for a lever action. Those who are aware of the 35’s performance on medium and large game know that performance is far more important than popularity. The .35 Rem. Actually performs much better than the 30-30win. The 30-30win. is just more widely accepted and easily located on store shelves. My Marlin .35 Rem. has in the field performance just slightly below my Marlin 45-70.

I refer to my 35 Marlin as my mini 45-70, it is that effective on game. I could shoot 180gr. Speer FP’s at 2300fps, but I can achieve nearly 2200fps with Speer’s 220gr. FP. That load is my “do it all” load for the gun. I would have no issue tackling timber elk or Carolina black bears with the load; deer and pigs don’t stand a chance. It provides a relatively flat trajectory for my purposes. Using the standard Redfield post reticle, the bullet lands 1.5 inches over the tip of the post at 100 yards. This provides an impact at the crosshair intersection at about 200 yards. Truth be told, I’ve never had to use the gun beyond 150ish yards. The bullet itself has never been recovered from any animals, providing excellent penetration and very good internal destruction.

My 35 Marlin finds itself reaching for more than both my 30-30 and my 45-70. Good friend Rey Garza likes his Marlin .35 Rem as well. In fact, he used it to perform a great 225-yard shot on his Addax down in South Texas. The .35 Rem. effectively punches out of its presumed weight class. It works for game up to and including moose, elk, or black bear when using appropriate bullets and within 200 yards. Mine is used mostly for deer and feral pigs, but in much of Texas, you never know what animal might pop out of the brush. We have mountain lions, Nilgai, Axis deer, Elk, and other assorted animals.

This unknown possibility is what makes me prefer guns that are adequate for more than just varmints at all times of the year. The smallest caliber I routinely carry during my abatement work is the old school cool Savage 99 in 250 Savage. I normally carry something in .34, .35, or .36 caliber, with my Marlin 35rem. being chosen very often. It also helps that the bullets used for those calibers are typically well constructed and deeply penetrating. The only bullet I’m personally aware of as being thin-jacketed or having shallow penetrative properties is the Hornady 200gr. FTX. Rey Garza saying his experience is the same as mine, sharing a story of a neck shot whitetail buck that showed no intact bullet exit, when shot at 75 yards.

Recently, a practice that has gained momentum is people carrying short-barreled lever actions for backcountry protection. These rifles typically wear 16.25” to 16.5” barrels and are chambered in potent handgun calibers, 44mag, 45Colt, 454Casull, etc. Considering the little 30-30 with the optic weighs 7.5 pounds, and the pistol caliber carbines are listed at about 6 pounds. A rifle caliber shorty makes more sense to me, weight and overall length would be quite close. A 35rem. Trapper configuration would make for a more powerful and viable option. Only giving up 2-3 rounds of capacity difference, but allowing for a longer effective range and better trajectory.

My Marlin is practically stock, the only alteration being modifying the fore end loop to not place pressure on the barrel. This allows me excellent repeatable accuracy. In an effort to keep the appearance in line with its old school feel. I chose the Redfield 2.75x scope with a post reticle for my 35 Marlin. It provides a wide field of view and quick target acquisition. Another option would be to use a 1x red dot or Scout optic set up like what the little 30-30 wears.  The serial number shows it to be of 1975 vintage, placing it as old school cool alumni.

My first deer rifle was given to me by my parents on Christmas morning, when I was 13 or 14 years old. It was a Marlin 336 RC, in 32 win. spec. of 1948 vintage, definitely old school. Included with the rifle was a box of ammunition from Western Auto and a carrying case. My father was not gun savvy, and so the gun was expected to shoot to the sights as it came to me. After missing an easy shot at a deer, I was permitted to check the sights. After not hitting paper at 100 yards, a closer shot at 25 yards revealed I was quite high at that short distance. 

Using almost the remainder of my ammunition, I zeroed the gun for 100 yards. This left me with about 5 rounds, as I recall, surely enough to hunt with. I would wind up purchasing another box of ammunition, but I do not recall actually firing another round through the gun. My first deer rifle would sit in closets and later in safes, unused for nearly 20 years. I decided to use it as the base gun for a project. Long story made short, I commissioned Regan Nonneman to make my old Marlin into a new Marlin. It would look like my original rifle, 20” barrel, and retaining the original wood. Other than the new fiber optic front sight and the addition of the receiver sight, it looks just like my original 32WS.

The 50AK has been carried afield on more hunts and carried as a tracking gun most times. I started using 355gr. WFN hard cast bullets and 465gr. LFN hard cast bullets, depending on what I was tracking at the time. I initially used the 355’s for normal Texas game and the 465’s for western large game and some Texas exotics. I’ve since gone to Swift AF 450gr. bullets for everything. The Swifts are performing quite well for large and heavy game, and that is what the 50AK is made for anyway. 

Accuracy from the rifle is more than acceptable, providing 2 inches at 100 yards. The rifle is a close-range powerhouse on large animals, 200 yards as an absolute maximum, and ideally 150 yards and less. It performs this admirably. In its new configuration, it has been carried mainly as a gun to track and follow up on previously hit game from other hunters. So while several animals have fallen to its bullets, the pictures are of other hunters’ animals.

• Pros: Optic-friendly receiver, fast handling in tight cover, proven terminal performance from 30-30 to 50 Alaskan, simple fixes revive rough guns, excellent sighting options.
• Cons: Some bullet choices underperform in 35 Rem, capacity tradeoffs vs pistol-caliber carbines, parts and ammo availability can vary by region.