dakota.potts
New member
A co-worker of mine found out I was going to school for gunsmithing and asked me to look at a Marlin 336C he had bought used from a local gun shop. He said the action was getting sticky while shooting and he wanted me to pull it apart, clean it, and make sure it's in good functioning order. I have a little bit of experience dissecting Marlins so I took it off his hands to look at it a little bit. I didn't get a good look at the rifle until I got it home in the light and noticed that, rather than bluing, the entire gun was covered in a thick black paint. Appears to be some kind of Krylon or maybe even grill paint. All of the metal in the gun, save for the loading gate, appears to have been all spray painted simultaneously in one pass. The finger lever is coated entirely as well which means it would have had to have been taken out and painted.
My co-worker recognized buying it that was not blued but didn't realize it was apparently charcoal black spray paint and it started to flake off during the first box of ammunition. There are huge missing chunks of "finish" now on the finger lever as well as around the assembly screws and in other random spots around the rifle. The paint actually extends past the crown into the last half inch or so of the muzzle.
Upon learning all this and of the fact that it likely needs to be entirely stripped and re finished (preferably blued) and of the possible costs associated with it, said co-worker is no longer so gung ho about his purchase. We're talking about a purchase price. I have my fingers crossed as we're settling somewhere around $150 for the rifle, nearly worthless NCStar scope and some remaining ammunition purchased with the rifle.
I looked it up and it's a 1974 make. The wood still looks to be in pretty good condition and has a pretty nice aged patina where it may not be necessary to refinish that. The action is pretty slick, probably the result of being used as something like a deer rifle for 40 years, and I can only imagine it slicks up more with a good cleaning.
It does need a great amount of work but I think I have the resources to take it back to a classic rifle. Sell the $30 airsoft grade scope that's on it, strip the paint, remove and re-crown the barrel in a lathe, install a rear adjustable receiver mounted peep sight, and high polish blue the metal. Maybe even nitre color the trigger gold with blue screws and color case harden the finger lever/cocking lever if everything else goes well. Make it into a nice hog rifle, although in all actuality it will probably see only a shooting bench 99% of the time.
Hopefully it goes through. It actually has the potential to be a good little rifle I think. I don't have any centerfire manual repeaters other than my Mosin Nagant, so I think it would fill a good niche for me.
I would love to upload pictures of the rifle's current condition but don't feel good about that until the deal is sealed and the rifle is mine. The current owner didn't do it to the rifle but I still don't know if that's a classy thing to do.
Anybody have insight into why somebody would do this or what you've done to a rifle like this? It's clearly not factory
My co-worker recognized buying it that was not blued but didn't realize it was apparently charcoal black spray paint and it started to flake off during the first box of ammunition. There are huge missing chunks of "finish" now on the finger lever as well as around the assembly screws and in other random spots around the rifle. The paint actually extends past the crown into the last half inch or so of the muzzle.
Upon learning all this and of the fact that it likely needs to be entirely stripped and re finished (preferably blued) and of the possible costs associated with it, said co-worker is no longer so gung ho about his purchase. We're talking about a purchase price. I have my fingers crossed as we're settling somewhere around $150 for the rifle, nearly worthless NCStar scope and some remaining ammunition purchased with the rifle.
I looked it up and it's a 1974 make. The wood still looks to be in pretty good condition and has a pretty nice aged patina where it may not be necessary to refinish that. The action is pretty slick, probably the result of being used as something like a deer rifle for 40 years, and I can only imagine it slicks up more with a good cleaning.
It does need a great amount of work but I think I have the resources to take it back to a classic rifle. Sell the $30 airsoft grade scope that's on it, strip the paint, remove and re-crown the barrel in a lathe, install a rear adjustable receiver mounted peep sight, and high polish blue the metal. Maybe even nitre color the trigger gold with blue screws and color case harden the finger lever/cocking lever if everything else goes well. Make it into a nice hog rifle, although in all actuality it will probably see only a shooting bench 99% of the time.
Hopefully it goes through. It actually has the potential to be a good little rifle I think. I don't have any centerfire manual repeaters other than my Mosin Nagant, so I think it would fill a good niche for me.
I would love to upload pictures of the rifle's current condition but don't feel good about that until the deal is sealed and the rifle is mine. The current owner didn't do it to the rifle but I still don't know if that's a classy thing to do.
Anybody have insight into why somebody would do this or what you've done to a rifle like this? It's clearly not factory
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